Hello. I am tanning my first hide, and I need some tips. I have a doe hide from the fall, which I cured with salt. I then scraped off all of the "big stuff." Being a housewife, I did this with the tools at hand, a long kitchen knife and the short knife with which my husband cleans birds. I then washed the hide in borax and water, and scraped some more, using the same tools.
I have pretty much "hit the wall" with regard to scraping. I now have a skin, with the fur, which I am keeping, on one side, and a thin, tough, adherent, annoying layer of fat and connective tissue overlying what I suspect is the "true" hide. I really need to scrape this stuff off, don't I? What is the best tool? Is there a special knife? A clamshell or flint?! Help!
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You lost me right after the salting part. What's with the "borax wash"? If you are tanning using conventionally modern methods, the hide should have been rehydrated and pickled at which time most of your problem could have been scraped away want any semi-sharp instrument. Then it would have been tanned.
I suspect by that clamshell remark you are trying to do a primitive tan. If so, you need help from the wannabe yuppie community. Those old methods are that way because that's what they are: OLD. And that hardly makes them better as they fall far from being even close to what modern techniques can accomplish.
George--
Thanks for your response. Maybe I can clarify my plans for you. The borax and water were just to soften it, for further scraping. My intention then, after getting the crud off, was to soak it in a solution of alum, salt and water for about five days, dry it, then work it to soften the skin. I'm not sure what you mean by "pickling;" do you mean soaking in the alum solution? I understand that it would be tanned then.
As for my clamshell remark, I was just being flippant. I don't know if using alum represent a "primitive" tan or not; I just want to use something relatively low-tech and readily available. I don't think of myself as a yuppie wannabe, but just someone who saw a perfectly good hide and didn't want it to go to waste.
Can you suggest a specific semi-sharp instument for scraping?
Thanks!
Don't get me wrong, and I don't mean this sounding like a smartass remark. But if your going to do something isn't it the rule to have the right tools. People are getting into taxidermy, tanning, air brushes, what ever. And they want to use what they have in the house or they can buy at Walmarts. Now, S. Kirkpatrick, did you read anything about tanning at all. The tools needed, like a fleshing beam. A fleshing knife, or rotory fleshing tool The right chemical you need ect.ect. I'm with George you lost me too after salting. I'd say to read some books on different kinds of tanning, read the archives which I'm sure has thousands of post on tanning a deer hide.
Coyote
coyote--
I did read about tanning, a lot, at this site and at others, and I also communicated by letter with a friend who has tanned multiple hides. I can't speak with her live right now, becuase she is on a months-long trek in Labrador, far from phone or computer, and so I thought I'd ask the handy-dandy internet community.
I asked for advice, not scolding. Got any?
--sk
the shedding tool you buy at the pet store for dogs will probably help clean it up. Also WASCO sells fleshing knives cheap right here on this sight. Good Luck.
S. Kirkpatrick,
go to braintan.com. They'll help you instead of scolding you.
Thank you, Randy and primitive is us.
--S