I looked thru archives and found nothing. I have a few deer capes
that seem to have fat burn. The fat and slime does not want to come
off when fleshing with my round knife instead it seems to catch the blade and wants to rip into the hide. This is only in a few areas of the cape. I have never had this problem before could it be from not salting properly before I recieved them. HELP.............................. Thanks in advance for any comments.
rsw
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You think your deer is bad. Try a few large beaver that were improperly fleshed and allowed to dry. I have had 2 batches of beaver like that in the last week. Your symptoms are common of the dreaded "fat burn". The best thing to do on something such as the deer cape is to work it gently. Take off what you can get off without making a hole, return it to the pickle for a day, rework it again, repeat until finished. If you have belief that a skin is going to cause you problems like this then when you are rehydrating it prior to pickling make sure you use a good dose of Rittels Ultra Soft in the rehydration bath. That dosen't totally eliminate it but it helps. You might also take a wire wheel on a grinder or bird flesher and scratch up the surface a little in those areas to allow a little better fluid up take.
If you want good practice on this type of problem just let a big ol' beaver air dry after you have poorly scraped it. Nothing is more enjoyable, except maybe a root canal.
Chris
Turkey Creek Tanning & Taxidermy