Do you wash your capes before salting?

I don't. I do wash it after the rehydration bath with Kemal-4.

 

I pressure wash to flesh. After doing the skin side, I invert and hit the hair side. It's unbelievable at the amount of blood, sweat, dirt, and ticks that are knocked off immediately. I believe it can't hurt to wash. Besides the obvious foreign material, there are loads of bacteria that get swept away in the process.

 

I wash all my capes before pickle, and have for several years. I pressure wash 2 to 3 capes back to back, rinse off major blood and dirt, wash in Tide for several minutes, rinse clean, drain and squeeze for several minutes, towel dry inside and out of capes for several minutes, put in tumbler for 35 minutes, start on more capes while others are becoming moisture free in tumbler, pull out of tumbler and brush off sawdust and grit before fleshing face on nice clean capes, salt overnight and in pickle following morning. I use commercial totes from Lowe's and add acid as needed on future capes. I usually do approximately 8 capes before changing pickle. Hope this helps, works extremely well for my small operation. I believe in a dry clean cape

 

By washing after the rehydration bath, my goal is to have a clean pickle.

 

That sounds like a great way all around. Im in Wisconsin so the pressure washing is tough to pull off at times due to the cold. When you tumble the capes , are they hair or skin side out?

 

Hair side out. I tumble approximately 35 minutes. These are southern deer with lesser coats. I feel to the touch, a slick cool feel that don't get my hands wet.