Taxidermy.Net Forum - Bison robe advice

Hi, looking for some advice on the method I used to tan a bison hide recently, I am interested in learning this process I have read what seems like a million posts on here and I don't see to much info about bison hides, I realize the overall process is somewhat the same, but I am looking to confirm what I am assembling from a million different posts. I have a local sorce for bison hide fresh off the animal and they are pretty cheap. I would like to improve on my process and get this down pat as I know my family would love some bison robes. I don't have it complete, but feel that I am somewhat close, just looking for final tips. After looking at a lot of the kits out there this process seems to be a fairly cheap method. I have been keeping a log on the days I work on the hide it is kind of a mix of what I did and what I have read to be best practice for future work, please let me know what you think:

Purchased:
Gallon of Bleach
200 lbs of fine nonidonized Stock Salt –
Liqua Tan 1 qt
Liqua Soft 1 gallon
Saftee Acid Pickling agent by Rittel 1 qt
Ts #22 scalpel blades 100 ct

29 Nov - Started working on a fresh cow bison hide from G&C $30 - animal was breathing 30 min prior to me getting the hide. Washed hide in very cold water with bleach. Occasionally mixed in ¼ to 2/3 cups bleach while running water over the hair and scrubbing by hand Let drip hanging with hair side up – 30-45 min. Moved to fleshing beam to get a good angle using a scalpel removed all meat chunks, fat from the center hump, and excess membrane tissue. Creating a pocket and using a scalpel to help peel off the skin. With the blade inverted use the rounded part of scalpel to almost push the skin away from the main hide. Did this to all of the edges 6-10 inches from the edge and then worked on the middle fat and thin meat left behind. Spent approx 2 hours washing the hide and 2 hours fleshing, couldn’t work on it any longer, folded hide in half skin to skin and then rolled it up tucking all of the skin inside. Place in a very cold fridge.

30 Nov 11 - removed hide and laid out on fleshing beam, used the necker knife, but do not like it as it was hard to control and managed to pop the hide twice. Knife really didn’t seam as effective as the scalpel and it was very tiresome to continuously rake the hide in an attempt to peel the flesh off. Used other tools, but seemed to always go back to the scalpel and cut the membrane and connective tissue off. Fleshed the hide for 2.5 hours and removed the remaining fat and flesh.

Placed two pallets on table and hide length wise on the pallets poured 100 lbs of salt on hide and spread out evenly. On the edges where the hide hangs over doubled up the salt from 1 to 2 in thick. Folded hide back onto itself and made sure that the entire hide was laying flat on the salt and covered with salt. Important to fold the hide where it hangs over the pallet and make sure the salt is in the folds. Placing hide on pallet is important as the air can circulate around the hide and wick away moisture as needed and preventing bacteria from harboring in the hair side of the hide. Hide is salted for min of 12 hours but colder weather will require it to be salted longer. 1st salting was for approx 48 hours and then change out the salt for 2nd salting.

2 Dec – After 48 hours changed out the salt for new, only put back 70 pounds and letting set for another 48 hours. Hide was sitting around 40 degrees for a day time high and in the single digits at night for outside temps. Next stage will be the pickling with saftee acid in a mixture of 1 gallon of water, 1 lbs of salt, and ½ oz of saftee acid. The hide can sit in this pickle solution for a very long time, but usually 48 hours to pickle effectively. Stir the hide in this solution every 3-4 hours in order to ensure that there are no air pockets in the hide.

9 Dec – Cold water Cold water. Took salt off hide and put it in the pickle solution of saftee acid and salt. Day time highs are in the high 30’s for the past week. Salted hide is much lighter and somewhat stiff. It is not cardboard stiff, but a lot less pliable then before. Mixed up 30 gallons of water with 30 lbs of salt and 15 oz of Saftee acid stirred in salt with small oar. Always use cold water. Got the brine stirring very fast and then poured in the acid in on the outer most edge and let the centrifugal force take the acid into the middle. Let the solution come a calm state and took a ph test. Litmus paper was 1.5 ish range. Dark red is 1 and pink is 2, color was in between the two.

