I want to use a piece of Elk and Moose hides I received from a local farmer for fly tying.
These hides have been lying around, frozen, outside for about a week. Hopefully they
are still okay!
How do I go about curing them? Will a strong pickling salt solution be
good enough?
I just want to have dry, stiff hides for tying.
Thanks in advance.
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Bill,
I've heard from some fly tiers that just salting, draining and then salting again, stretching out and letting dry is more than sufficient for hides for flies. In fact, they say that tanned or otherwise cured hides takes the shine off the hair and doesn't work as well for fishing!
Wolfie
the hides as the flytyers I know say that the salt rusts the hooks.
Use borax on the hide side and dry
Salting hides works great for scraps intended for flytying. Just make sure they're fleshed properly, and completly dried, and store them in an airtight plastic tupperware type container, or you may be inviting an insect invasion. I've been tying flies for better than 20 years with various scraps, salted and tanned, and have not seen any differences or hook rusting at all.