It is so awesome to watch and work on your so passionate about. Thank you for sharing this with us and sharing your knowledge and passion keep up the awesome content. The only place I found this information was in old books.
Super cool video.. I want to give this a try!! BTW just finished watching your season of Alone and let me just say YOU are an incredible Woods Woman!!! Wow that was incredible!! Your a ROCKSTAR!!
I’ve never had that many hides to deal with at one time. The moisture after 24 hours was unreal. I know this filmstrip has some age, just saw you on youtubz a couple days ago. I don’t have a tv so I’ve never seen the program you did. Looks like good fun. Bow season is a week or so out now here. Happy hunting.
I have a old coyote cape pelt that i found ina box a while ago it when i got it it was wet fromz being frozen, n now it looks real dark n rawhide look almost so idk if its salvagable i would love to send u a pic n show u n get your opinion on it
I store them in plastic totes like the one you see in the video. It is best to use them within a year or two, it I have stored them for as long as 6 without issues, and occasionally had issues working less than a year or two if salt loving bacteria are present
good observation! and yes, quite true. it was also raining as i was finishing the filming, so some of that was water as well. The beauty of buckskin as opposed to other leathers is that you can wash it. I do it by hand in a 6 gallon bucket of warm (not hot!) water. i go i to specifics about care of buckskin in my book, available on my website chapter by chapter. Chapter 25 is "care of buckskin"
I like to tack them to a piece of ply wood with nails. I have also staked them to the ground with wooden stakes, but that makes much bigger holes. Either way, you want to have them dry taut and flat
Thank you for doing a wet salt video. Got a question for you. I salted three hides last December. Just as you did I salted, but I let mine open on pallets angled against a wall to drain. 24hrs later I re-salted and rolled them and put in Tupperware. The first one i did in April was fine but when i got to the other two maybe July, they had mold growth on them. Any reason why that would have happened? Thought it might been bc they were in basement and not a dry location but you're even putting them in plastic bag. Thanks
There could be a variety of factors- what kind of mold was it? Black and speckled like you'd see on other things, or was it more of a strawberry pink color? Black or white coloration is probably mold and may indeed be from keeping them in a damp location already inoculated with mold. Tupperwares are just as damp, but can be cleaned well so at least they aren't harboring mold already. Harder to do this in basements. ;) Pink colored growth is usually a salt loving bacteria. It is funky looking, but doesn't usually do much damage unless hides are left for a lot longer than a season or two. There are other types of salt loving bacteria that can cause damage within 2-3 years. These usually cause little holes part or all the way through the hides. we call this bacterial pitting and it can turn hides into swiss cheese left unchecked, but the parts without holes usually remain strong. he only thing to do about these is to scour your containers, be sure to use fresh salt, and not store your hides for more than a year. I rarely see mold growth on the skins if they are folded up with the flesh sides totally covered as you see here. If left with the flesh side exposed to drain, maybe the mold could have gotten its start there? The good news is that mold doesn't usually really degrade the hides. Mold usually lives off of carbohydrate not protein, so it will usually just be on the surface. You can still scrape them without issue, though if they are moldy for long enough they may have some permanent discoloration. This can usually be covered by dyeing with black walnut after smoking.
@@BuckskinRevolution I never thought about it starting from being open to drain in first 24 hrs. I'll have to follow your method and see. And I plan to keep them up in attic instead of basement. For the bacteria...so I saw greenish colored, black speckled areas and on one there was a black spot that when wiped created a divot as you described with pitted bacteria. The other mold did come off when hide was processed. The other hide I clean up and let dry. Was afraid of the mold. So I hope to do a hair on
@@BuckskinRevolution Woniya. So I got three hides and followed your process this time..so fingers crossed I don't get any molding round may/June. But I have a question regarding ticks. Goodness were two out of the three hides polluted with ticks. At first I was going to filter through the hair and remove them all but I'd be there all day and I gave that idea up. I went on with fleshing after spraying myself with tick spray. There were live one still there. So, what do you do about the ticks when you get a fresh hide and you proceed with fleshing so you can wet salt to store? The other thought was just freeze them. But I don't have the freezer space. I have honestly never examined hides before the way i did today prior to fleshing. Maybe they've all been polluted with ticks and I just didn't pay attention.
