Your videos are great and I have learned allot. Thank you!!! But I do have a question? How would you temporally store hides after fleshing and hair removal? I do have freezer space. (Waiting to gather materials for bark tanning)
Thanks for the video. I had a problem with a reindeer pelt I brought from Iceland. Side note, I was told they are from Norway and sustainably managed, which I hope is true. But anyway, the pelt was on an upholstered chair near a window, with very little movement (i.e. it was just sitting still for about 7 weeks) and I discovered about 10 little black stained pinholes underneath on the skin side. The holes range from old-looking watery inky stain, to precision pinhole. We also found one or two of those tiny black beetles on the window sill. I take it from the content, we have hide beetles or carpet beetles. I immediately rolled it and bagged it in plastic. I plan to freeze it when I get home from work today. After that, store it airtight with cedar. I'm trying to get a sense of how to manage this in the future. From your advice it seems like making sure it has sun, and not being stagnant, i.e. move it every day, and doing a stellar job at household cleaning and pest-proofing the room all would be helpful. If you have any other thoughts I'd love more tips or feedback.
Again, little things you say that fill in holes and answer my questions! I'm working with axis deer hides, so while I do plan on doing buckskin, so far I'm only doing hair-on to preserve the spots. I have been freezing, then fleshing and salting to dry before I brine and then tan and stretch. I was salting because I was told that it fixes the hair. Does it actually do this??? Is salting and brining actually helping, or hindering me? Should I instead be stretching and drying my hides if I'm not tanning them right away? I feel like I'm combining so many different methods that I've gotten a little mixed up on the function of each step.... You're amazing and I so appreciate you're knowledge. Thank you!!!
Thank you, this is great information. I'm assuming you're brain tanning because you mentioned softening; do you smoke the fur side as well as the flesh to stop bugs or?
Great question, yes, I am storing these for brain tanning and no, I smoke them only on the flesh side and that usually does the job. Smoking the fur side would further deter insects, but would stain the fur and make it tacky with creosote
A well skinned, cleaned and fleshed hide shouldnt have much odor starting out. Even if the animal is a little stinky from being dead and bloated and starting to turn, it can often still have a usable skin, in which case the skin itself usually won't be very stinky as it rots far slower than organs and meat. In this case of course one should be very careful and conscientious about touching and skinning an animal in that condition- wear gloves if possible or be sure you have no cuts, hangnails, etc where bacteria could get in and wash your hands very well after. If the skin itself is really very stinky even after fleshing and cleaning, (this is relative, everyone's nose is different. I say this as a hide tanner who is used to a good amount of stink) it is likely too compromised by bacterial damage to be very useful. That said, washing with lukewarm soap and water and airing it out help, as does the tanning process- particularly the smoking part.
@@steamroller68 If I were to tan deer hair on I would do so in a frame, but I never choose to tan them hair on as they shed like crazy and the hair, being hollow and weak, breaks off easily resulting in a very scratchy, patchy finished product not worth the effort, in my opinion. I say this as someone who has lived with hair on hides and used them as rugs and sleeping mats at different times in my life and wouldn't do so again!
I travel a lot to teach, but am generally on the west coast- northern California and Oregon. Recently I've been focusing on finishing up some writing projects so am doing less teaching than in the past. Buying land so I can have a permanent base to teach from is a major goal of mine!
Hi Woniya, thanks for the info. I have a couple questions. Once hides have been smoked does that mean that they are protected from moths and hide beetles. Also what about storing hides that have been bark tanned but not yet brained, or smoked...? Does bark tanning deter or protect against insect damage?
determined beetles or moths can still damage smoked hides, but it is much less common as the smoke is a major deterrent. Yes, you can store bark tanned hides that are not yet softened. the bark tanning, like smoking; is a major deterrent but not a total protection. Pretty uncommon for bark tanned hides to suffer insect damage though, unless they have the hair on, and then moth larva can still eat that without issue
I've salted mine a year ago with rock salt then folded skin side to each other for outside. Then placed in a plastic bag. Trash bags. And put them in the freezer. Will they be good months from now?
