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Post by paulette on Jan 13, 2012 10:57:41 GMT -5
Hi.. well he's gotten shipped off to the Grand Hotel where they performed a heart cath yesterday afternoon.. it doesn't look good. Not what we'd hoped to learn, so now it's time for medication for a month to see how, if, it works and go from there.
Glad to hear that you're getting some tanned! I'm hoping to soon.. Managed to get a shears so I'm cheating to get skins in the freezer with less space used up.. will get em tanned.. I hope to live a ripe old age like the gal in PA's recent video. it was extremely touching to watch her.. I will watch her again later!
Snow camping! Never done that... never done much camping at all. would like to in a tipi sometime.(again). long as I could hug the fire all night.. why not?? that's my idea of tenting! or camping.. FRI 13th. and snowing on top of the several inches.. it is going to be a messy trip to the city this morning..hope hubby gets out and rejoins us today!
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Post by wilddreamer on Jan 18, 2012 8:08:34 GMT -5
Well, it's been 10 days that I've had the 2 hair on hides in the alum solution stirring several days and it didn't work. one of the hides has a huge bald spot with the hair just pushing off with my stirring stick. I'm so disappointed. I followed your instructions and well, it didn't work at least on one of the hides. looks like I'll have to scrape the grain on that one. I wonder how the salt will affect it. Too bad.
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Post by wilddreamer on Jan 18, 2012 8:11:46 GMT -5
Hi.. well he's gotten shipped off to the Grand Hotel where they performed a heart cath yesterday afternoon.. it doesn't look good. Not what we'd hoped to learn, so now it's time for medication for a month to see how, if, it works and go from there. Glad to hear that you're getting some tanned! I'm hoping to soon.. Managed to get a shears so I'm cheating to get skins in the freezer with less space used up.. will get em tanned.. I hope to live a ripe old age like the gal in PA's recent video. it was extremely touching to watch her.. I will watch her again later! Snow camping! Never done that... never done much camping at all. would like to in a tipi sometime.(again). long as I could hug the fire all night.. why not?? that's my idea of tenting! or camping.. FRI 13th. and snowing on top of the several inches.. it is going to be a messy trip to the city this morning..hope hubby gets out and rejoins us today! I'm very sorry I didn't check this sooner. I'm really sorry about your DH! I hope he's getting better tho. Please update me I'll be sure to check this later. Snow camping is really kind of fun! Just the idea of camping in the snow is a Hoot! Takes a lot of energy out of you but it's so cool to be out there like that. We haven't had enough snow to do any but I'm hoping for some here soon!
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Post by paulette on Jan 18, 2012 10:26:45 GMT -5
I think that skin's done for. I've never had a skin slip hair in an alum pickle. Any of them. was that skin frozen at some point? I will tell you that it's been my experience.. mostly from thawing them that have been wrapped tight and frozen that the hair acts like a VERY good insulator.. so.. that skin could take SO long to freeze wrapped up tight that it had some bacterial action eating heartily away at it.. and this is why hair slips.. not from soaking them loosely in an alum solution.. If you've ever stuck your hand in an alum solution you would know just what a strong astringent it is.. works to tighten immediately and it only progresses tighter and tighter from there. My guessimate is that this caused you some trouble.. either that or the skin was allowed to stay warm for too long and was slipping before you put it in the solution. Salt may have helped but not if you were to put it into the freezer! and they do need to be totally rehydrated soft in a salt brine if you salted them and allowed them to dry.. .. so whatever you did before putting it into the solution is where your problem lies. I'm very sorry that you experienced this but you should be able to learn from your mistake.. I've learned from many.
My husband needs to wait to hear about his liver biopsy before he will be released. Scary waiting. Your thoughts and prayers for our family are greatly appreciated at this time. thank you.
I'm very sorry about the misfortune with your deer skin. I know they are a great deal of work to process. I'm afraid that graining it at this stage will be totally difficult, if not impossible to grain cleanly. Sorry.
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Post by wilddreamer on Jan 19, 2012 8:24:26 GMT -5
Hi Paulette, Sorry you're having to wait that's the hardest part of all! I'll keep praying tho!! I did freeze the skin, they are all frozen at this point. It was probably still a little frozen when I put it in the solution too. The other one appears to be fine tho. I'll find out later. I do have 2 that were salted before being fleshed that are frozen also. I have not fleshed them as I didn't know what to do with them when I got them. I got them from the Amish and they're huge and beautiful but were salted already. I'm afraid all the hides I have now (7) are frozen. I guess trying to do hair on with any of these is useless. Too bad. Learning is what it's all about tho. At least I'll have some nice buckskins. lol I may just rinse this one real good and make rawhide out of it for the dogs. lol Thanks again! about rehydrating them in a salt brine before putting them in the pickle, will this help? After thawing?
