I am a first time tanner and decided to take on a deer skin becuz i got one yesturday. I was wondering what some good steps are to making a nice soft pelt. I have been reading this Forum and have realized that deer hair is very brittle and not very easy to work with. I am trying to make a nice throw for my bed, and was wondering what would be the best method. i have done nothing to the skins yet besides keeping them moist on wet towels. Thanks for any advice.
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Put it in the damn freezer or salt the hide or it'll rot
If you are going to freeze, lay it out in the freezer. As it starts to freeze roll it into a ball starting with the face first. This will help to prevent freezer burn on the ears if you leave it in for a long period. If you are not going to freeze then you need to salt it. You will need to split the lips, eyes & turn the ears then with the hair in (on a tube cape) salt the entire cape. Make sure you get salt everywhere. I would suggest sending it to a professional tannery for a soft tan. Hope this helps.
As I've said before I'm no expert, and I don't want to seem like a kill joy but if you had the hide at room temp in a moist enviroment overnight I would just about bet the farm it has severe damage from bacteria, witch most likly will cause the hair to slip.
just something to think about before you spend money sending it to a professoinal tannery.
good luck and best to you and yours
don't know why you kept the hides wet, but this will make it much more likely to slip the hair. If you can, flesh it and salt it (helps lock in the hair and good to do before pickling). Freezing it is a good alternative (to stopping any damage you may have caused).
Beyond this if you decide to tan these hides, try a tanning kit from one of the tanning supply houses. They have kits for hair on, or hair off. Not too expensive either. Based on my limited experience, the biggest key to a soft hide is in the breaking. You HAVE to break the hide when it is ready- not when you are ready. So if you do it yourself, time it so you will be breaking it during a weekend (or some other time when you have availability). If you don't break the hide at the right time- it will be a much harder finished product. Good luck, hope this helps.