deer rawhide.

[bigcountry]

Talked to a friend who is giving me tons of tips.  I feel so lucky to have a resource like him to call.  His name is David Barnnet in WA state.  He told me for deer rawhide, for backing, all I have to do is take my deer hide in the fall after a kill and put it in a trashcan or container with water and borax.  He said in a few days the hair will fall right off. 
Anyone else do this?

[leapingbare]

Ok this is sorta in my expertise being a braintanner and all.
 If you soak the hide long enough for the hair to slip than some rotting has set in and my weaken the hide. After you soak the hide long enough to gt the hair to slip some of it will not slip and you will still have left over epidermis and grain within the hide, these will make the hide unpleasant to touch and talk away from the look of the hide.
 The two most common was of making rawhide are ( A ) Dry scrap and Wet scrape.
 
 Dry Scrape all you do it flesh the hide removing all th meat and membrane from the hide than you string the hide up in a rack, let it dry for a day in the sun than with a sharp metal tool scrape off the hair and cut it outa the rack.
 
 Wet scrape you flesh the hide than soak it in a bucket with woodashes for 2 days than rake off th hair and epidermis in the same manner as in fleashing the hide.

 Both ways work well and i guess it is personal preference to witch method works for you. I myself dryscrape my deer hides i feel it produces a softer hide.

[leapingbare]

hmm why is there a little cop face in my post........

[david w.]

 

how did you do it?  i think that is how hillbilly gets all those cool smilies

[leapingbare]

i think i typd  A and a )  like this A)

[JackCrafty]

Nope, never tried soaking in borax.

Most home tanners use potassium hydroxide (the active ingredient in lye) to get the hair to loosen.  And the hair will not "fall off".  It will need to be scraped off (while the hide is wet - hence the term "wet scrape").  If you dry scape, you don't need to soak the hide in the potassium hydroxide solution.

Just make sure you check the hide daily to make sure it's not getting too smelly.  If it is, take it out and scrape it right away...then hang it up to dry.

I'm sure others with more experience will chime in on this.

[El Destructo]

For just Rawhide....I cheat...... I scrape all of the Flesh and ligament off.....then I soak the Hides for about three days....maybe four....in a Solution of Water and Chelated Lime......then I take them out on the Driveway..and hit them with mt 6hp Honda Powerwasher at 3500psi..and the Hair flies off...and usually ends up in the Neighbors Yard!!! No really....it cleans the Hair off better than Scraping does...and it also removes the epidermis too...I know Jesse..this ain't too Primitive.....but then neither are half of the Things People do to build their Bows!!!!! My Bad!!!!

[leapingbare]

i said use wood ash because is has lye in it and wood ash is free and easy to get for the mostpart.

Hey El Destructo what ever works man. my draw knife, my steel dryscrapping tool and the rope i string it up with is not primitive.

[Hillbilly]

I prefer to dry scrape, too. It's a lot less meesy and nasty, does a good job, plus you can stretch a hide and work on it a few minutes here and there as you have time. I've never heard of using borax for bucking, but most strong alkalis will work-store-bought lye,   hardwood ashes, lime, and such.

[bigcountry]

Thanks guys, can't wait to play around with it this fall.  Gotta get a deer on teh ground first