ajb403 Posted May 10, 2010 Report Share Posted May 10, 2010 Last week I bought and butchered a young fallow stag, that was shot the week before by a stalker (last day of the season, was an unlucky deer) and I was intending on preserving the hide with the hair on to make a rug. The day after butchery I nailed the hide to a board and scraped as much of the fleshy membrane off as I could and then salted it thoroughly and the salt rubbed it. For the next 4 days it was scraped and resalted twice daily and then once daily after that, we're now on day 6. The skin is now very stiff and has turned primarily white, althought it's still a pink colour around where it was shot but feels very much of skin, not membrane/flesh, the white part comes off as a fine dust when it is scraped with a knife however on small patches where I've scraped all the way through I can see and feel hair follicles so I guess I've gone too far in these areas? How do you know when to stop scraping? Will the hide need hydrating/moisturising with a leather softening cream or will folding/rolling it soften it sufficiently? Should I expect the hide to remain white? Also there is a faint smell of deer (surprise surprise) which I'm pretty sure is coming from the fur, not the skin side of the hide, any hints on how to get rid of this without damaging the hide, mildly soapy water? This is my first time (if you hadn't guessed!) so any advice is welcomed. Cheers Ashley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajb403 Posted May 26, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2010 I'm quite suprised there are no responses to this, have none of you deer stalkers ever preserved the hides?! Anyway, the hide is nearly done (I've been slacking), it was removed from the wooden board after 6 days and the whole hide rubbed down with fine grade sandpaper - especially around where the nails had been due to there still being bits of dried membrane around there. I have been rolling the hide to try and soften it but I think I'm going to buy some neetsfoot oil to soften it up properly. The dried blood on the fur side of the hide was removed by sprinking cornflour over the area and wiping it down with a damp cloth, leaving to dry and then removing - this is what t'interweb recommened for taxidery animals and seems to have done the job. The fur still smells of deer, got a couple of ideas to get rid of it but in retrospect I think I should've washed the hide with some sort of gentle shampoo before drying it out. Will update with pictures when I get round to properly finishing it. Ashley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclestuffy Posted May 26, 2010 Report Share Posted May 26, 2010 I have sent you a pm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buck52 Posted May 27, 2010 Report Share Posted May 27, 2010 No reply because probably nobody knows how to do it, and those that have tried several times, like me, have failed, deer skins are the hardest to do anything with, thats why they have no value! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajb403 Posted May 27, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2010 No reply because probably nobody knows how to do it, Unclestuffy talked me through how he does them (thanks again by the way!), I know I didn't choose the easiest of projects but I'm always up for a challenge so fingers crossed. Ashley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclestuffy Posted May 27, 2010 Report Share Posted May 27, 2010 No problems. Picked up some malware so when I have freed the computer I will email the recipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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