Didnt go well. Damn the youtube video. Tell me where I went wrong. I had the hyde frozen from last season. I thawed it completely, fleshed it very well. Used a powerwasher as I have heard some do. Soaked it in a noniodinized salt bath overnight, hung it to dry. The next afternoon when I was going to rub in the tanning solution, i noticed that the fur just pulls right out. You can take a pinch full of hair and pull it out with zero resistance at all.

Is this cape saveable? Where did I go wrong?

Thanks


and again, damn the you tube video.............

Thanks

Chris

I did the non iodized salt on a squirrel pelt. I put it on dry, not in a bath, and let it sit for a week. Shook of excess, and repeated. That squirrel is still good fur wise 10 years later. I'm not sure if its the involvement of water with the salt, or the different kind of fur. Good luck, Ill be following along this thread because I want to tan a coyote myself.

Powerwasher???
Salt it , loose salt not a salt bath. Only takes a few day to set the hair, then tan it.
Sounds like too much water was used in the process or it was not frozen soon enough to stop the hair slip.
Doesn't take long for hair to slip if the hide is not handled correctly when green.
Get some medium to fine solar salt or livestock salt, no rock salt. Salt it down, let it sit a day or two., Remove the old salt and salt again, let it sit another day or so and maybe do the process again. Then shake the salt off and hang to dry the hair side. Then you're ready to tan.
We do our own fleshing and drying for hides we send off, never had one slip or come back in bad shape. Even our bison hides only take a few days to get salted and dried. Getting all the meat off during fleshing is important, some thin fat is ok but the meat needs to be off.
Did you use enough tanning solution?

A local taxi might be willing to talk with you about what went wrong for you.

PM sent

From the information you've given there's a few issues that could have caused your skin to slip, (hair falling out).
First and foremost salt is not a tanning agent, regardless of the stories we've all heard about dried out skins nailed to the barn wall fifty years ago,
Salting is the first step in the tanning process, bacteria develops in salt water fast, especially in warm weather, without going into a bunch of boring explanations or techniques, the very best advice I can give to the home tanner is to purchase one of the tanning kits from van-dykes- mckenzie taxidermy supply, for around 40 bucks you can get yourself a good kit to tan your skins at home.
Or have your taxidermist send it off to a professional tannery
DC

Is it best or easiest to flesh the hide when freshly skinned, or after being frozen? Or does it matter one way vs the other?

Thanks

I believe it's easier to flesh when fresh, once stuff dries out it can be hard to remove. However if frozen right away flesh it as soon as it thaws out.
And yes, salt only dries out the hide and sets the hair before the tan.
The tanning kits would be the way to go, I agree.
Easiest to take care when skinning and leave as little meat and fat on the hide as possible, the fleshing is much easier.

Have tanned a few squirrel/rabit/coon/deer hides and helped a buddy with a beaver hide. Hair stuck in all of them good.

All but the beaver were done using a kit from cabelas, follow instructions and it works.

The beaver was prepped similar to the others salted and scraped but soaked in an alum (SP) solution to tan/preserve. I don't know if its proper, but it worked well.

As said by others the handling of the green hide is important. I tell my clients to treat any hide that is to be tanned as if it were meat to be eaten. You wouldn't leave your deer meat in the back of the pickup for the ride home.

Let's assume that your frozen hide was taken care of properly before you froze it. You powerwashed it during the heat of the summer (heat and water) and then soaked it in a salt bath overnight (more heat and water) I would expect all the hair to slip on that hide.

The way I would have done this cape is as soon as it was thawed out start hand fleshing to remove all meat from hide. After fleshing put noniodinized salt onto the entire flesh side covering all raw areas and then rub it in all over. Fold the hide into half flesh to flesh and place the hide on a slightly sloped area to allow fluids to drain off. The next day open hide and shake/remove all loose salt. Repeat the salting by rubbing new salt all over. Leave hide open and next day I hang over a pipe to dry. Depending on humidity it may take a few days to week to dry. This will set the hair,

At this point you can deliver to a tannery or proceed to DIY home tan