I was fleshing a black bear and could smell something rotten every once in a while. I couldn't pin point where it was coming from and continued. I salted the hide, folded it up and set it aside to drain. I opened it up to resalt and now it really stinks. The part that stinks seems to have some hair on the edge. i don't want to tamper with it much but what is the best thing to do with it now? It smells pretty bad. Thanks for any input.
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Hair slippage i meant (first time using this)
Like the bear was miss handled before you recieved it. Chances are you'll have slippage but how much? This is something a tannery should handle. Let them know what's going on so they can treat it differently when they rehydrate it and pickle it. It will be placed in a (what we call a hot bath) low Ph usually with alum in it to try and tighten the skin but remember if it slips it's not their fault but your clients.
That's kind of what i thought. I gave it as much salt as it would take and put a fan on it. I looked at it this morning. Still stinks but is starting to dry out some and seems to be tightening up. Thanks
Frank is right, The other thing i see(if i understand your post correctly), is you should never fold a bear hide when salting it.They are extremely greasy and in warm weather you can almost watch them rot.Spread it out on a rack of some sort and put a fan on it as well.even then, they take much longer to dry than a deer hide.
Yeah Ed that is probably good advice. I'm fairly new to this and that suggestion seems like a good one.