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Hi Rick. Thanks for posting. I need some help tanning. After watching your videos I think I screwed up my first elk hide with bad advice. I skinned and salted the hide without being as thou rough fleshing as you did. My hide is now dry. Is it ruined? I want to diy tan. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks
Brett: It's real important to remove all the fat and flesh from hides. It may not be ruined. You have to rehydrate it to determine. Here's what I would do. Bend the hardened hide enough to get it into a container with a brine solution in it. One pound of salt for every gallon of water. Soak overnight, completely submerged. Next day, drain excess water. Place hide in a plastic bag in refrigerator again overnight. Seal up the bag tightly. This is called "sweating" the hide. This entire process will get the hide as soft as possible. After this, check to see if it's rotten. Is there hair slippage? Pull on the hair in several areas where you didn't fully flesh. These would be the areas most questionable, as the salt wouldn't have penetrated through the fat. If there is no slippage, go forward to your tanning process. If there is a lot of slippage, it's rotten. Experience is a tough teacher. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. - Rick
Brett: That might work... for the first stage. But, if it doesn't soften it up enough, you still need to put in a big plastic bag, etc., to sweat it. Yes, you can still use the hide without the hair. But, that's a whole different process to get the hair off. Rick
The grinder is used to just thin the hide in the thick spots. The breaking part is when you are actually moving the hide fibers around to break them down, to soften the hide. It's a ton of work to do it properly. - Rick
Hi Rick. Thanks for posting. I need some help tanning. After watching your videos I think I screwed up my first elk hide with bad advice. I skinned and salted the hide without being as thou rough fleshing as you did. My hide is now dry. Is it ruined? I want to diy tan. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks
ReplyDeleteBrett:
ReplyDeleteIt's real important to remove all the fat and flesh from hides.
It may not be ruined. You have to rehydrate it to determine.
Here's what I would do. Bend the hardened hide enough to get it into a container with a brine solution in it. One pound of salt for every gallon of water. Soak overnight, completely submerged.
Next day, drain excess water. Place hide in a plastic bag in refrigerator again overnight. Seal up the bag tightly. This is called "sweating" the hide. This entire process will get the hide as soft as possible. After this, check to see if it's rotten. Is there hair slippage? Pull on the hair in several areas where you didn't fully flesh. These would be the areas most questionable, as the salt wouldn't have penetrated through the fat. If there is no slippage, go forward to your tanning process. If there is a lot of slippage, it's rotten.
Experience is a tough teacher. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. - Rick
Thanks Rick. I'm going to use a plastic garbage can to rehydrate. Even if the hair comes off can I still use the skin?
ReplyDeleteBrett:
ReplyDeleteThat might work... for the first stage. But, if it doesn't soften it up enough, you still need to put in a big plastic bag, etc., to sweat it.
Yes, you can still use the hide without the hair. But, that's a whole different process to get the hair off.
Rick
Mr. Rick, is the purpose of the grinder to actually break the hide? Or is it just to thin the hide. I slightly confused on the actual breaking part.
ReplyDeleteThe grinder is used to just thin the hide in the thick spots. The breaking part is when you are actually moving the hide fibers around to break them down, to soften the hide. It's a ton of work to do it properly. - Rick
Delete