Tanning leather with wine tannin

[TrevorM]

So I've been looking at ways to tan leather. Brain tanning will work for most of what I want, but from what I've read it's you can't tool it so I started looking at bark tanning. Now I don't have a lot of trees to pull bark from so I was looking for an alternate source. It seems it's the tannins in the bark that are the key, so I was wondering if wine tannin would work. Has anyone ever tried this, or know of an alternate?

[Pat B]

I'd rather drink the wine and buy a bark tanning kit.
 Lots of things have tannin in them. Tea for instance. Whether or not it will tan leather I don't know.

[TrevorM]

I wouldn't use wine, although I guess that might work. You can buy just the tannin, I saw it for about $9 a lb. Tea was something else I thought of, not sure how much tannin you'd get though. So you can buy bark tanning kits? I didn't come across them, I'll look into that thanks.

[Pat B]

Try Crazy Crow or Moscow Hide and Fur

[BowEd]

Bark tanning will come in a powder.Quebraco is what it's been called.Pickling salt will be mixed with it too.For tooling leather it'll have to be thick.3/16" thick for sure.Beef hide.You'll have to dehair it.It can take a few weeks or more to tan too.At least a 30 gallon plastic barrel used.
Just mentioning that in case you don't know what your getting into.You may know this already.Wonderful leather from it though.It's the sqeeky leather....lol.

[Dakota Kid]

If you are referring to the brown powdered tannin sold by the pound as an additive in wine making, I would think it should work fine to tan a hide. It is derived from grape leaves and chestnuts, which is the same tannin found in oak leaves. I haven't tried it however so I have no idea about mix ratios or other specifics.

[GlisGlis]

you can also consider shredded bark sold as mulch

[TrevorM]

Thanks guys! That's great info, mulch might work then I could use it for the garden after
Make's me think of a couple more questions though:

I searched bark tanning powder like Beadman suggested but didn't find much, but just bark powder came up with things like Dr. Clark Slippery Elm Bark Powder, is that the kind of thing?

Do you happen to know if deer or boar have a thick enough hide for tooling?

What's the reason for at least 30 gallons or was that just for beef hides? (I was planning on practicing the tanning with rabbit hides)

That's the stuff Dakota Kid, I was thinking about making a paste with it like you do for brain. Is there any risk of to much tannin?