My deer hide is salted - now what do I do? :)

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Will_

Nomad
Feb 21, 2013
446
3
Dorset
Here's where I'm up to:
I fleshed the hide, then salted it 4 or 5 times.
It's now stiff and feels completely dry.
Now what do I do?
There seems to be so much (too much?) advice on the web, so I thought I'd put it to the community to see what you all do...
Eventually I want to have it draped over a chair or up on a wall.
 

Exbomz

Full Member
Oct 19, 2004
198
0
East Sussex
Personally, if I were looking to do it for a 'throw' then you could do worse than taw it - basically using Alum (Aluminium Sulphate - about £10 for a kg on eBay) and salt. Most concise recipe I could find it this:

http://forum.downsizer.net/viewtopic.php?t=3498&start=0

It's a few years since I did any hair-on tawing but it works. Just salting it doesn't tan it, it just preserves before any tanning process by killing bacteria, so what you now have is hair on rawhide. You may be able to get a thick deer skin a bit soft just by stretching it, as the video implies, but the deer skin he was using was already tanned using bark. It needs some form of preservation. Tawing does this and the oils towards the end of the process allow it to get quite soft and pliable.

You could opt for a hair on brain tan, rubbing in brains or a substitute (eg. egg yolks) and then stretch and finally smoke it. The smell of the smoke does hang around for a long time, so if it is for your living room, I'd think twice.

Has the skin been framed or is it just been allowed to dry? If you are thinking of braining, I would suggest remoistening it and then put in a frame to redry. Having it flat make it easier to take out of the frame and then get the brains solution rubbed over.

Don't forget deer hair is brittle and will break so if you put it over a chair which his used regularly, the hair will begin to break and come off.
 

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