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Post by longtrail on Sept 14, 2008 15:32:10 GMT -5
I thought I posted this already, but can't seem to find it. Dave gave us his fresh elk hide so we will be doing our first four-five year old bull elk. Joe fleshed it today and it took about 35 minutes. Ah, yes, the joys of working with a fresh hide! The hide is soaking for tomorrow's dehairing. Joe fleshed it side to side to open the hide up for better soaking, so we will see if it makes a difference in the dehairing. The hide doesn't look very large laying on the ground like this, but its big. We will have to take two of our frames apart to make one big one. Will keep you updated daily. Unless we are unable to get to it one day or another due to dragging out elk or other distractions.
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Post by Buckskin Billy on Sept 14, 2008 16:17:40 GMT -5
can't wait to see it finished
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Post by joanne2 on Sept 14, 2008 17:36:53 GMT -5
You know I love fresh graining hides and I have just never gave much thought at all to how well the skins dehair depending on which direction they've been fleshed. just never made the correlation there, lol. will have to 'speriment for myself.. I usually grain at the same time that I dehair and that's fresh for the great majority of the time.
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Post by Cody ( The Patriot ) on Sept 15, 2008 9:20:14 GMT -5
Thats sure fast to flesh one that big Joe must have been glad to get to flesh a fresh one .
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Post by longtrail on Sept 15, 2008 9:47:01 GMT -5
Ya, much easier when they are fresh, but JOe also has been working out his upper body on a bowflex for over a year and is pretty buffed. He says that dehairing is much easier now. Sweet in a T.
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Post by Cody ( The Patriot ) on Sept 15, 2008 13:10:42 GMT -5
Dang I didnt know there was a better upper body workout than fleshing and dehairing
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Post by longtrail on Sept 15, 2008 21:25:45 GMT -5
Fresh elk hide update~ Long day. Ok, yesterday, Joe fleshed the hide, being sure to flesh it side to side in an effort to open the fibers, to soak better for the dehairing. Today he dehaired it in 1 hr. 26 minutes. He said the neck and back to the shoulders were hard as usual, but he rest 2/3s of the hide were easy to do, the epidermis and hair scraping off easily in strips. I made the comment to him that the epidermis didn't look puffy and swollen like it usually does on our deer, and he said if the hide had soaked another day, then perhaps it would have. I went out at one point to see how he was doing, and got growled at. That must have been the scraping the neck time period! haha. But he thinks that the fleshing side to side helped. He said that what he should have done yesterday, was when he was finished fleshing, he should have spent a few minutes to scrape the neck, hips and butt sideways to attempt to open it up better. Next time he plans on doing that. So he got the lacing holes cut today and tomorrow we/he will lace it on a frame and work it side to side, especially the neck, hips and down the back, to open those places up as much as possible before prebraining it. It only takes a few mintes to do that step, and the hide should be damp from dehairing, when it goes into a very warm brain solution. Will let you know how that step goes. The brain solution we will be using, is one we have done three other deer hides with and since this is a large elk, we will "sweeten" the solution with another pound of brains. and make sure the solution is very warm. dinners, ready, waiting for the boys to come home.
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Post by longtrail on Sept 17, 2008 23:21:30 GMT -5
so ar our fresh elk hide has been fleshed soaked overnight dehaired, lacing holes cut, put on frame to open fibers (usually it would be prebrained right after the fibers were opened, but it was late in the day) So next day, yesterday, it was pre-brained in a real warm solution and allowed to soak overnight. Today it was taken out of the solution and hung on a line sideways to dry. It will be in the dry state until we get two frames taken apart to make one big one. Will add more then. Normally a hide would come off the line, into cold water, soak overnight, prestretch, smoke, brain and soften.
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Post by brainsoft on Sept 20, 2008 7:20:57 GMT -5
Nice looking hide. I made a 10 x10 frame for my elk and it was a bit too long and wide but I do have a bigger elk too that it may be ok for. They really stretch out huge! 8x7 may have worked ok but I like to lean towards bigger so 9x8 would be good. This way it will work for a buff I have too. I plan to leave it up and by adding another board across it about 6 feet up I will have a nice big frame for spreading some bigger deer hides wide as I normally run out of room on or with my normal frames.
Good luck to you and can't wait to see how this one comes out. lol..not that I have any doubt.
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