After you've shot your deer (Doe or buck) and youve processed all the meat what do you do with the hide and how do you do it? I've heard of salting and tanning the hide. I'd like to keep one this year.
Make Rugs or Gloves. Most the time if torn up just toss them... I even made a Dog bed out of them once. Tanned it and stuffed with toy animal stuffing from Wal-Mart.
I've never tanned a hide but would love to this season or next. I usually take the deer to the processor and pick up my meat after a couple weeks. I would also love to process my own meat, as I use to when I lived in Ohio with my family, but right now I don't have the equipment or space. It's not so bad,though...my processor makes excellent snack sticks!
You mean you didnt put a sewing station in that awesome shed of yours? Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
You can mix borax, alum and salt in a five gallon bucket of water... make sure temps are cool. Put the fleshed hide into the solution with a brick on top to sink it for 48 hours (I think) then take it out to dry it on a sheet of plywood with the hair side down and cover generously with more salt while it dries. You can Google the recipe to get the mixture and soaking times correct... its been years since I have done it but I have skins that are over 30 years old.
I'd have to ask my butcher. I shoot a deer, gut it, then drop it off never to be seen again until it is packaged as steaks, sausage, roasts, and hamburger meat.
I let the chickens peck all the tasty morsels off of it then it gets put in the garden. Sometimes my dog will take it from the chickens... and she eats the entire thing. Poops out hair for a week.
Do you know if the solution will freeze? I want to try this as well and if it happens to be a late season deer, the temps are well below freezing outside. Usually I just trade the hide for some gloves.
Hi Kyle, It depends on what you want to do with the skin. I have one on my wall in the basement that's three years old and all I did was salt it down on the flesh side real good. Some day I'm planning on getting a solution to tan it. There are web sites you can get the chemicals from. As long as you salt it down good you won't have any problems. It will be hard like cardboard though.
Yes it would but the salt may lower the freezing point some. Just put a spotlight on it but you do want it cool. Another good source is the "Foxfire" books. One solution involves using ashes to tan the hide, I am not sure but I think that removes hair. I think it was an Indian method. Guess I should know that as I am of Indian heritage. As Bob said, the salt by itself will cure it nicely but it will be very stiff. The alum shrinks the follicles to prevent slippage and the borax I think is there to help remove blood etc... from the skin.