@@shawn2045 the whitetail buck that my dad and I harvested was pretty infested with ticks. One of his friends harvested a doe and when she took it to the butcher, he said this was the worst year he has ever seen with ticks. And I'm dealing with that on my hide right now. I have been cutting every single tick I find but they are all in the fur and I dont know how to kill them easily but If I find out I will edit this comment and let you know!
@@scream4meplz1994 so after following woniya's advice on this video I did see a huge reduction in molding. If anything the hides had this speckled look and it wiped off when I wiped the salt. As for ticks...I talked to woniya through the website and she mentioned using lime for the bucking and it'll kill the ticks. Still gotta deal with them during the fleshing. Idk. I dont want to do it but been thinking of throwing the hide in a bag after spraying some seven on or something. Idk. Never got a tick on me yet so may just keep being careful when fleshing
Hides I have done and received that are salted have the hair slip after least six months to a year when rehydrated. Do you see this in your hides? And I have not found the grain hard to wet scrape on salted hides except the neck. I follow Steve Edholms' method on SkillCult.
Paleo Trekker Quite true, hair slippage is common for wet salted hides, which is why i recommend those technique for deer skins but not for furs. And it is drying hides with the hair on that makes them harder to scrape- not wet salting them. The whole point of wet salting is that they don't dry out and this become harder to scrape.
@@BuckskinRevolution Yeah, learned that the hard way. I have three sheep skins that I salted. I have only rehydrated one, the wool came off as soon as it touched water. At least I will have some very fine buckskin! As far as drying hides though, I dry scrape so it isn't hard for me to take off the grain.
@@paleotrekker402 my whole thing is I am trying to tan a deer pelt. I keep seeing salt to dry and then scrape what is left and then tan. Now I am going to use NuTan so thats what the instructions say. But I'm not understanding why you dont dry them? I feel that would ruin them. I get storing with salt but wont salt dry them? Brand new to this by the way.
My Dad and I just got a whitetail buck three other day and I decided I wanted to start tanning so I got the hide from the butcher. In exact order I 1. Fleshed a lot 2. Soaked the fur 3. Fleshed some more and then salted the fur and didnt realize the salt was not supposed to be wet and went ahead and folded and rolled the fur to put in a Tupperware. My question is, do you think that can cause mold? And how can you tell that a hide is getting rotten? I hope I havent ruined this pelt because I would love to tan it. Its the first buck my dad harvested with me and I want to preserve it. Thank you.
Mold isn't really the issue, bacteria are and they can certainly break down hides. You want the hides to stay moist, but not be sitting in a pool of their own juices. If they are I would drain off the excess moisture and result them with dry salt, but don't dry them out completely. Watch my video on wet salting hides. It can be hard to tell of a hide is breaking dow until you actually go to scrape it. For more detailed skills and tanning mentoring you can make an appointment with me on sage.fm. sage.fm/woniya-buckskinrevolution
I use borax to keep moths and hide beetles out of my furs, but only on dried hides and not for preserving. It would take a lot of borax, which would be a lot pricier than salt. Additionally, borax is basic while we are after a slightly acidic pH in brain tanning, so I don't know if it would be easy to wash out and neutralize at the concentration that would be necessary for preservation of wet hides.
Holy cow. I think I love you. Kick ass video. Much respect with prayer for peace and blessings to you and your family.
thanks so much!
It is so awesome to watch and work on your so passionate about. Thank you for sharing this with us and sharing your knowledge and passion keep up the awesome content. The only place I found this information was in old books.
Just saw the end of season six. You were so close! One thing I noticed was your very positive attitude throughout the whole experience.
Me too!
Great, clear instruction. You're the best!
Super cool video.. I want to give this a try!!
