slipping hair from hide?

[paulc]

Hey all, I wanted to make some leather from some hides that I have been collecting in the freezer last 3 yrs or so.  I thought I read that soaking them in a trash can of water and letting them almost get nasty would cause the hair to pull out easily...

After 6 days in the trash cans the stink was so bad I couldn't stand to work on the skins...had to throw them out. 

Is there a non-smelly way to slip the hair on a skin so I am left with just plain leather?

Thanks, paul

[Ed Brooks]

I seen were you put wood ash in with the water, I had one soaking this yr, hair started to slip in a few days I had it in a bucket and forgot the door to my shed open and the dogs got it. back to square one. From what I understand is the ash and water turn to lye, so you have to soak it in fresh water after to bring the PH back down. (PH, I think is right.) Not sure what the lye did if anything to the dog. Ed

[Cameroo]

I did my first hide last year.  Another source of lye, if you don't have a barrel full of hardwood ashes kicking around, is Draino.  The stuff you buy for clearing clogged drains.  I used the granule kind.  I can't remember the draino/water ratio (should have made notes).  If I had to guess, I think I used about 1/4 - 1/2 cup Draino to about 15 liters of water.  The hair started to slip after about 30-some hours in a near-freezing garage.  Higher temps would speed up the process.  The hide needs frequent stirring (the more the better) to ensure all of the hide slips evenly.  The hide also has to be neutralized after, I used a vinegar water rinse to bring the pH down.

[Rick Wallace]

Get you a bag of lime from the garden center.Same kind you put on the garden,I put 1 coffee can to 5 gallons of water,let soak 4 or 5 days and the hair will come right off.(The lime will also help keep the smell down.)Then mix 2 cups of white vinegar to 5 gallons of water and let it soak for 2 or 3 hours,them rinse. Works for me 

[KrisDelger]

here's what I do; I stretch the hide over a frame so that it's taught, scrape the backside down so it's clean of any meat or fat that could be still stuck to the inside. After it's scraped I work the backside with a rounded wood shaft (A baseball bat works well) to get the flesh to relax some and stretch then I scrape the outside with a warmed smooth stone working in circles. It pulls any of the loose hairs out with the stone. Then I give it a spritzing with a spray bottle full of warm water with lye in it (I buy powdered lye from a local garden supply) let it soak into the hair for a bit out in the sun then go back to scraping with the stone. Usually it takes me about an hour or two to process the hide down to a clean sheet of flesh ready to tan. Afterward I use a commercial tanning solution such as trappers Dixietan liquid purchased from PCS Outdoors. The Dixietan has sassafras added to it so it leaves the hide smelling really nice and doesn't have the stink of most other tanning solutions (Be warned if you're going for the rich yellow buckskin color you won't get it with dixietan as it turns the hide white as it tans, go with something like dixietan Paste to avoid this or some of the trappers home hide tanning solution to keep the true color of the hide)

If you want to add some color to the hide while tanning it I usually add a bit of powdered rit dye mixed with my tanning solution (Be warned it is bloody messy and will stain your hands WEAR GLOVES) you'll have to experiment with the dye to get the color you want just be warned that once the dye sets it will usually end up a bit lighter than the solution you're dying in. To set the dye in I re-stretch the hide over a tanning frame and give it a rub down with a soft cloth soaked in vinegar. Then I leave the hide out to dry in the sun for a few hours. Once it's dried up I remove it from the frame and hang it in my trapping shed with my woodstove  burning (a small fire just to keep the shed warm and keep the leather warm and soft) [you can use a few cans of sterno lit inside the area your hanging the leather to keep it warm or a small floor heater] After a few hours hanging the leather usually doesn't smell like anything other than leather (A really pleasant smell to me) and it's ready to be used. If you aren't going to use the leather immediately store it hanging to keep it from creasing or wrinkling or if you have the luxury of a long wide table lay the leather out in stacks.

An extra warning if you dye the leather with a coloring agent make sure you do not stack it on top of or with another piece on top unless its the same color until the leather is completely COMPLETELY dry the dyes will bleed if they are not completely dried and the dyes are set into the material.

Hope this helps sorry if I kind of rambled.