Curing deer hair

[slage]

I just received a good amount of fresh Mule Deer hair. Wondering how you guys have cured for long term use, tying wise?
Stretch it out and salt the skin??

[DLJeff]

Ed Story showed me years ago the simplest and cheapest way to cure a green hide. Get a couple boxes of pickling salt. Stretch and tack the hide, hair side down, on a sheet of plywood. Trim off any shredded edges and as much meat and fat as you can. Pour on the salt until you build up about an eighth inch thick layer. Take a wine bottle or some round tube and roll the salt into the hide. The salt will absorb moisture and form a crust. After a day or two, re-roll the salt back into the hide, crushing the crusty layer and allowing the salt to absorb more moisture. Repeat the roll/crushing exercise until the salt no longer forms a crust. That's your signal the hide is as dry as it will get. You can then remove it from the plywood and slice it into manageable pieces. I cut it with a sharp sheath knife (so I have a longer blade to slice rather than rip) and cut it with the hair away from your hand. The hide will be stiff but sliceable. Put the slices into ziplok bags and into the freezer for a week or two to make sure you kill any vermin before you put the hide in with the rest of your materials.

[Darian]

I have used a similar method as DLJeff using Borax instead of salt (not a fan of salt). Preparation included scraping the hide to eliminate all fat/meat and, then, washing the hide in a bucket of mildly soapy water. Once that's done, the hide was wrung out a bit and stretched out on a square frame. Borax was applied to the skin and the whole thing was allowed to dry leaning against a fence until it was dry.

By paying so much attention to scraping/washing the hide, insects/vermin were avoided. Still have several sections of that hide.

[Carl Blackledge]

The best way to deal with deer hair is to just buy some from Hareline dubbin. It's just not worth the time and trouble to deal with a raw hide when you can buy deer hair for pennies. Not sure about you guys, however my time is worth a lot to me.....my 2 cents

Carl Blackledge

[SST Flies]

The best way to deal with deer hair is to just buy some from Hareline dubbin. It's just not worth the time and trouble to deal with a raw hide when you can buy deer hair for pennies. Not sure about you guys, however my time is worth a lot to me.....my 2 cents

Carl Blackledge

Concur- not worth the time and effort. It is cheaper to buy good quality tanned scraps from your local furrier.

[Darian]

While buying deer hair is cheaper/easier, maybe slage just wants to try curing it out. Unfortunately, buying pre-packaged or cured deer hair from a shop doesn't help slage in solving his problem of what to do with his newly acquired, uncured deer hair....

[SST Flies]

I have used a similar method as DLJeff using Borax instead of salt (not a fan of salt). Preparation included scraping the hide to eliminate all fat/meat and, then, washing the hide in a bucket of mildly soapy water. Once that's done, the hide was wrung out a bit and stretched out on a square frame. Borax was applied to the skin and the whole thing was allowed to dry leaning against a fence until it was dry.

By paying so much attention to scraping/washing the hide, insects/vermin were avoided. Still have several sections of that hide.

If you plan on keeping your hide for a long time I would recommend adding alum to the borax. This will keep the hide pliable and well as last an infinite amount of time. (Alum has been used for tanning well over 100-years.)

[Darian]

Hmmm,.... Adding alum to borax. Good info. Thanks for sharing....

[slage]

Thanks for all the replies guys. This was a special hunt/deer for a good friend. He wants some deer hair bugs tied to go with the mount.
Should be fun.

[DLJeff]

I should clarify one part of my earlier post: when you slice the hide into pieces, it works best if you get someone to help you. Hold the hide vertically, hair side facing away from the person with the knife. Slice downward. This allows the hair to slide away from the knife blade. If you cut the hide laying flat on the plywood or some flat surface, you will cut some of the hair. After the work to cure the hide, might as well maximize the amount of usable hair.