BTW just finished watching your season of Alone and let me just say YOU are an incredible Woods Woman!!! Wow that was incredible!! Your a ROCKSTAR!!
simple, easy, instructive and to the point; many thanks
I’ve never had that many hides to deal with at one time. The moisture after 24 hours was unreal. I know this filmstrip has some age, just saw you on youtubz a couple days ago. I don’t have a tv so I’ve never seen the program you did. Looks like good fun. Bow season is a week or so out now here. Happy hunting.
thanks for this. detailed enough for my level. ill stay tuned as I increase in knowledge and experience
Thank u for sharing the lesson
What do you do with the salty funk that drains off the hides? It's got to be some kind of toxic. Mite make a good bait .
I have a dry cow hide that I didn't get to flesh yet...is all lost?😢
I have a old coyote cape pelt that i found ina box a while ago it when i got it it was wet fromz being frozen, n now it looks real dark n rawhide look almost so idk if its salvagable i would love to send u a pic n show u n get your opinion on it
So once you put them in the plastic bag, all rolled up, then how do you store that bag, and for how long will they stay good that way?
I store them in plastic totes like the one you see in the video. It is best to use them within a year or two, it I have stored them for as long as 6 without issues, and occasionally had issues working less than a year or two if salt loving bacteria are present
What do you do when you get “deer funk” on buckskin? I can help but notice the moisture on your knees by the end of this.
good observation! and yes, quite true. it was also raining as i was finishing the filming, so some of that was water as well.
The beauty of buckskin as opposed to other leathers is that you can wash it. I do it by hand in a 6 gallon bucket of warm (not hot!) water. i go i to specifics about care of buckskin in my book, available on my website chapter by chapter. Chapter 25 is "care of buckskin"
In your first method , after fleshing how do you dry your skin ? Do you stretch out to dry ? .
I like to tack them to a piece of ply wood with nails. I have also staked them to the ground with wooden stakes, but that makes much bigger holes. Either way, you want to have them dry taut and flat
Thank you for doing a wet salt video. Got a question for you. I salted three hides last December. Just as you did I salted, but I let mine open on pallets angled against a wall to drain. 24hrs later I re-salted and rolled them and put in Tupperware. The first one i did in April was fine but when i got to the other two maybe July, they had mold growth on them. Any reason why that would have happened? Thought it might been bc they were in basement and not a dry location but you're even putting them in plastic bag. Thanks
There could be a variety of factors- what kind of mold was it? Black and speckled like you'd see on other things, or was it more of a strawberry pink color? Black or white coloration is probably mold and may indeed be from keeping them in a damp location already inoculated with mold. Tupperwares are just as damp, but can be cleaned well so at least they aren't harboring mold already. Harder to do this in basements. ;) Pink colored growth is usually a salt loving bacteria. It is funky looking, but doesn't usually do much damage unless hides are left for a lot longer than a season or two. There are other types of salt loving bacteria that can cause damage within 2-3 years. These usually cause little holes part or all the way through the hides. we call this bacterial pitting and it can turn hides into swiss cheese left unchecked, but the parts without holes usually remain strong. he only thing to do about these is to scour your containers, be sure to use fresh salt, and not store your hides for more than a year.
I rarely see mold growth on the skins if they are folded up with the flesh sides totally covered as you see here. If left with the flesh side exposed to drain, maybe the mold could have gotten its start there? The good news is that mold doesn't usually really degrade the hides. Mold usually lives off of carbohydrate not protein, so it will usually just be on the surface. You can still scrape them without issue, though if they are moldy for long enough they may have some permanent discoloration. This can usually be covered by dyeing with black walnut after smoking.
