preserving a hide?

[David Snellen]

Gentlemen,
I will have access to a goat hide in the near future. I won't be able to tan it for a few months. What is the best way to keep it until I can get to it?
Thank you,
David

 

[DNICK]

freeze it

 

[rabjr]

Yep, we used to salt, fold and roll up deer hides, place in a bag and put it in the freezer until it was to be used.

 

[Little Wattsy]

Yep, we used to salt, fold and roll up deer hides, place in a bag and put it in the freezer until it was to be used.

Good for 4-5 months like that.

 

[John Wasmuth]

After you have let the hide cool down from coming off the animal,put it in a strong plastic garbage bag, squeeze as much air out of it as you can, twist the bag and tie it shut. Put it in the freezer and it will last for a very long time. If you do not have freezer space, lay the hide out flat and cover it with a layer of noniodized table salt, dont use rocksalt.. Fold it in half and let it sit for a couple of hours. Hang it over a line so that the moisture will drain off of it over night. The next day flesh it out completely getting any and all fat, flesh and membrane off the hide. Once you are satisfied that its completely fleshed resalt it, fold it over a line over night and let it drain. The next day shake and punch it a couple of times to get any have cakes of salt off of it. If it is still damp resalt it and let it hang until its almost completely dry. You can then shake it off, roll it up and tie a cord around it. Place it in a cool dry place where no insects or rodents can get to it and it will store well for a long period of time. Salting and then trying to freeze it will result in hair slippage due to the salt not allowing it to freeze completely.

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you are going to store a salt dried hide somewhere, cool, put it in a plastic bag- garbage bags are ubiquitous- and seal it, then put that in a second bag to keep the insects away.

If you are going to freeze it wet, don't salt it! Just fold the flesh sides together and then put the hide folded into a plastic bag and seal it. Ice crystals will form on the hide, but they won't do any damage to it. The better you flesh the hide, before freezing, the longer you can store it frozen.

 

[John Wasmuth]

Gotta differ with you on the sealed plastic bag Paul. The salted dried hide will, by nature expand and contract with the changing of the atmosphere and will cause the hide to go thru "sweats". The hair to slip. Hair slippage in a hide one is trying to preserve to tan as a usable hair on item will result in bald spots. It is better to store them in clean dry burlap than in a plastic sealed bag.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Interesting: You probably are correct. I froze one hide, but it went out to the taxidermist for tanning within a week or two, and I didn't suffer any slippage. The other hide I froze, I tanned myself, and took the fur off- boy is that a chore!I was glad for any slippage- I had rubbed a line of fur off the deer's back bone bringing it out of the woods. For that reason, keeping the rest of the fur didn't make any sense. But, I don't recall any hair slippage before I soaked it in lye and water.

Thanks for the correction. I am going to go back and check my notes on tanning, now.

 

[John Wasmuth]

No worries Paul. The reason, as it was explained to me more years ago than I care to remember, is that even thou the salt ******* bacterial growth the subderal layer between the dermis and the epidermis will, due to humidity and other factors, collect and sweat out moisture. If the salted hide is placed in a sealed plastic bag the moisture, and resulting heat have no way to escape and bacteria begin to multiply rapidly and destroy the layer mentioned. Its ok to place them in a plastic bag as long as the bag is not sealed. I deal with hundreds of deer, whitetails, exotics, elk, and the like every year, along with fur pelts and this is the best way I have found to keep them until tanning time, be it for buckskins or hair on. I use either burlap or cleaned feed sacks to store them in a cool dry place, well, as cool as the Texas Hill Country can be kept, :rotf:
The absolute best way to preserve them is in a freezer after they have been fleshed out completely. One thing that I have learned also is that after the hide is fleshed, if you used salt to make it easier, rinse all the salt out of the hide and let it drain till it is damp. Then place it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer for just a short amount of time until it is chilled. Then squeeze all the air out of the bag to prevent freezer burn, and seal the bag. Then replace it in the freezer. Always fold the skin flesh to flesh and rolled up is better than folded.

 

[David Snellen]

Do you salt both sides or just the flesh side?
What type of salt?
Thanks again, David

 

[DNICK]

just the flesh side and use non-iodized salt

 

[John Wasmuth]

Yes sir, just the flesh side and use non-iodized salt. If you use regular iodized salt it will cause problems and react badly to the tanning soulutions. Just salt it, flesh it out, resalt it and dry it. When you are ready to tan it soak it back in water and a spalsh of bleach, only a splash. Bleach is powerful stuff and to much of it can ruin the hide in a hurry. If you are just looking to make a hair on rug with it try one of the LutanF kits that you can get from vandykes or one of the other taxidermy supply houses.

 

[76monza]

Micanopy,

A few years ago I had a green bison hide. I fleshed it out, cut all the real fatty tissue away. A friend recommended to soak the hide in a borax solution (20 Muleteam Borax) for about a week. stirring it at least twice a day. He said that it sets the hair and it won't pull or work loose. Now as I understand it even with this process it is not tanned, but rather preserved?

I did stretch it in a rack and work neatsfoot oil into it.

Smokeydays

 

[Robert Egler]

I asked a question here about using borax as a drying agent in place of salt, an idea I got from my daughter who is a zoologist. She said that borax dries faster than salt. The responses I got here indicated that this was true. Paul Vallandigham said:

“Borax is a salt, and because of its complex molecular structure, it draws moisture out of the air, or from other surfaces faster than does common salt, alone. It is used as both an insecticide, and an fungicide, both qualities that you want when tanning hides.”

It is just a replacement for salt, though, it doesn't tan the hide.

I have a fox pelt drying with borax now.

 

[John Wasmuth]

Borax is used in some taxidermy work to preserve small skins for mounting because they do not need to be flexible in a mount. It stays there and never moves so it does not need to do anything. This is curing a hide and it remains flexble until it dries on the form. Leather, be it grained or grain on, if it is going to have to move, needs to be dressed, or tanned in order to keep it pliable. Although borax is a great preservative for small mounts lacks the tanning qualities of any of the commercial "salts" and acids that preserve the hide and oils that coat the fibers to keep them from bonding together and stiffining the hide. If all you want is a skin to tack up on the wall or lay in front of a fire place for a rustic look, dry preserving will work for a while. But it wont be pliable and will shrink and curl over time making it a hair on "rawhide" If its going to be tanned into something of use, ie leather or a robe, it needs to be pickled, tanned, oiled, and broken down. Using salt to draw the moisture out of the hide and retard the bacterial growth to keep the hide from rotting has been accomplished for thousands of years. As I wrote before, I deal with hundreds of hides every year from ringtail cats to horses, buffalo, elk, and many others and the best way I have had to keep them ok until I can tan them is flesh them down completely, all flesh and fat using salt to help the blade catch, then resalt, dry and store. Borax and instant preserve are good for what they were intended for, but the only way to have a nice robe, or rug is to tan the hide.

 

[longcruise]

According to what I read here, I did it all wrong but, I once simply heavily salted a raw deer hide, rolled it up and left it in the attic. Six months later I took it down and had it tanned. All was well. :shocked2:

 

[John Wasmuth]

Thats not wrong at all. Salt, Cool dry place. Fleshing just insures that any fat and meat left on the hide will not prevent the salt from penetrating and pulling the moisture out which prevents spoiling.