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Post by paulette on Jan 19, 2012 10:08:29 GMT -5
Hi Paulette, Sorry you're having to wait that's the hardest part of all! I'll keep praying tho!! I did freeze the skin, they are all frozen at this point. It was probably still a little frozen when I put it in the solution too. The other one appears to be fine tho. I'll find out later. I do have 2 that were salted before being fleshed that are frozen also. I have not fleshed them as I didn't know what to do with them when I got them. I got them from the Amish and they're huge and beautiful but were salted already. I'm afraid all the hides I have now (7) are frozen. I guess trying to do hair on with any of these is useless. Too bad. Learning is what it's all about tho. At least I'll have some nice buckskins. lol I may just rinse this one real good and make rawhide out of it for the dogs. lol Thanks again! about rehydrating them in a salt brine before putting them in the pickle, will this help? After thawing? I really wouldn't suggest tanning a super long super thick deerskin at home at all for starters! The problem with the long thick hair like that is that it's hollow AND very porous, okay? so while you're attempting to soften it.. all those hairs might be undergoing some scouring treatment to clean it up after like say an alum soak... so those soaps/detergents, etc. are further increasing the likelihood of the hollow hairs breaking off.. ..so there's ONE issue.. the other that I was trying to get across to you is the care that one must give prior to tanning a large heavy skin like that.. if it's salted, for instance it needs to be drains of the fluids that are coming out of it. Freezing a salted wet hide that has long hair? think about it? we use salt to melt ice.. so it's best to freeze a skin that's never seen salt.. and then that long hair regardless of salt or not has very insulative properties.. it might go south or sour..in places simply because it takes SO long to really freeze a skin that is wrapped tight.. it also takes a VERY long time to thaw one that has been wrapped very tightly so that is just NOT good.. it could be a lose lose situation. People have been very disappointed because their bear's faces have lost their hair and blame the tanneries that take them in to tan them simply because of this very reason. It's logical but can be extremely aggravating to those that really don't quite 'get it'! and then how long was it possibly lying around before being salted and even drained properly? I've seen a LOT of deerskins that folks have left in my barrel that have been PAST their time of 'freshness' Look good but have an odor and the hair will pull.. so.. there are just so many variables it's really hard to say what the causes were but really if you had a skin that was close to 'slipping it's hair' alum and salt pickles.. COULD be your friend if anything! sorry if it's hard to understand or seemingly contradictory but yeah all those hair ons it would be difficult and really they are a job on a full size skin without being thinned. I think it's easy to 'bite off more than one can chew', excuse the pun! Don't mean to make jokes! I'm totally sincere! Hubby is coming home this afternoon! His heart has troubles and his liver isn't in the greatest shape but the worst.. "C" word is not an issue..so yep, prayers helped! have a great day you want to be or already are tanners!
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Post by wilddreamer on Jan 19, 2012 19:49:27 GMT -5
Okay....wow! Great explanation Paulette! I'm going to try to grain that hide and see what happens, I may not be able to get the grain off and if not then the dogs get it. No biggie. Live and learn. when I got these hides, all of them, I didn't have the first clue on what to do with them but have since gotten 2 buckskins nicely done. these others that are frozen will probably end up being buckskins too I hope. I am just learning and well, next year will be a different story. I didn't even have a fleshing beam or knife yet when I got these this year. I've got everything i need now and will do a much better job of things next year. I was hoping for some good hides but may not end up with much. lol It's okay tho. No sweat! I'm so so glad the "C" isn't an issue and prayer is very powerful and I believe that God wants none of us to suffer.
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Post by paulette on Jan 20, 2012 7:51:25 GMT -5
Well sometimes the lessons come at a fairly costly expense! Folks around here really like the hair on things..It's like they've never heard of buckskin! It's really a very nice commodity. And a renewable one too. It is nice in all different forms too. So kind of nice not to limit yourself in any one form. I think that you could actually finish the skin that's missing a patch and well cut it up and make something with it. YOU COULD.. even dye the hair.. using some kind of mordant to set the color even! Dye it solid black and make it look like bear hair, LOL. make a pillow just for looks or something. I wish I were MORE creative but my imagination is limited! Just a thought though! I used Rit dye on these skins just messing around.. they all got a lot lighter as they were worked softened.. but this is probably just ONE out of a ton of different things one Could do with leather. Fun and fascinating textile.. no doubt! oh btw.. Hubby is home and already making trouble!!.. he accidentally unplugged my coffeemaker last night unbeknownst to me.. so I made a pot as usual .. RRRR! it's -2 and or has been lower than that during the wee hours and I wake up to a cold mug of coffee. What the heck? Wish I had a SMART coffeemaker!Or one with a larger LIGHT on it! Should move it's location or install more plugs, something! I never seem to get any tanning or wool spinning or knitting done. Nothing that I like to do! Maybe I'll clean our cluttered basement and hug that wood stove with the SECOND pot and mug of coffee. Rearrange my hide and fur collection! make room for more! when and if I do get around to collecting some more.. time to make something! Baby moccasins? maybe grownup moccasins!
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Post by wilddreamer on Jan 20, 2012 22:29:24 GMT -5
Nice colorful skins you've got there Paulette! Good job for sure! I was stirring the "batch" tonight as I have been too disappointed to mess with it all day. lol more and more hair came off and well, tomorrow I'm taking it out of the solution and try to rinse it good. I may take it down to the river and tie it off and throw it in. will be a good hike and good time for the dog Thor to get out. I will try to scrape the grain off of it. the other one seems to still be holding its hair so keeping my fingers crossed on that one! Good to hear about the honery DH lol you know they're feeling better when they're up to something. hehe Hope he's feeling better soon. Yeah get that smart coffee pot! I wake up to mine done and ready to be fed intraveniously!!!!!!! LOL
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