making leather

[jturner]

Do any of you slip the hair on your deer hides without scapin the fat first? I started doin mine this way a couple years ago and love it. I just put them in a barrel with the ashes and keep checkin til they start to slip then put on gloves and pull the hair out by hand. after the hair is out flip it over and grab a hunk of meat and pull. The soaking softens the layer between the membrane and the skin. most pulls right off with very little scaping required plus its white under it no stains from the ashes. No worse smell than if you scrape them first and i can finish them quicker this way. Just wonderin how yall do it this is the best for me

[El Destructo]

I tried two this way last Year...one worked well...the other seemed to have rotted where the Meat and fat was thick...and the Hide seemed to just be really thin under these Spots...and I ended up with many holes in that one....might have just left it in too long though......

[HatchA]

I soaked some hides in a lime solution for about 2 weeks (far too long) before I even bought a drawknife for scraping.  Did what you did - pull on some rubber gloves (sexy ) and the hair literally rubbed off for most of them.  Left them soaking in the solution for a few more days until I could source a decent drawknife (you'd think it'd be easier to find one in rural Ireland... ) and then fleshed them.  Only bad thing about leaving them soak so long was that when I scraped the flesh side, some of the grain split/parted when it was being pressed against the beam (a length of Wavin plastic tubing).  No cuts or holes, which was lucky...  but a few tears on the grain side are the only down side.  They're my first attempts so it's all a learning experience and one I've learned not to soak them too long before de-hairing the next time.

[jturner]

It usually takes me about 3 days to slip them. Someone told me I was doin it wrong, that they had to be scraped first. I put up over 40 deer rawhides so far the rest are in the freezer waiting till it warms up outside. I quit using a drawknife, the front leg from deer has a channel where the tendon goes, thats what I use. It works good and leaves less tears

[HatchA]

the front leg from deer has a channel where the tendon goes, thats what I use. It works good and leaves less tears

Is that in the upper or lower part of the leg?  I'm going to have to look into that!!  I'm guessing all deer would have it but it'd be relative to each species with regard to size/shape etc?

[jturner]

That  would be the lower leg. My friend is a deer prosseser and saved me a couple barrels full of deer legs for the sinew so I have alot of them. PM me your adress and ill send you a couple if you want. I have some that are dry so they shouldnt be an issue to ship.