Save my hide?

[Don B]

Last fall, I got a deer hide 90% fleshed and de-haired before winter hit. It spent the winter frozen in a tub of ice in a corner of the garage. It’s now been thawed for a couple of weeks and is starting to smell. Can this hide be saved? My plan had been to stretch and dry it this spring, then work on getting the last of the membrane off, which I was unable to do last year before winter hit. I’d appreciate your advice. Should I process, or would it be a waste of my time at this point?

Don

 

[paulvallandigham]

The smell comes from the remaining flesh, i would bet. Take the hide out and give it a good washing with soap and water. ( I did mine in the bathtub, and cleaned up the scum ring before the domestic supervisor went on the warpath. ) You should be able to drape the hide over a 2x or 4x and finish scraping off the flesh now. It should come off easier, now that it has been frozen, thawed and allowed to decay a bit. The leather itself should be okay, unless you allow mold to eat holes in it.

 

[djnye]

the hide may still be o.k., but living in minnesota you missed a real oppurtunity when you put it away last winter. next time you should think about stretching that hide on a frame and freezing it. hides that are stretched and frozen can then be nicely scraped while frozen. i do it all the time. the method is used by annishinabe up north as a preferred method. with a stretched and frozen hide it is also very easy to selectively scrape areas to get more uniform thickness.

take care, and good luck with the hide.

daniel