Deer Hair, Tails, Etc

My bother-in-law has taken up bow hunting. This is producing some
delicious venison as well as leftover deer skins. How should they be
treated for use tying? Thanks.

a écrit :
My bother-in-law has taken up bow hunting. This is producing some
delicious venison as well as leftover deer skins. How should they be
treated for use tying? Thanks.

Here a few web site on the subject:
http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_l/l-103.pdf
http://www.learn-taxidermy.com/deer_hide_tanning.htm
http://www.smokylake.com/history/native/tanning.htm

I did it a couple of time, only tails, and the process is not worth the
trouble. It does give good quality hair and hide, but it is a lot of
labor when the price of hide and tail are so low at a local fly tying
shop. And I'm not talking about dyeing the hide; that is another messy
story.

Best way to use it for me is to take the hide to a professional tanner
and ask if they can use it. I have a cousin that hunts for big game and
all his hide are sold to a Indian shop that use them in traditional arts
& craft products, he gets back the tail and scraps from them which are
already treated and are way better than what I can produce at home. They
have the equipment and experience.

Just my 0.02$CDN. ;-)

--
Hope to read you soon,

Denis
www.uqtr.ca/~lamyd

You'll have to eat the SPAM to E-mail

You might try the suggestions on the following website:
http://www.uky.edu/~agrdanny/flyfish/petti.htm


I normally scrape the hide fairly clean, stretch it out on a board and use
lots (and lots) of Borax (you can pick it up in the laundry isle- Borax is
what most taxidermists use on their bird mounts to keep pests off.). It
produces a hard hide, but for fly tying it doesn't matter much- except for
zonker strips, I just buy them.


Hope it helps.
Steve


wrote in message
ups.com...
My bother-in-law has taken up bow hunting. This is producing some
delicious venison as well as leftover deer skins. How should they be
treated for use tying? Thanks.

Very unlikely you'll need a whole deer hide, same as I don't need a whole
moose hide. Here's my solution:

I tried to buy Alum - none available locally but I did recall seeing the
ingredients of Dr. Scholl's foot powder, and one of them was Alum. So, sez
I, why can't I use this....I'm not dying the hide, nor do I want soft
leather, I just want a few pieces for fly tying.

What I did was cut off a few pieces of hide (one of which may have been 2' X
2'). I soaked the hide for a couple of days in a brine solution and then
soaked it after in fresh water (not sure why but I read somewhere that was
a good thing to do :O). In the meantime, I made up a frame to stretch the
hide on ( another thing I did was simply nail it hair-side-down on a piece
of plywood, not as good but it works too. The nails are hard to get out once
it dries so # 1 is better or you can simply cut around the nails after).

Anyway, back to the foot powder. I drilled a bunch of holes in the frame and
the hide and ran nylon twine through to stretch it on the frame. Next I
scraped it as clean as possible and then sprinkled the foot powder on. I
did this a few times until the hide was completely dry and I considered it
ready.

The hide will be hard, of course, but that doesn't matter because it's the
hair you ware interested in. The pieces can be cut into smaller pieces to
use.

Good luck.....It does the job.

Keith P
Newfoundland




wrote in message
ups.com...
My bother-in-law has taken up bow hunting. This is producing some
delicious venison as well as leftover deer skins. How should they be
treated for use tying? Thanks.