Oh deer, my hide smells

[packrat]

My lovely wife took me to Norway, and we brought a couple of reindeer pelts back, the woman who sold them said they were 'as preserved as they needed to be', so we naively thought well that sounds ok then, and we bundled them home.

Fast forward three years, and they're dropping hairs like nobody's business, and the one that we put in storage in a not very well ventilated bag about a year ago, smells. In fact they both smell not very nice, but one is worse. And of course if you so much as look at one, it spits a handful of hair onto everything within a five metre radius. One is hanging on a wall and I'm amazed it actually has any hair left on it -- though it still looks perfect.

Can anything be done to stop the smell and/or shedding? Or could they be 're-purposed', if so any suggestions? Seems such a shame, as they are still insanely beautiful to behold.

 

[Cromm]

Is it in a very warm room ? That doesn't help at all as it opens up the pores in the skin and that is why the hairs fall out

 

[packrat]

They've not been kept cool, let's say... so that's probably it. I think they're gonna have to go in the bin -- we just had a proper look at them and they're pretty manked

 

[VaughnT]

The hides were raw, untanned, and have started to rot pretty well. Even with all the meat, fat and membrane removed, there's still plenty of good stuff for the bacteria to nibble on, especially when humidity, darkness and a lack of air movement is thrown in.

Reindeer are no different than any other member of the deer family in that the hair is hollow and will be constantly breaking off. They will last a long time if tanned and used only as a wall-hanging or occasional throw, but bedding or clothing will increase the shedding exponentially.

Firstly, get them out in the sun and wind to air out. There's probably no chance of saving the hair on them, but there is still plenty of good rawhide there. And I'm quite sure they can still be tanned to make some wonderful leather.

I would give them a good soak in a lye bath and wetscrape the hair and dermis off. Then tack them to a board, or lace them in a frame, to dry flat. That's all it takes to make rawhide. If the hair is as far gone as you say, you probably only need to hose the hides to remove the hair. A lye bath, though, will certainly clean the skins out.

If you want to tan them, I highly recommend the brain-tan method, but wouldn't argue if you tried the bark-tan method. If you send them out to be commercially tanned, make sure the company isn't using chromium salts. Chrome-tan leather sucks.

 

[xylaria]

I would at least try a soak in a bucket of oak chips. Add more chips every couple of days. The hide is done when the brownstain is all the way through the skin. Reindeer hair snaps off even when it is well cured. Air drying doesn't work in the uk ,it is far too damp and cool, dry the hide near a radiator.
There is plenty of wind fall wood about, acorn hulls are fine as well. I have a sheep skin I need to do, I will probably use pine bark as that is what I have plenty of. Veg tan hides smell very nice.

 

[Exbomz]

Mmm. The shedding of hair, I'd say definitely not.

I'd also say if the smell is really bad, it may be too late, but it is difficult for anyone to be sure without getting their nose up close, rather than via Forum. I think the your best route would be bark tan.

If it were me, I'd go for potassium hydroxide rather than lye (sodium hydroxide) - personal preference - and get rid of hair and epidermis. If there are no big black areas of mould (which you can see more easily with the hair off), you may be OK, and then it is neutralise (I use cider vinegar) then into gradually increasing strength tannic acid. I use oak bark as it is easy for me to get; I have also used the roots of Dock which has a very high tannin content and gave a great leather. I mention this only because there are lots of sources for tannins and it depends what you can get hold of.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

[xylaria]

I have a sheep skin in a vat of pine bark tan. I washed, fleshed and dried it several months ago but it had to stay at my mothers dry central heated house as it was responding too much to the damp in mine.

Pine bark tan smells like church incense. I am making a bed out of lodge poll pine that fell last january, so I had two jam pans of bark to boil up. I simply boiled until it looked like builders tea then strain and add hide to the "tea". Over the next couple days the stronger and stronger tea will get added. The sheep skin came from a jacobs ram, so hopefully it might sort its aroma out. It is not bacterial compromised, it was washed alot and kept dry. It just smells rammy.

Look into the lye method of dehairing. Tanning is antibacterial especially if it is hot. A pelt shouldn't be cooked but pouring hot solution over the pelt before added cold rainwater doesnt seem to do much harm and can reverse mild funkiness.

 

[Toddy]

If you want to tan, and don't have either masses of bark or the necessary big pots to boil it up in, then tannic acid can be bought from the folks who sell supplies to natural dyers and woodworkers.
.......and I've just looked at the prices and think you'd be better off asking for folks to send you oakgalls :yikes:

I have a stash and I know it was nowhere near that price when I bought it.

Maybe if someone has a link to a woodworkers supplier, it might be more cost effective.

M

 

[xylaria]

I stripped 30ft of pine to make carrier bag full of bark. Maybe buying straight tannin might be better idea.

It took a massive amount of acorns when I used them . They took a humongous amount of boiling as well. Pine is far faster.

 

[xylaria]

Sweet chestnut husks. Quite common in london parks and no need of sharp arrestable things, just a big shopping bag and rose gloves.

They have a high percentage of the right type of tannins. Horse chestnut husks turn things brown but I dont know if they tan.

 

[Toddy]

I didn't know about the sweet chestnut husks that's good to know

Oakbark if you can get it (I get mine from when the workshop is stripping and planking entire trees with the woodmizer thing) is brilliant, and so are oakgalls. I got a carrier bag's worth last year and they're really strong when ground down.
That said, acacia bark is apparantly the absolute best tannin for skins; it doesn't even smell

M

 

[Skaukraft]

Where did you buy them, and were they stiff?
Reindeerskins are mostly just scraped and dried. They are not ment to be hung up on a wall or packed in a bag, but to be used as underlayer when sitting and/or sleeping outside in the snow. Sometimes they ar etreated with something to prevent them from sucking up to much moisture.
Properly tanned reindeerskins often cost 2-3 times of what the dried ones cost.
If used as it is supposed to be used, a dried but untanned skin can last for years.

 

[xylaria]

The uk can be very humid. Last winter for instance the temperature didnt really drop below freezing. The relative humidity rarely drops below 60%. There is occasional cold dry day where the RH can drop. Historically things were pickled or smoked in smoke houses, it is only really the northen isles that were able to air dry. Dryed hides and foods go off.

My old man had a reindeer hide he gave away as it started shedding badly when he lived in a tipi. That had been treated to make it more water resistant. The incessant damp had got to it.

 

[packrat]

Thank you all for your excellent inputs. In the end, we sadly had to throw them because they were pretty foul smelling and definitely rotting, and I didn't have the time to experiment, especially given the not terribly good chance of success. I appreciate the help though, thank you.