Treating deer fur?

[FISHINGNUT]

I asked a guy from work to bring me in some deer fur from his last hunt, my idea was to try and tie some of my own hair jigs over the winter .He brought in a tail so I fillet it off the bone and removed as much of the fat and meat as I could.So here is the question do I have to treat it with anything so it doesnt go bad and can I wash it with something it really stinks.My fear is deer ticks or bacteria or someting ? I dont know I am not a hunter so I dont know what to do with it ,

Thanks Jamie

[danbo]

Any animal skin over the size of a fox must be tanned.

Borax for anything less.

Nail it to a board outside (Hair-side down) & rub salt into it..if it isn't rotten already.

Scrape the flesh down to the roots.

Edited November 12, 2008 by danbo

[misfish]

Well heres what I did and it worked fine.

Buy a bag of salt rock and stuff the tail in it. Pull out and restuff for a few days,or until it is dried right out.

 

 

I am serious.

[irishfield]

I tried stuffin some tail once and her father got me with the rock salt....... 12 gauge.... hurts like hell....

[Leecher]

From what I can tell, if it started to stink then bacteria already started the rotten process. I would just cut off the hair as close as the skin and keep it a brown bag for your winter tying.

 

Leechman

[misfish]

I tried stuffin some tail once and her father got me with the rock salt....... 12 gauge.... hurts like hell....

 

Ya got to be QUICK on them tails.

[DT10Sam]

Well let's see I seem to do a lot of taxidermy work and have for many years so what I would do is use fine salt and cover it completely to get all of the fluids out of the skin. Then let it air dry and you should be fine for the use that you have in mind. I tan all of mine whenever I tan deer capes for mounting and that way they last longer. Tanning process is a little more difficult to do for beginners and you really do not need to do tan that tail if you want to keep it for making jigs. Fine salt works better than rock salt as it gets right into the skin immediately preventing bacteria from setting in.

 

Hope this is of help to you.

 

Regards,

Sam

[misfish]

Fine salt works better than rock salt

Thanks Sam. It,s all I had at the time and seem to work.I,ll give the fine stuff a try next time.

[FISHINGNUT]

Thanks guys its now in a bucket of salt , now I just have to wait for those long cold winter days to start tying ,should have some tied for walleye opener only 6 more months

[DT10Sam]

Thanks Sam. It,s all I had at the time and seem to work.I,ll give the fine stuff a try next time.

 

Misfish you were not wrong, the method for years from hide depots etc. is to place rock salt on the hides. It did remove some of the moisture from the hides and then they were shipped to the tannery in order to make leather from the hides. If you wanted to keep the hair on the hides then you would have to use fine salt and not necessarily table grade either (far too expensive) you can get fine salt from co-ops etc if you want to salt a hide to leave the hair on.

 

Today's methods and advancements in taxidermy have come along way. I do not use any salt at all and have tanning drums that just simply allow me to use chemicals under pressure that will allow the chemicals into the hide. This process softens the hide and tans it at the same time and the next stage will be to shave it on my fleshing machine before mounting them. The last specimen that I mounted made the latest cover of Ontario Monster Whitetail magazine and it was done without using salt.

 

Small projects such as whiletail deer tails for later use needs only be kept in salt and air dried.

 

Regards,

Sam

[DT10Sam]

Thanks guys its now in a bucket of salt , now I just have to wait for those long cold winter days to start tying ,should have some tied for walleye opener only 6 more months

 

 

Easy on the walleye opener...... LOL .....we still have fall fishing on right now and the hard water season ahead of us.

 

Regards,

Sam

Edited November 13, 2008 by DT10Sam