Has anyone tried using Muriatic acid in the tanning process instead on the battery acid (sulphuric)?

I looked it up really quick, and this is one thing I found:

"Try to steer away also from Muriatic Acid as a pickling acid. Dangerous stuff - besides, its very harsh on the grain side of the finished leather. Use Sulphuric or Formic or Saftee Acid in the future. The leather industry uses Lime and Sulphuric acid. The only time they use Muriatic is when doing Alligator skins - to vbreak down the cartlidgeous material in the backs." http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/Beginne ... 94EB4.html

It is used, but apparently maybe not a very good choice.

I am interested in finding a tanning process that is relatively easy (peal the flesh off, rather than scrape the flesh of), yet doesn't change the color red (which sulphuric acid does, according to the experience of one of the members).

Thanks for that! I'm going to try the Alum method of tanning... There is a good description of the process in Mother Earth Newshttp://www.motherearthnews.com/mode ... -hide.aspx

It says that the flesh peels off after the first tanning round. I hope so because scraping is a pain.

I'm going to try the battery acid method, since I couldn't find alum- we'll have to compare results!

Really??? I thought you had to flesh it before you did the alum method. I'll have to read that! Thank you!