I'm far from a expert but I can tell you what I did. I've tanned a lot of STIFF deer hides but never a soft one. My wife shot this deer a few weeks ago. The plan was to tan it "hair on". I looked a lot on YouTube and Internet, found a guy I was going to follow his steps. It was a "egg" method of preserving the hide. The hair started slipn , I think I did a few thigs wrong.
So , plan B. I soacked it in soap for a few days,I pressure washed the air off
I made a stretcher, liked the Indians did
I took 18 eggs and mixed it with 1 and a half gal of water. I did put a table spoon of olive oil
Put hide in bucket and worked the hide every 10 min ( squeezed, twisted, wring it out and put it back in. Did that for an hr
Then took it outside and spent 30 min get all moisture out of it
Then repeated the step again. After wringing it out for the second time I let it sit all night. My wife stirred it every hr while I was at work.
That night I spent 45 min getn all moisture out
Then did a little hand stretchn
Put it on rack and worked it for an hour,
Then pulled it off and hand stretched it for hrs.
I then smoked it because by smoking it it gives it a color more importantly it makes it waterproof Plan on starting a coon hide Monday. Got dozens of them to do. So Im sure I'll learn a lot Wife went to Leavenworth some it was a good Saturday project
