The Adventures of Stinky Rawhide: Deerskin Soup, Part 1

[JackCrafty]

Wow, thanks guys.
Hillbilly, I think I will use the shop vac when I'm dry scraping...and see how that works.
Dana, allergic to deer also?  Or should I say dander?  Glad I'm not the only one.
Hillbilly, using ashes to slip the hair seems too messy.  I don't doubt that it works, but I've heard that the ashes can stain the hide...especially the black pieces of charcoal that are mixed in.
Destructo, I'll definitely try the bleach.  I went by the processor today but it was too late.  The truck came by just before I got there and emptied the dumpster.  They told me to check after Thanksgiving....when the season kicks into high gear.....can't wait.
Minuteman & Mullet, that technique sounds good.  Especially the short waiting time.  A day and a half sounds a lot better than three to five days.
Madcrow, lime sounds good, but I worry about the lime eventually getting into my well water....especially if I decide to process a lot of hides.

[El Destructo]

you can still buy Red devil Lye....plus eBay still has it in bulk for sale too....I just use Lime....you can't overdo it...because it just wont dissolve in the Water past a certain concentration anyways

[Minuteman]

Just for other folks amusement I'll bring yall up to speed on my deer hide caper. Hope its ok to include it in your thread , Jackcrafty.
 I checked my hides in the bucking solution yesterday morning and after only 2 days they were slipping hair real easily so I took them out side and dug the smallest hide out . I got it sprayed off real well, laid it on the fleshing beam and dehaired/grained it. It was THE MOST NASTY WORK I HAVE EVER DONE! You best keep your mouth closed while yer doin it, prolly ought to wear goggles too, that lye is nasty stuff. I tossed the other two hides over the hill behind my rifle range. I won't be doin any more hides with ashes. The work involved was just too disgusting to stand for me. Especially since I know for a fact the dry scrape method is not anywhere near as messy.
 I guess to me it comes down to how much enjoyment I'm gonna get out of the finished product that dictates whether or not the amount of work I'm suffering through is worth the effort. I can't see that this method is worth the process you have to go through to accomplish. I'll be trying the dry scrape / indian style method with my next skin.

[El Destructo]

Minuteman....did you scrape all of the Fat and meat off before you soaked the Hides??? If not....this will stink like a decomposing Corpse

[mullet]

 Chris, you should have waited till the wife left and thrown them in the washing machine.

[El Destructo]

Chris, you should have waited till the wife left and thrown them in the washing machine.

                                                  Damn Eddie....you think Like Me!!!!!!!!

[JackCrafty]

Minuteman, thanks for posting that.

When the smoke clears from Thanksgiving and such.....I'm going to begin soaking my skins.  I'll also put one in a frame for dry scraping.

I agree that wet scraping is messy (I scraped the flesh from my skins a while back) and I hope the whole business doesn't get too smelly on top of that.  Bleach will probably help a lot.  I might try hydrogen peroxide as well.

[Minuteman]

Yeah Destructo-matic, they were fleshed real well. It wasn't the smell so much that wasn't the issue , they just smelled like deer really , it was just waaayy more mess than I thought it ought to be. The ashes made it so handling them had to be done with rubber gloves as I could feel the lye leaching my hands dry  without them. I think my next will just be fleshed green, water soaked, de-haired only and not grained so the leather I make has more body .
 I'd enjoy hearing about your experiences, Jack.

[JackCrafty]

I'll keep you posted.

[Hillbilly]

Another thing I like about dry-scraping is that you can scrape a few minutes here and there as you get time-you don't have to do it all at once like wet-scrape where once you start, you're commited.

[JackCrafty]

Well, I got my hands on 5 deer hides (and many feet) last night from the local processor.  They are mule deer.....and dang, they have lots of thick hair!   They make whitetail hides look anorexic.

I passed on a hog skin but it was interesting.....it was HUGE with lots of course fur and the skin was VERY thick and heavy.

Anyway, I put the skins in buckets for now (flesh and all) and removed the sinew from the feet last night.

Question:  You guys got any pictures of stuff you've made with deer toes (or foot parts)?  I was reading the post "Hog Toes" and it got me wondering.  This is my first experience processing deer feet.  I did a search but there aren't many pics....

[Minuteman]

Well, Jack the leg bones make good knife handles. Had a guy tell me last week that the indians uses to use a fresh leg bone to flesh their hides. The little channel that has the big tendon bundle in it on their back leg has a sharp edge to it.
 I've also read you can boil off the hoof part and make strike plates for bows or whatever. Hang a bunch together and ya got a tipi doorbell.
 Another buddy case skins the legs, tans them and uses them for no sew bow handles. You can also make bags from em. There are some interesting little bones in a whitetail foot that are flat and kinda shaped like a comma, about 2" long that I've always wanted to do something with. They almost look like flat bear teeth. Mule deer probably have the same thing. They sit below where you cut the bottom part of the tendon free from the leg.
 Have fun.

[JackCrafty]

Thanks Minuteman.

[Minuteman]

  Monday to Thursday that skin soaked in water. I took a bucket of water out each evening and put in fresh to try and keep the smell down . I went down this morning and it was funkadelic down there. :oI am quite certain that I am teetering on a train wreck of a run in with the lil lady. I just hope she doesn't need to go down to the freezer any time soon. Its kinda lingerin down there like a dead mouse in a wall. Got a scented candle burnin'....
 I couldn't leave it down there so I took it outside. Now, its below freezing outside and I don't know if it will damage the hide to freeze or not. I did put it in a ash/water solution to try and get the hair to slip .After four days in the water all I got was a nasty ,( yes the hide was well fleshed)  decaying flesh smell. I couldn't hardly pull any hair out and it definitely hadn't gotten any easier to remove than when I put it in the water.The two I threw over the hill seemed no worse for wear when I went and retrieved them this afternoon. I couldn't see not using them for at least rawhide after all the work I put in 'em.I dehaired them and they are soaking in an old cooler in the yard. If you leave em go that long with the lye on em, the hair comes off like paste .
 I'm gonna bark tan these things if it kills me.

[JackCrafty]

Hmmm....well Minuteman that's good to know.  My skins are still in covered buckets (2 soaking in water) and I hope to flesh them tonight or tomorrow.  Dry scraping is looking pretty good at this point....