Deer hides

[Allan]

I know this might be in the wrong forum.
When preparing deer hides to use as clothing, do we scrap the fur off or split the hide and peel the fur off?
I plan on just curring the hides with salt. If it was good enough for Dan'l it's good enough for me.
Any thoughts?

 

[musketman]

To remove the hair (deers don't have fur) from deer hide, soak the un-cured hide in a water/ash mixture overnight (sometimes longer), you can get pot ash from the fireplace. (no coal ash, only wood)
Sift the ash through a screen to remove any rocks or nails that may be in the bottom of the fireplace.

Use a heaping amount of ash and stir every 4 hours.

After soaking, the hair will start to slip out, place the hide over a beam and scrape the hair off, holding the scraper at a right angle to the hide.

Once the hair is removed, rinse with clean water and then start the cure process of your choise.

I have de-haired both deer and elk hides this way with great ease.

Splitting the hide will only make it thinner and more apt to put holes in it with the knife.

P.S. Brain curing makes for the softest of hides...

 

[Zonie]

quote: P.S. Brain curing makes for the softest of hides...
Wal, I'm a-hangin'on ta what few I got!
Caint jus go a squanderin' thins when ye ain't got much ta squander in the first place I says!

 

[RJR]

Allan, Michigan Out Of Doors magazine has a great article on tanning hides in it this month, you use eggs instead of brain. I had always used cattle brain when I tanned hides and this looks just about the same. E-mail me your address and I'll copy it for you and mail it. They also had some web sites I haven't had a chance to check out yet, www.braintan.com/hideout/index.htm - www.vassartanningandtaxidermy.com - http://braintan.com/buckskindesigns/toc.html. Hope this helps. Take care, Rick.

 

[tg]

I have used pig brains, beaver brains and liver and hearts, most any of the methods you find in print will work but follow the directions faithfully, most I have seen do not recommend the use of salt during the process but some others may, there are some good videos out as well.brain tannning/smoking is very easy but also quite laborious but the end product is well worth the effort.The hides will keep well frozen for quite a while, starting off with a rabbit or muskrat hide maybe a good choice for a beginner, or a even small thin piece of cow rawhide.

 

[Allan]

Actualy TG I have done hides before. I have been a fly fisher for years and found deer hides was better than buying those little patches.
A couple of weeks ago I found a coyote road kill at the end of my driveway. Froze her 'till I could get to her, skinned her out , made one goof and of all places right on her nose, a small hole. I streached her out on a piece of plywood and just rubbed borax on her and set her out to dry in the sun. Now she is hanging up on my wall in the bedroom. I was divorced years ago but not because of dead animals around the house. Beautiful pelt, best I've seen in along time. Reminds me alot of a collie I had years ago.
The salt idea was only to see how Daniel Boone might have done it.

 

[Allan]

Deaddawg,
I can't tell if that private message thingy is working or not, e-mail direct.
[email protected]

 

[RJR]

Allan, rec'd your private message. Info went out in the main this morning. Take care, Rick.

 

[tg]

After re-reading the first post I am curious about the salt curing only of hides for clothing,
who, where, when? I assume it is Boone, but have not heard of this before.

 

[Allan]

Hey TG,
Came across it in a book called "The Long Hunter, A New Life of Daniel Boone" by Lawrence Elliot.
In it I found out that THE most important element to possess. was salt, not powder(you can make it) not ball,(same thing).
When Boone was trying to settle what would later become Boonesbough, getting the settlers to survive the winter was a matter of life or death. Salt was needed to preserve meat and vegtables to last through the winter and salt was needed for the deer hides to make additional clothes needed to keep warm.
No salt, everything rots. Everthing rots, everyone dies.
In the book, a well detailed account of Boone finding a salt lick (something he had a nack for, just follow the animals)and getting his men there to boil the water and bag the salt all without getting caught be the indians. (He did get caught)
Excellent read, well researched without all the myth.

 

[LRB]

I suspect that the salt was not used in the tanning process, but only to preserve the hides until one had the time to do the tanning, or is that what you are trying to convey?

 

[tg]

That would be my thought Wick, though one can stretch, de-hair and dry a hide and it will keep indfinitely while awaiting time to tan, and hides that are salted then scraped and dried tend to be hydroscopic and draw moisture, one such hide in a stack of unsalted dry pelts can spoil the lot. This is interesting maybe more detail will develope.

 

[Allan]

That is not the impression I got from reading the account. These people were desperate and death was a knocken.
I have since returned the book to the library but am looking for it on my favorite used bbok website
As written (perhaps the author got it wrong) it seems to me they used hides salt cured.
Hydroscopic not with standing, once a hide is dried and cured, even with salt the bacteria that rots is dead. Thats why salt curing of meat works. If you kill the bacteria with salt, make leather stockings and then go in the water in them are in the rain they start rotting again.
I have upstairs a salt cured deer hide I have been rooting from for years to tie flys with. Dosen't smell, is soft and has not started rotting again. Since I'm sure there is a little salt left on it it continues to ward of bugs that might find it a nice home.

 

[Allan]

should read "do NOT start rotting again"

 

[tg]

I have tanned deer, Elk, otter Beaver and a host of others with brain method, acid, alum, chrome solution,and soft soap, the non-brain methods use a saltdown to aid the removal of the flesh and open the pores to take the tan, I am most certain that if you salt cure a hide of any type then soften and dry it into a useable form that it will go to pieces very shortly with repeated exposure to water. In order to make "leather" that will survive being wet for any period of time a chemical change must occur that salt alone does not produce, acid, chrome solution and the smoking after braintanning will do this, I suspect the methods of Boone may have been salting for short term storage and fleshing then Tawing (softening by manipulation)to create a soft product, by smoking afterwards, the garment may have lasted a while without it or another source of chemical change in the skin fibers it would be very short lived in all but the driest climates.the salt itself will wash out as does alum when this is used to Taw hides.

 

[Haggis]

After scrapin' off the stew meat, this 'coon uses water and ashes to remove hair or fur, then soak the hide in a bucket of plumb soapy water to soften it for buckskin. Work it like described below to make it dry 'n' soft.

You can leave the hair 'n' fur on if you want, but don't soak the plew unless it's dry 'n' then jus' soak it in soapy water enuff to make it pliable then foul it 'round a rope or pole 'n' twist on it till you can see the soapy water comin' easy thru the hide side. Jus' keep working it then till it's dry.

Buckskin ain't tanned, it's just soft rawhide. Smokin' it will keep it soft, or better yet, stay out o' the rain 'n' snow.

Any 'coon that's made real buckskin won't never call them 'ridginal Injuns lazy. Best thing is make yur woman do it, pull a cork 'n' watch the doin's.

 

[Allan]

Thanks the camp,
All your advice has been very helpful.
Seems when the coins are more plentiful I will get some hides and have at from there.

 

[Rocky Johnson]

I have a Dixie gun works catalog (2000) that has a recipe for taning. I have heard that the Indian squaws use to pee on the hides then chew on them to make them soft. How would you like to kiss her. Rocky

 

[Bald Baron]

"To remove the hair (deers don't have fur) from deer hide":
I have read this before, what is the difference?
Is it just the length?

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by Bald Baron:
I have read this before, what is the difference?
Is it just the length? Deer hair is hollow, that is what helps keep them warm by trapping in body heat...

Fur is more like our hair (not hollow), the medulla is located in the center of its cortex...
This is why "FUR" has fluffy under-fur for insluation, the long guard hairs protect the under-fur from getting displaced.