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[user1]

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to clean the hair of the bison before beginning the tanning process? The hide has some manure embedded and matted in the hair.

Also, I would be interested to hear how the tanning kit performed on buffalo hides and if anyone has some good or bad experiences in tanning their bison.

[The Tanner]

When we get buffalo hides that have a lot of manure in the hair we use a high pressure nozzle on a hose and spray the hide down.
WARNING - Its smells pretty bad and makes a pretty big mess.

Just lay it flat flesh side down and spray with the hose.

This is the second thing you should do. First, flesh and salt the hide and let it cure for a few days. When you are ready to tan the hide then spray it down and begin the tanning process.

We do have a home tanning kit with enough to do a cow or a buffalo. We haven't marketed the kit because it is a great deal of work.
We like to make sure people know how much work is involved before we sell them the kit.

There are several people that have done more than one buffalo and were very pleased with the results.
Just give us a call to order the kit.

--On a side note--
The manure problem is usually caused by ranches that try to handle buffalo like cows. Cows have much shorter hair and can be kept in coral type enclosures. Buffalo hair is much longer and gets caked with manure in those situations.