I have a whole video just about salting hides on this channel, sounds like it would be helpful for you. But yes, they should be. One doesn't need to both salt and freeze hides, one or the other will do. Rock salt is t as ideal as the larger particles don't totally coat the ide the way smaller crystal do, but it should still work
What about sheep? Would you prefer dried, frozen, or salted? I recently was offered a bunch of frozen wet salted sheep. Figured they definitely can't be bad lol. Also, will smoking kill bugs too or just deter them?
i prefer not salting my hair/fur on hides so freezing or drying is better. Ever noticed how hair will often slip even before soaking with wet salted deer hides? That's why you want to avoid it with your furs! plus, soaking to rinse out the salt can cause hair slippage too. but salted and frozen should be fine, big waste of time and salt though! smoking is mostly a deterrent, but could potentially kill bugs if they are on the flesh side during smoking. On the fur side they could burrow down and survive the smoking just fine, I would guess
Hey Jordan, holy crap, epic scene with that wolverine! Sage brush, Artemisia tridentata, works, not regular garden sagebut i bet that helps too. Common names are confusing! Most plants with strong smelly volatile oils deter insects. only if they are in a sealed contained with the hides though, otherwise the scent just leaks away and doesn't do anything. But yes, sage brush and worm wood totally deter insects, and I would definitely agree that Rosemary would too, but none of these kill the bugs just deter them , so if there are already beetles or moths in your hides they will keep on chomping. and all of the herbs stop working eventually so have to be replaced every year or so to keep working. how's that moose hide doing?
@@BuckskinRevolution ha thanks that was intense just to rewatch ha... You know what's super sad is janahlee had some really beautiful and intricate handmade reindeer fur boots one of the ladies gave her, and moths just hammered them ..they were in a cedar chest, but I guess it's not very cedary anymore or something - Virginia is gnarly with it's humidty and heat...we have tons of Rosemary though haha
oh man, what a serious bummer! yeah, the moths go mostly for just the hair but the beetles eat the skin as well so can be a lot more destructive. for sure, the cedar wears off so you have to put cedar oil on the wood occasionally to keep it strong. and still, it'll deter but not kill the little buggers. i would suggest several cycles of freezing and thawing the boots- freezing kills the adults and larvae but not the eggs so freeze and thaw should encourage the eggs to hatch so that the next freeze kills them. freeze for several days, thaw for several, freeze again, etc. good luck with it! those beetles are the worst!
My son found a dead owl one time & cut the wings & sent that to me boy did it stink, i never knew how to get that smell out so i ended throwing it away.
Honestly, the only thing that I have found to eventually lessens the stink on something like that that one can't clean in another way is airing it out and time. The smell never fully goes away, so you probably made the right call. Doubly so, because it is actually very illegal to have any parts of owls or other birds of prey. Songbirds as well, but this one tends to be less strictly enforced.
Thank you for sharing all your knowledge. I raise rabbits and save lots of skins. I have good success burying my skins in a tote with filled with red cedar shavings. I've stored them in the garage for years and years with no issues. The red cedar shavings makes finished skins smell wonderful too! I'm also highly interested in insects. Check out Inaturalist.org which is really cool and helpful for identifying and learning more about insects and other taxa
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Another great video. Useful for those storing furs. Thanks for what you do.
Thanks you! I messed up my hide because I rushed into it.. oh well I’ll find more roadkill ! Thank you for the information!