11 Dec – Took the hide out of the pickle and lit it drip for 45 min. Put it on the table and began to thin the hide down the center back of the hide. I took 7 small boxed of baking soda and stirred it in to about 25-30 gallons of water. Added the hide and stirred it around for 10 min and let sit for another 10 min. Pulled up a piece of the hide and stuck the litmus paper on it and it was green ph of 5 ish range.

Now I began to wash it, took and turned the hide over and over in a plastic trash can very hard. Slamming the hide up and down constantly agitating it, I did this 5-6 times each rotation changing out the water and each rotation lasting around 10min. Once the water was pretty much clear I took Purina Dog odor neutralizing shampoo and poured almost all of it onto the hide. I got on my hands and knees working it in to the hide scrubbing with my fingers and working it in as much as I could. I let set for 10-15 min after scrubbing. After it set I TP’d it on my saw horses and sprayed it with water until all of the soap was out. Started working at the top of the back and sprayed down until it ran clear. Just to be on the safe side I took the hide and put it back into the trash can of water clean water and agitated it until I was certain it got a good rinse. Did this twice for good measure and then took hide and hung up to drip dry for 3 hours. After this I had the hide suspended by boards in the garage and applied the liqua-tan with it suspended. Used a paint brush to get to the edges and the middle was all spread out by hand.

As per the instructions I let this soak in for the 12-18 hours, closer to 18. I had heaters running in the garage, but it was pretty cold and didn’t seem to do what it suppose to since it was so cold.

12 Dec - After the 18 hours I folded the hide in half, but decided to take the hide inside and let it set overnight.

13 Dec - Once overnight I took the hide and let it set open to warm it up slightly for about 3 hours open and on the floor. I took the liqua-soft oil and heated about 3 cups up for 45 seconds. Applied the oil, paint brush on the edges and by hand on the middle parts, but I needed two more cups to really get in the middle. Let this set for about 4 hours to let it soak in evenly. Then I got it off the ground and let air get to the fur side. By the time I hung it up it seemed to be tacky and no oil running around. It really seemed to soak in nicely. Let this set overnight. I purchased 12’ of SS cable 3/16 thick and some crimps for the end. Attached a hook to the header of the garage door and will anchor the other end in order to start breaking the hide.

14 Dec – Hide is drying out nicely, took it off the supports after 24 hours of drying and stretched it. Rotated the hide and let set 8 hours. Spanned cable in garage overhead and began to work hide over the cable. Middle of the hide was still pretty tacky, but the outside edges were somewhat dry. Took and rotated hide around worked it back and forth. Then I took the shovel and would push the tip of it against the hide towards the top where the cable was and drug it down the hide to the edge, work this over and over for about 30 min 15 min a side. Put the hide back inside and let set overnight. Didn’t apply anymore liqua-soft, directions are somewhat unclear and I am not sure if I should, but I am going to wait until it dries more and then see if I need to apply more. Fur side is soft and clean, smells like the shampoo that I used and is tangle and burr free. Looks great so far!

15 Dec – Didn’t do too much with the hide today, took and hung it back over the cable and worked it with the shovel mostly. Did this for about 30 min and was getting a good amount of white to show after dragging the shovel. Rotating the hide across the 2x4’s every so often so it doesn’t dry funny. Since the hide is still thick I thought that I would let it finish drying and then sand it well in order to thin it and then reapply more liqua-soft so that it may penetrate the thin skin more efficiently than reapply to a thick hide. Some areas are getting very stiff, mostly on the edges, but the center is still rather tacky and pliable. Waiting to see more dry areas and need to find the time, but I want to begin sanding with the orbital shortly.

16 Dec – Hide is stiff and I think might be drying to quickly, hide is pliable and can be worked over the cable. Tried to sand with orbital, but didn’t really seem to making much difference. Cheated and used my tungsten carbide carving wheel for the angle grinder. Made extremely light work of sanding but is very aggressive and popped the hide in a couple of places. The middle is actually showing promise and I think will turn out great. The edges are however another concern. They are very stiff and hard to work with as they are too curled to get a sander or angle grinder on. I took off what seems like a 5 gallon bucket of skin dust and shavings with the carbide grinding wheel and then reapplied liqua-soft. This really soaked in and then I folded it skin to skin and leaving it set overnight.