I SKINNED AND TANNED 3 GATOR

Make sure you order your kit well in advance of the time your going to get started. The kit comes with everything you need except water and salt.
You will need to de-scale the hide. You can get builders lime, calcium hydroxide, at any of the big box hardware places. My mix is 3 pounds of lime to ten gallons of water. Mix it well and place the rinsed skin in the solution, it may take a day, it may take longer but you want the scales and black epidermis on the skin to start falling off just by brushing your hand over the skin. Stir this often as the caustic action of the lime can ruin the skin if you fail to keep a strict eye on it. Once the scales and black skin slough off easily then take it out of the solution, rinse it and scrub it well with a stiff plastic brush until it is clean of any scales and any black skin. Neutralize the skin in 10 gallons of water and a pint of white vinegar, leave the skin in the vinegar solution for at least 8 hours. Remember that since you are making a useable leather to make wallets, belts, etc., out of the scales have to come off or it will finish out as hard as iron. The skin is now ready to pickle.