Your videos are great and I have learned allot. Thank you!!! But I do have a question? How would you temporally store hides after fleshing and hair removal? I do have freezer space. (Waiting to gather materials for bark tanning)
Thanks for the video. I had a problem with a reindeer pelt I brought from Iceland. Side note, I was told they are from Norway and sustainably managed, which I hope is true. But anyway, the pelt was on an upholstered chair near a window, with very little movement (i.e. it was just sitting still for about 7 weeks) and I discovered about 10 little black stained pinholes underneath on the skin side. The holes range from old-looking watery inky stain, to precision pinhole. We also found one or two of those tiny black beetles on the window sill. I take it from the content, we have hide beetles or carpet beetles. I immediately rolled it and bagged it in plastic. I plan to freeze it when I get home from work today. After that, store it airtight with cedar. I'm trying to get a sense of how to manage this in the future. From your advice it seems like making sure it has sun, and not being stagnant, i.e. move it every day, and doing a stellar job at household cleaning and pest-proofing the room all would be helpful. If you have any other thoughts I'd love more tips or feedback.
it sounds like you've got the right idea on how to solve it! Hide beetles and moths are amazing at finding all the best stuff!
I have several moldy raccoon pelts with a lot of hair slipping. They were hanging in a leaky and moldy place. Is there any way to save the pelts?
Again, little things you say that fill in holes and answer my questions!
I'm working with axis deer hides, so while I do plan on doing buckskin, so far I'm only doing hair-on to preserve the spots.
I have been freezing, then fleshing and salting to dry before I brine and then tan and stretch. I was salting because I was told that it fixes the hair. Does it actually do this??? Is salting and brining actually helping, or hindering me? Should I instead be stretching and drying my hides if I'm not tanning them right away? I feel like I'm combining so many different methods that I've gotten a little mixed up on the function of each step....
You're amazing and I so appreciate you're knowledge. Thank you!!!
Great video!
Thank you, this is great information. I'm assuming you're brain tanning because you mentioned softening; do you smoke the fur side as well as the flesh to stop bugs or?
Great question, yes, I am storing these for brain tanning and no, I smoke them only on the flesh side and that usually does the job. Smoking the fur side would further deter insects, but would stain the fur and make it tacky with creosote
@@BuckskinRevolution thanks for the reply. Not nearly as much fur hide info out there as there is about buckskin and veg tan, thanks again!
How do you get out the smell from a dead animal ? Just courious how you would do that.
A well skinned, cleaned and fleshed hide shouldnt have much odor starting out. Even if the animal is a little stinky from being dead and bloated and starting to turn, it can often still have a usable skin, in which case the skin itself usually won't be very stinky as it rots far slower than organs and meat. In this case of course one should be very careful and conscientious about touching and skinning an animal in that condition- wear gloves if possible or be sure you have no cuts, hangnails, etc where bacteria could get in and wash your hands very well after. If the skin itself is really very stinky even after fleshing and cleaning, (this is relative, everyone's nose is different. I say this as a hide tanner who is used to a good amount of stink) it is likely too compromised by bacterial damage to be very useful. That said, washing with lukewarm soap and water and airing it out help, as does the tanning process- particularly the smoking part.
I've been going thru your vid's. Do you put your hides on a stretching frame.
No, I hand pull. the exceptions are large hair on hides like sheep hides or very large scraped hides like elk and larger
@@BuckskinRevolution
How about deer with hair
@@steamroller68 If I were to tan deer hair on I would do so in a frame, but I never choose to tan them hair on as they shed like crazy and the hair, being hollow and weak, breaks off easily resulting in a very scratchy, patchy finished product not worth the effort, in my opinion. I say this as someone who has lived with hair on hides and used them as rugs and sleeping mats at different times in my life and wouldn't do so again!
Where are you and are you having any more classes
I travel a lot to teach, but am generally on the west coast- northern California and Oregon. Recently I've been focusing on finishing up some writing projects so am doing less teaching than in the past. Buying land so I can have a permanent base to teach from is a major goal of mine!
Hi Woniya, thanks for the info. I have a couple questions. Once hides have been smoked does that mean that they are protected from moths and hide beetles. Also what about storing hides that have been bark tanned but not yet brained, or smoked...? Does bark tanning deter or protect against insect damage?
determined beetles or moths can still damage smoked hides, but it is much less common as the smoke is a major deterrent. Yes, you can store bark tanned hides that are not yet softened. the bark tanning, like smoking; is a major deterrent but not a total protection. Pretty uncommon for bark tanned hides to suffer insect damage though, unless they have the hair on, and then moth larva can still eat that without issue
I wonder how many folks get their hide infested with bugs n just assumed its slippage
I've salted mine a year ago with rock salt then folded skin side to each other for outside. Then placed in a plastic bag. Trash bags. And put them in the freezer. Will they be good months from now?
