I'm currently attempting to tan a deer skin with the hair on, but when I took it out of the pickle (9 to 1 salt to alum in enough water to cover the hide), I found that the hair was coming out in chunks - very annoying after all of that scraping and cleaning. The skin was frozen until I started scraping it and I covered it pretty well with Borax before working on it - is it possible for a skin to be left in the pickle for too long (three days)? It doesn't smell at all - can it be saved at this point?
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Go to where you found the imformation about covering the skin with Borax and tell them its a lie!
You should have salted the hide, sodium chloride or Potassium chloride or sodium sulphate is what you needed to use.
Best to read most than one set of instructions before jumping into any unknown project.
But now you have nice buckskin once you finish it. hehe
Salt will set the hair if it drys by locking in the hair roots.