A hide worth tanning?

[Buck Trax]

I skinned a deer back in Dec. and cleaned it with water then froze. Is it still useable? I figured the hair will probably come off after being frozen this long.

[redneckcamo]

maybe it will ....but just srape it on down an have a large peice of deer leather too make somthin kool .......mine is still hangin stretched an salted on the back porch .....so i aint got room too talk ....but also there is another 1 from last year as well but its a cured wall hangin an everyone diggs it .......have fun !!

[GAnaturalist]

I have frozen hides for years at a time, and they still tan out into good leather. Sometimes they get spots of freeze dry. If you leave the fat on it kind-of protects the hide from freeze drying. I just fold the hide up with the hair side out and it is fine. You don't really need to fill the bag with water.

Freezing has no effect on the hair, but I wish it did (with deer).

[dutchman]

I think it'll be OK.

But you want the hair off, right? I know I would.

[dubblebubble]

i let them stay in the freezer for 3 years and still fine

[RickD]

I made a quiver from a tanned deer hide and didnt know that deer hair is hollow..After a short while the hair started falling out real bad...looked like my quiver had mange..

[JerkBait]

I made a quiver from a tanned deer hide and didnt know that deer hair is hollow..After a short while the hair started falling out real bad...looked like my quiver had mange..

then the hide wasnt tanned. the hair would not have fallen out if it was.....



right?

[RickD]

The hair was breaking off or so they told me that was what was happening..

[Nicodemus]

Deerskin is not the best hide to tan, hair on. Winter hair is hollow, and summer hair is solid, but neither is very durable, and tanned or not, the hair on a tanned deerskin is gonna break off, or wear off, before it`s over with.

[GAnaturalist]

Hair is more likely to fall out if it has not been introduced to some sort of acid solution.

If the PH of a hide is high... then bacteria is likely to eat away at the epidermis (which is what surronds and holds the folical of the hair).

You can cancel out the base by soaking the hide in an acid bath. This can be as simple as tannic acid. You would be reversing the base action, killing the bacteria, and the hair will stay in for a longer time. Yes, years from now you could re-soak in acid to prevent hair from falling out.

I use the wet scrape method, and soak my hide in a very high PH, a lot of base, and the hair just falls off. I also scrape off the epidermis that holds the folicals. The dermis is easy to scrap because of how long it had been sitting in the base. When I am finished scrapping the dermis, I will soak the hide in an acid to stop the base's action of breaking down the hide.

So if you want to keep the hair on, whether it be deer or squirrel, you can. Just soak in mild acid to neutralize the base before you finish.

[RickD]

Wish I would have read before I went bald

[ClydeWigg3]

Just soak in mild acid to neutralize the base before you finish

Would vinegar work in a pinch?

[Toxic]

I have used half white vinegar and half water to do snakes, get some PH test paper you want the pickle as its called around 1.0 on the PH scale, if you use the mixed vinegar it will be around 2.0 to 2.5, You need to add 1/2 lb of salt (feed store) per gallon of water used also. Soak it 36 hours is good for a full sized deer. when you take it out, you need to soak it in a bath of 3 oz of baking soda per gallon of water for 15 min. then rinse it and let it hang and drip for 30 min. At this point you need some sort of tanning oil. to make it soft and preseve the tan.

Edit: I left out a very important part, after the pickle soak, it will have to be soaked in a tanning solution, Lutan F, krowe tan, rittles tan, to name a few. After soaking for the required amount of time they will then need to be oiled to preserve the tan.

[bnew17]

ive got a tanned deer hide in my room on the floor, hair on, its 7 years old now and got all the hair on it.