Is it just me that has problems with bear ears and slipage

[Keith Daniels]

You keep saying in the freezer hours, do you mean years? Hours wouldn't freeze it very hard. Brown in the middle just means it isn't soaked or pickled well. If skins were in the freezer for a long time you could have freezer burn that will eventually soak out.

 Even if you only wet salt, running through a regular re hydration will make a big difference. You will get the wash that you are looking for, plus you will introduce a bactericide, and possibly a fungicide to the skin, this will also open your skin up better, allowing the pickle in and reducing the pH of the skin faster, stopping bacteria.

Time is your enemy when doing prep work. If it's going to take a bear a couple days to thaw, just put freezer packs on the ears and wrap them up to keep them cool while the rest of the bear is thawing. Don't spend a lot of time doing detail when you split and salt, you can detail it later when heat from your hands won't cause a problem.

I'm not sure about the acid you are using, but if you have problems with the pH raising too much, you need to add more acid from the start. Once you reach a certain point with an acid, it won't matter how much more you add in regards to the pH reading you will get, but it will make big difference in how well the pickle will hold the pH.

Last thing, if you don't have any trouble with skins you handle yourself, but you do with some one else's, you pretty much just answered the biggest part of your question.

[rasorbackq]

 Keith  I am saying they say they get the hide into the freezer in hours  after the kill to start the cool down and freeze.
 What do you mean by wet salt??

[Keith Daniels]

Salting but not drying it out completely.

[rasorbackq]

 I don't dry rock hard after salting.

[Keith Daniels]

If you don't dry after salting, you will still find you have much better luck running the skins through a re hydration bath before you go into the pickle. It does the same thing it would to one that was salt dried, just doesn't take as long. Your skin will pickle quicker, your pickle will stay cleaner and it should get rid of the brown layer in the middle. Overall you'll have much better results if you run your wet salted skins through a re hydration.

[rasorbackq]

 What  I am finding Keith is the hides look  clean after the salting  Then I wash them in a  washer to get rid of the blood and dirt .  After the wash the flesh side is covered in the dirt from the washer. Then into the pickle.  Not hard tp tell where I last shaved .

  Just finished shaving a deer cape and noticed the hair is not slipping as the epidermis is not sloughing off But rather the hair is pulling from the skin. Does that make sense? Mostly where the hide has long hair .  The face is solid and maybe a hair or two comes out.

[Keith Daniels]

An extremely dirty (mud, blood filled) skin is going to cause the flesh side to be dirty looking after washing or re hydrating, but it should shave off and you will see white skin underneath. If you are getting this on deer, I'd try a little more volume on the water in your soak, basically dilute it so the water won't be as dark, which will keep your skin from getting as dark.

If you're dealing with heavy haired deer, and you have hair that is shedding out, especially in the bib area, white patch on upper neck, you need to watch the moisture content of the hair. When you rehydrate this type of skin you really do need to use something with at least a bactericide in it, then make sure you do a lot of stirring so that pickle gets into that heavy haired area.

The other possibility for your shedding is simply shaving a little too deep.

[rasorbackq]

 Keith at the point the hair is falling out I have only beam fleshed it  and after 2 days in the pickle is starts to fall out as well the odor stare. Was Pmed today and was asked if I doubled the pickle  acid amount. I did n't as when recipe was followed I get the 1.5-2 Ph level.
 Did a miss something  with the X2 acid??

[Keith Daniels]

If it's coming out when you beam it, it's already a bad skin. Just add a couple ounces of aluminum sulphate to each gallon of pickle to help set loose hair. I'm not familiar with the acid you are using, but, what I was trying to get across earlier is the acid will take the solution to a certain pH and stop. I'll use formic as the example since that's what I'm familiar with. 1 ounce per gallon with my water will give me a pH of about 1.8-1.9, and that pH will stay down below 2.5 with a 6 to 1 float, 6 lbs. of pickle for each 1 lb. of skin. If I add 2 ounces of formic per gallon the pH will still be in that 1.8-1.9 range, that's about the point where formic will stop. Even though the pH erasding is the same, the larger volume of acid in the second mixture will hold the pH down lower, and allow you to do more pounds of skins before the pH gets to high and needs recharged. That's why it was suggested that maybe you double your acid, you might be right at the amount to get the pH down, but due to a lower float ration (more skins to less pickle) it's stressing the acid in the pickle and your pH will raise to quickly.

[Nathan B]

Keith,

    If you tan with Lutan can you still add alum to a pickle ? Or would the alum cancel the true effect of the lutan ?

[Keith Daniels]

You can add the Alum, the majority of it seems to be attached to the surface, which is what you want since you are using it to set the hair. When you shave the skin you'll see the inner part to be more of just a pickled skin. It will make your skin a bit stiffer, but that's better than bald. If you want, run the skin through a degreaser with a higher pH, at least 7.0, and most of the alum will wash out.