I have a whole video just about salting hides on this channel, sounds like
it would be helpful for you. But yes, they should be. One doesn't need to both salt and freeze hides, one or the other will
do. Rock salt is t as ideal as the larger particles don't totally coat the ide the way smaller crystal do, but it should still work
What about sheep? Would you prefer dried, frozen, or salted? I recently was offered a bunch of frozen wet salted sheep. Figured they definitely can't be bad lol. Also, will smoking kill bugs too or just deter them?
i prefer not salting my hair/fur on hides so freezing or drying is better. Ever noticed how hair will often slip even before soaking with wet salted deer hides? That's why you want to avoid it with your furs! plus, soaking to rinse out the salt can cause hair slippage too. but salted and frozen should be fine, big waste of time and salt though! smoking is mostly a deterrent, but could potentially kill bugs if they are on the flesh side during smoking. On the fur side they could burrow down and survive the smoking just fine, I would guess
So sage works to deter bugs? Interesting....
Do you know if Rosemary works? I've heard it does but only vaguely remember
Hey Jordan, holy crap, epic scene with that wolverine!
Sage brush, Artemisia tridentata, works, not regular garden sagebut i bet that helps too. Common names are confusing! Most plants with strong smelly volatile oils deter insects. only if they are in a sealed contained with the hides though, otherwise the scent just leaks away and doesn't do anything. But yes, sage brush and worm wood totally deter insects, and I would definitely agree that Rosemary would too, but none of these kill the bugs just deter them , so if there are already beetles or moths in your hides they will keep on chomping. and all of the herbs stop working eventually so have to be replaced every year or so to keep working.
how's that moose hide doing?
@@BuckskinRevolution ha thanks that was intense just to rewatch ha... You know what's super sad is janahlee had some really beautiful and intricate handmade reindeer fur boots one of the ladies gave her, and moths just hammered them ..they were in a cedar chest, but I guess it's not very cedary anymore or something - Virginia is gnarly with it's humidty and heat...we have tons of Rosemary though haha
Actually it was thoseittle beetle things
oh man, what a serious bummer!
yeah, the moths go mostly for just the hair but the beetles eat the skin as well so can be a lot more destructive.
for sure, the cedar wears off so you have to put cedar oil on the wood occasionally to keep it strong. and still, it'll deter but not kill the little buggers. i would suggest several cycles of freezing and thawing the boots- freezing kills the adults and larvae but not the eggs so freeze and thaw should encourage the eggs to hatch so that the next freeze kills them. freeze for several days, thaw for several, freeze again, etc. good luck with it! those beetles are the worst!
Please tell me Fresh skin good or old skin
I dont totally understand the question, but you can tan either fresh skins or stored older skins and there are benefits and drawbacks to either
I means fresh skins good or stored skins : I have two options. Animals skins my business. Buying and sales. Thanks
I have above 500 animals skins in my shops
My son found a dead owl one time & cut the wings & sent that to me boy did it stink, i never knew how to get that smell out so i ended throwing it away.
Honestly, the only thing that I have found to eventually lessens the stink on something like that that one can't clean in another way is airing it out and time. The smell never fully goes away, so you probably made the right call. Doubly so, because it is actually very illegal to have any parts of owls or other birds of prey. Songbirds as well, but this one tends to be less strictly enforced.
Thank you for sharing all your knowledge. I raise rabbits and save lots of skins. I have good success burying my skins in a tote with filled with red cedar shavings. I've stored them in the garage for years and years with no issues. The red cedar shavings makes finished skins smell wonderful too! I'm also highly interested in insects. Check out Inaturalist.org which is really cool and helpful for identifying and learning more about insects and other taxa