@@BuckskinRevolution
I never thought about it starting from being open to drain in first 24 hrs. I'll have to follow your method and see. And I plan to keep them up in attic instead of basement. For the bacteria...so I saw greenish colored, black speckled areas and on one there was a black spot that when wiped created a divot as you described with pitted bacteria. The other mold did come off when hide was processed. The other hide I clean up and let dry. Was afraid of the mold. So I hope to do a hair on
@@BuckskinRevolution
Woniya. So I got three hides and followed your process this time..so fingers crossed I don't get any molding round may/June. But I have a question regarding ticks. Goodness were two out of the three hides polluted with ticks. At first I was going to filter through the hair and remove them all but I'd be there all day and I gave that idea up. I went on with fleshing after spraying myself with tick spray. There were live one still there. So, what do you do about the ticks when you get a fresh hide and you proceed with fleshing so you can wet salt to store? The other thought was just freeze them. But I don't have the freezer space. I have honestly never examined hides before the way i did today prior to fleshing. Maybe they've all been polluted with ticks and I just didn't pay attention.
@@shawn2045 the whitetail buck that my dad and I harvested was pretty infested with ticks. One of his friends harvested a doe and when she took it to the butcher, he said this was the worst year he has ever seen with ticks. And I'm dealing with that on my hide right now. I have been cutting every single tick I find but they are all in the fur and I dont know how to kill them easily but If I find out I will edit this comment and let you know!
@@scream4meplz1994 so after following woniya's advice on this video I did see a huge reduction in molding. If anything the hides had this speckled look and it wiped off when I wiped the salt. As for ticks...I talked to woniya through the website and she mentioned using lime for the bucking and it'll kill the ticks. Still gotta deal with them during the fleshing. Idk. I dont want to do it but been thinking of throwing the hide in a bag after spraying some seven on or something. Idk. Never got a tick on me yet so may just keep being careful when fleshing
Hides I have done and received that are salted have the hair slip after least six months to a year when rehydrated. Do you see this in your hides? And I have not found the grain hard to wet scrape on salted hides except the neck. I follow Steve Edholms' method on SkillCult.
Paleo Trekker Quite true, hair slippage is common for wet salted hides, which is why i recommend those technique for deer skins but not for furs.
And it is drying hides with the hair on that makes them harder to scrape- not wet salting them. The whole
point of wet salting is that they don't dry out and this become harder to scrape.
@@BuckskinRevolution Yeah, learned that the hard way. I have three sheep skins that I salted. I have only rehydrated one, the wool came off as soon as it touched water. At least I will have some very fine buckskin!
As far as drying hides though, I dry scrape so it isn't hard for me to take off the grain.
@@paleotrekker402 my whole thing is I am trying to tan a deer pelt. I keep seeing salt to dry and then scrape what is left and then tan.
Now I am going to use NuTan so thats what the instructions say. But I'm not understanding why you dont dry them? I feel that would ruin them. I get storing with salt but wont salt dry them?
Brand new to this by the way.
Can I use iodised salt?
not ideal but yes, you can
Thankyou ma'am!
My Dad and I just got a whitetail buck three other day and I decided I wanted to start tanning so I got the hide from the butcher.
In exact order I 1. Fleshed a lot 2. Soaked the fur 3. Fleshed some more and then salted the fur and didnt realize the salt was not supposed to be wet and went ahead and folded and rolled the fur to put in a Tupperware.
My question is, do you think that can cause mold? And how can you tell that a hide is getting rotten? I hope I havent ruined this pelt because I would love to tan it. Its the first buck my dad harvested with me and I want to preserve it.
Thank you.
Mold isn't really the issue, bacteria are and they can certainly break down hides. You want the hides to stay moist, but not be sitting in a pool of their own juices. If they are I would drain off the excess moisture and result them with dry salt, but don't dry them out completely. Watch my video on wet salting hides. It can be hard to tell of a hide is breaking dow until you actually go to scrape it. For more detailed skills and tanning mentoring you can make an appointment with me on sage.fm. sage.fm/woniya-buckskinrevolution
what about borax ?
I use borax to keep moths and hide beetles out of my furs, but only on dried hides and not for preserving. It would take a lot of borax, which would be a lot pricier than salt. Additionally, borax is basic while we are after a slightly acidic pH in brain tanning, so I don't know if it would be easy to wash out and neutralize at the concentration that would be necessary for preservation of wet hides.
cool
Making one video a goat hides