Got an older doe with nice course hair that I caped out and brought home. Not sure if I’m doing this right but I cut off the big chunks of meat and pressure washed the rest off as much as possible. Then I layed it down and covered with borax. I plan to change out the borax once a week until it appears dry. Don’t really know what to look for or if it’ll work. Experiment underway.
I have had some issues when trying to get animal hides dry enough in coastal climates. On coyotes and deer I have moved to getting fly tying scissors and trimming clumps as close to the hide as possible and then zip tying the clumps. I find it to be a much quicker and easier process. I really never use that much of the short body hair on a deer and use just the tail other choice longer areas.
I can't speak to the Borax, but with the non iodized salt that I used would simply suck up all the moisture/humidity some days and be near wet, then a day or two later after a hot day with lower humidity it would seem almost dry then the cycle just repeated. This was with changing the salt everyday or two. That bobcat was my last attempt at hide drying. I sure hope the original poster has better luck than I did.
I have done some rattlesnakes with salt and they worked much better/quicker. I believe they finish easier due the very thin skin, and how clean it normally comes off the snake.
Here's the standard reference on material handling for fly tying purposes...
FLY-TYING MATERIALS by Eric Leiser (procurement, use, and protection), 1973
I've had my copy for a lot of years and it covers everything, from skinning to working with green skins (fur, feathered) to dyeing, etc. You should be able to find a used copy without too much trouble.
I will definitely be picking up a copy after I try this hide. I want to make sure this is work I feel like doing. So far it hasn't been very difficult. And if it works, I should have enough spinnable deer to last until next hunting season.
@lemaymiami and @texasag07 any idea if I can dye the hide once its been dried out? Or wash it down with soap and water? I assume once the hide is dried out it can be washed and just hung to dry again.
Yes, you can dye it or just wash it after it's been dried out - but then you have to dry it out all over again... Any natural material (fur, hides, feathers, skins) must be completely dry before any storage -or you'll lose your material to rot (and other nasty processes...). That's another reason the book I mentioned is valuable since it takes you through all of the different processes that you might want to try. It will also give you a greater appreciation of how all the fly tying stuff in your local shop was processed -before it ever got to it's first retail sale...
By the way, the first step in any dyeing process is to carefully wash (de-grease) any fur or feathers so that the material will take the dye properly...
So just as an update, the hide seems to be completely dried now. I haven't changed the borax but it has been sitting for about 9 days. Hide is rock hard so now I have to figure out how to get the borax off and get this thing cut up and put away! Also the hair is sort of matted from being hair down on cardboard for a couple weeks. Any ideas on how to soften the hide back up without wetting it again?
Have your wife chew on it to soften it before she sews you a buckskin shirt?
When I was a kid we tanned some deer hides - used some type of solution one of our subcontractors gave us and they were pretty stiff so we would work them over a board/dowel to try to loosen them up.
Hide seems to be completely dried. Only took the one application of borax I put it in the freezer and will let it stay there for a few days then just cut off sections as needed.
Once your hide is dried out, go over the fur side with a comb (not a fine comb - the opposite...) to remove burrs, etc. then allow it dry a few days fur side up (you want the item absolutely dry before storage. I've been known to use a chain link fence and clothes pins when I wanted to really do a final air dry in sunny weather... Now you can cut it into pieces for storage.
When you're going to use a piece of fur (or a skin with feathers) that's been stored the last step before use for me would be to steam it over a tea kettle first. The idea is to slightly moisten the material with some heat - but not a lot.... I do this holding the item in hand so when I'm too close to the hottest part of the steam my hands will let me know... Once the item is steamed lay it out on paper towel(s) and allow it to dry for a few hours skin side down - it's then ready for use in any pattern....
Have no idea how that would work... but if you try it - two things... just use a small portion of your material (in case it doesn't work well...) and tell us how it worked one way or the other.
In all of my years tying and working with natural materials that's just one more possibility I never got around to trying (I don't use a rotary vise either...).
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