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Post by paulette on Jan 5, 2012 19:31:55 GMT -5
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Post by paulette on Jan 5, 2012 19:52:12 GMT -5
Some of my past adventures with hair on deerskins.. lousy pics really! Cellphone pics most likely! Sorry.. but worth noting, possibly This one was the last one I did.. egg tanned.. this one was tough to tan.. very thin late summer roadkill skin.. note the "RED" camo shade. This one I tanned for a local hunter. Oil/smoke tanned too, this one was an excellent choice for 'hair on', it was taken during the early part of bow season.. you can almost see how short the hair is on it. This one was an exotic petting farm 'fallow deer' I got from the butcher I got some brains from before. There was a blonde one too with the white spots like that.. probably hard to notice with all the other pics in my library. I think this one was one of my first hair on deer hides, tawed with alum.. did a couple like that. Anyway just thought I'd share the pics rather than just hanging on to them! Hair on DEER! Some times in the case of longer haired deer, probably best to hang those on the wall or something!
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Post by paulette on Jan 6, 2012 8:35:43 GMT -5
Probably should have soaked this fall wt deerskin in the quebracho extract and 'forgot about it'! As it is tanned with Lutan F and just oiled.. and later softened it will not be a good candidate for any kind of a garment tan.. as Lutan will wash out.. sound familiar?? Well I could still smoke it afterwards.. Might make the very largely missing some hair! skin look 'primitive'.. like any garments made from it MIGHT appear.. kinda rough having to scavenge for your next meal, so I would assume that primitives didn't much care whether their skins HAD all their fur! Especially a SHORT fur! anyway just having fun messing around with the once NICE skin, lol... i think it's still kinda nice FWIW! Maybe I should smoke it really deeply and fashion a primitive looking shirt from it.. laced up crudely.. definitely novel! The just tanned skin feels really nice and plumped and stretchy.. My guessing, it is going to soften easy.. I did shave it down to not a LOT with the machine.. beat's running a sander or something DEFINATELY! It used to be frustrating as hell to labor over hides and skins that needed thinned a LOT.. a WHOLE lot.. nice if you're making hair on leather but really I just like the fur not a lot of heavy leather.. and even a thinner deerskin can give you a leather with some HANDLE to it, as it is from what I can tell the skin certainly does have some 'memory' that you just don't have a lot of by simply brain or oil tanning.. I think probably the shaving has the very most to do.. well I would guess that if skin is shaven and oiled it would be plenty stretchier.. been there done enough of it. and I probably didn't' do as much thinning as I should of could have with the earlier skins.
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Post by wilddreamer on Jan 8, 2012 19:01:35 GMT -5
These are really beautiful Paulette! Wow! Thanks for sharing them. I am interested in what you are talking about as far as the "shaving" goes, and also this quote....
"HOWEVER, I decided that since the entire hide wasn't slipped I'd go ahead and use some Lutan F on it.. probably some kind of alum tan..dunno.. anyway I've tanned it and will oil and soften it. It wasn't a super thick skin. but I decided to thin it too on the Dakota fleshing machine, as I'd never yet used it on a deer skin.. so hopefully softening it won't be TOO labor intensive. THE WHOLE IDEA!" Also what you wrote in the last post just above this. I know it's asking a lot but could you please explain what you mean....memory......shaving.....thinning..... thanks dear. You're a gem!
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Post by paulette on Jan 9, 2012 8:47:49 GMT -5
These are really beautiful Paulette! Wow! Thanks for sharing them. I am interested in what you are talking about as far as the "shaving" goes, and also this quote.... "HOWEVER, I decided that since the entire hide wasn't slipped I'd go ahead and use some Lutan F on it.. probably some kind of alum tan..dunno.. anyway I've tanned it and will oil and soften it. It wasn't a super thick skin. but I decided to thin it too on the Dakota fleshing machine, as I'd never yet used it on a deer skin.. so hopefully softening it won't be TOO labor intensive. THE WHOLE IDEA!" Also what you wrote in the last post just above this. I know it's asking a lot but could you please explain what you mean....memory......shaving.....thinning..... thanks dear. You're a gem! I found another hair on deerskin picture.. This one was very trying! Just a thin end of the summer roadkill(LEGAL,;-)!) whitetail skin. I saved it hair on cause I liked the bright red color. It wasn't a super thick skin to begin with.. just didn't want to soften right.. Think that with smoking and rebraining it would have broke..but I just left it rawhidey. somewhere down in the basement with my collection of saved skins I believe. That skin came out looking like this after 1 'egging'..used eggs rather than brains. Yours won't look like that, and if I'd used alum and salt taw, it wouldn't have either. Bad thing about the salt however is that is draws moisture and is not real good for the environment so.. might want to watch where you dump out the solution. Driveway, side of the roads where salt can be used?? dunno.. anyway bit off the subject almost. I bought a Dakota Pro from VanDykes taxidermy to help me thin skins.. this can all be done by dry scrape thinning with a wahinkte tool (if you're good at sharpening those) and also a bit skilled at using them.) You don't HAVE to do it with deer skins BUT rest assured, depending on the deer itself and also the method you're using to 'tan' it.. it can be a JOB! I really think ALUM tawing helps a LOT but all of these things, including the particular deer all have a bearing on your final outcome! A frame and a staking tool will help you immensely with this laboring. This was a different deer in the picture below and this skin in the pic needs MORE shaving(thinning), see all the white? It'll just soften to be leather with hair on it without being removed.. I mean you can leave the skins thick..just means more work, naturally and you are only softening on the hair side so bear it in mind when tanning hair on's. I've softened plenty of skins hair off on just the one side and yep.. they are a bit more labor intensive..but nice.. a couple of hair off skins softened on the one side like that. Well hopefully you'd get some kind of an idea of what kind of undertaking quite a few hair on's is like. The hairs for hair on's ? Is hollow and porous, so scouring them with some kind of detergent soaps maybe to remove the alum can be harsh.. so this is all a bit counter productive.. I use a bit shop van to get the super thick hair started drying.. takes a long while .. sun and wind helps but here in MI we can go days without both! so.. not a great thing.. especially brain tanning.. alum.. not so much worry but STILL.. anyway all something to keep in mind.. hard to soften and dry the flesh side if the hair side is saturated.. fans, and or being outside? sometimes good.. all something that one needs to really do firsthand to learn about I guess.. been there and done it anyway! I know I want to use the Dakota, and a frame and a shop vac and even then possibly enable someone else to do it!.. just kidding.. how satisfying to DIY! NOT! okay well sure it is.. trying to convince herself! Nice you like this stuff WD. thanks for the compliments.
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