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FREE SHIPPING on 48 lb. Boxes of Oak Bark for 1 Week — US Addresses Only.

Traditional Tanners

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Buffalo Robes, Hides & Rugs

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For your sheep & goat skins

Bark Tanned Sheepskins & Goat Hides

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Bark Tanned Axis Deer

From $300

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Since 1989

Learning From the Past to Build the Future

Our mission is to help accelerate the world’s transition from harmful chemicals to clean, natural leather tanning.

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old school, high quality, totally natural hide tanning.

Renato stripping bark for leather tanning way up t

Renato stripping bark for leather tanning way up the tree. The younger trees have thinner bark but you can get them to peel 25’ up the tree when the conditions are good. The thicker bark on older trees has more of the brittle exterior so it tends to break off vertically more easily (so you can’t get it to run quite as high).

People always asks if this kills the trees 🌳, and the answer is ‘it is supposed to’, but doesn’t actually seem to be! We get permission from Mendocino Redwood Company to remove tan oak bark from sites they are going to log. They log the redwood and Douglas fir, but not the tan oak as it doesn’t have a market. So they want to reduce the tan oak numbers so that as the site regrows the tan oak will be in balance with the next generation of Douglas fir and redwood rather than taking over. Normally the tan oak has an X chopped in it and round up is squirted into the cambium to kill a certain percentage of trees. This is normal practice around here. Even the forest service does it.

In theory, by harvesting the bark we would be accomplishing the same thing without the herbicide, which everyone likes the idea of. However, they’ve gone back to the places we harvested five years ago when we first started and the trees are green and doing fine surprisingly. They are letting them be for now to see what happens. 🤷‍♂️

Renato worked with us in tannery a while back and is a skilled leather worker. You can see his work @coyote.sagrado

#barktan #hidetanning #vegtan #barkpeeling

Harvesting bark for leather tanning. It’s that tim

Harvesting bark for leather tanning. It’s that time of year 😃

#barktan #vegtan #hidetanning #crafttannery #bushcraft

Learn easier and totally natural ways to tan hides

Learn easier and totally natural ways to tan hides using tannin from plants 🪴 hair-on & hair-off.

It’s quite easy and fun to tan along from your own kitchen using the provided materials kit. Join people from all over the world 🌎 for 4 or 5 one hour zoom sessions or follow along on your own schedule using the recordings.

Courses range from $162 to $178 and you’ll receive expert state of the art instruction with Matt Richards, tanner for 37 years. Tan deer 🦌 goat 🐐 sheep 🐑 rabbit 🐇 or just about anything into beautiful leather or hair-on hides.

Participants range from novices to tannery professionals, ranchers, homeschoolers, wild shepherdesses, survivalists, leathercrafters, hobbyists and people who teach tanning in their own communities. Over 1000 students from dozens of countries and six continents have joined us so far. Nobody from Antarctica yet (sad!)

Start with “Basics” as it’s the pre-requisite for “Hair-on”,, a building block, and significantly different than what you’ll find elsewhere. Next round is at 11 am pacific time (evening for Europeans) starting August 3rd 2026. Classes are structured so that they are novice friendly but also valuable for experienced tanners.

There are so many hides going to waste! Learn the magical transformative art of hide tanning and turn them into beauty that honors the animals. Links for registration in bio.

#vegtan #barktan #hidetanning #homesteadskills #bushcraft

Visited @macgregorandmichael and @british.pasture.

Visited @macgregorandmichael and @british.pasture.leather while we were in England. Neil and Valerie do amazing leatherwork with @bakerstannerycolyton oak bark tan, Russia leather that was recovered from the 1786 shipwreck of the Metta Catharina after nearly 200 years under the sea, and fine Italian vegtans. They are also just the nicest people and we had such a great connection with them. I had to get a piece of their work and so picked up a baker tanned oak bark belt, and Neil gave me a gorgeous piece of the Russia leather - which wow - is pirate treasure gold to me. Just amazing to be able to look at and feel leather from that time period. Hope to take their classes someday.

Then we blazed through the English countryside (sorry people) to Blenkinsop’s to visit with Alice and Sarah of British Pasture Leather. We are ever working on our finishing skills and Alice took us through the entire process of how their leather is finished from raw crust to @mulberryengland worthy. Just great. Reinforced that we need a rotary ironing/glazing machine if any of you have a spare?

#vegtan #barktan #crafttannery #leathercraft #tanyourhide

What I really liked about the Veg Micro-Tanners Co

What I really liked about the Veg Micro-Tanners Conference @cotmarshtannery…

James and Serafima brought together a fantastically diverse and knowledgeable group to brainstorm how to work together to rebuild regional veg tanning.

Leather Industry leaders, leather chemists, archival bookbinders, small tanneries, sustainable leather brands, some incredible leather craftspeople, oak coppicers, people who gather their own bark and hand scrape their hides, and a number of well known teachers of the craft.

Some of us made presentations, but so many other attendees would have been interesting to hear more from as well. What was brilliant was the bringing together of that melting pot of leather knowledge. You learn so much from people whose passions overlap but think a little differently about them. A very rich atmosphere to learn, grow, and connect.

Also loads of great people many I’ve long wanted to meet.
There was so many more people and work we’d love to have gotten pictures of if we weren’t too busy being there 😃

Cause as they say, tanners are the most interesting of all crafts people.

@sima_making @oldnorthnature @hidesandhandwork @tanningbyhannanore @karl_flowers @tan_y_derw @uluofnorway @wildoak_leathers

Hey humans. There is a fantastic international hid

Hey humans. There is a fantastic international hide week happening in Minnesota next month at @northhousefolkschool . This is the largest and most thorough traditional tanning event we’ve seen in North America, with brain tanning, bark tanning, smoked moose tanning, Scandinavian fish skin tanning, moccasin making, beadwork, leathercraft etc. North House is bringing @garvarekarlsson over from Sweden, Cree tanners Dr Kevin Louis and Darla Campbell from Saskatchewan, this guy Matt from Oregon and a lot of local talent like @natejohnsonarts

There’s classes but there is also conference style presentations and talks in the evenings and a free conference day. Mostly this sold out very early on but they just released a couple spots in most classes that they had reserved.

I’m teaching a couple of new classes. One on leather finishing and another on chemistry and science of traditional tanning. Lots of people have taken basic brain or bark tanning courses over the years so I wanted to offer something new for you more experienced tanners so we can all up our game (and to get you to come 😃). I’m also giving a talk on what I don’t know (so much) and how there is just a lot more to discover and rediscover in this craft.

So come on out, learn things, teach me some things, meet great people and we’ll jump in the lake.

#barktanning #braintanning #northhouse #traditionaltanning

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Ashland, OR 97520

customerservice@braintan.com

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© Traditional Tanners 2026

Shop
Buffalo Robes
- Buffalo Robes, Hides & Rugs
Custom Tanning
- Sheep & Goat Tanning Services
- Deer Tanning Services
Tan Your Own
- Build Your Skills & Knowledge
  - Resources
  - Articles
Since 1989
Cart

Shop
Buffalo Robes
- Buffalo Robes, Hides & Rugs
Custom Tanning
- Sheep & Goat Tanning Services
- Deer Tanning Services
Tan Your Own
- Build Your Skills & Knowledge
  - Resources
  - Articles
Since 1989
Cart

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