Hair removal from dried deer hide

[gibster]

I have a piece of dried deer hide that I want to make a knife sheath from, but I don't want the hair on it.  How is the best way to remove it   This may have already been covered somewhere, but I couldn't find anything on it.  Any help would be appreciated.

[g.pennell]

IF it's a piece of raw hide (not tanned) you might be able to get the hair off by soaking it in water until its flexible, then a few days in a solution of slaked lime and water.  What has to happen is the upper layer of the epidermis containing the hair follicles has to decompose to the point that you can lay the skin across a board and "push" the hair and outermost layer of skin cells off the hide.  Most folks do this while the hide is green (before being dried).  NOT a process for indoors...

After you get your hide de-haired, rinse it out well in clear water, and either proceed with tanning or tack it on a frame to dry back into raw hide.

Greg

[gibster]

Thanks for the info Greg.  It is raw hide.  Where can I get slacked lime?  Can I use lime that they sell at Lowes for putting on your yard

[g.pennell]

I really don't know if it's the same stuff or not.  I used to get mine from a taxidermy supply house, they carried all kinds of tanning chemicals.  I still have a few deer hides I tanned back in the day...maybe I'll try making a bag or two from them.

I don't know if they're still in business, but Van Dyke's Taxidermy Supply was one of those places that had just about everything for home tanning.

Greg

[FG1]

Soaking in wood ash and water will make the hair slip also . If you burn wood you have an endless supply.

[Randy Hedden]

Most landscaping supply places sell slaked lime for use with plants.  Should be the same thing as what Lowes sells.

Randy Hedden

[gibster]

Thanks guys.  I still have a bucket of ashes from the fireplace that I haven't emptied yet, I will give it a try and let you know how it works.

[Seven]

Dehairing can be done without lye, lime or wood ash too.  It just takes longer and you NEED to change the water every day so that it doesn't get nasty.  You can also do it dry with a scraper but it's much harder. If you go with the dry method it can be done in a day, the wet method requires several days (depending on temp and all that) for the soaking.  You can take breaks when you dry scrape (leaving it for weeks if you want to), once you've started the wet scrape method you're pretty much committed to the process.  Although there are ways to stop the process of wet scrap (such as freezing the hide) if you have to.  -Chad

[gibster]

The wood ash worked like a champ.  I started soaking the piece of hide on Sunday afternoon and this afternoon, the hair pulled out with no problem.  Still tight in a few spots, but I guess that's normal.  After rinsing it with clean water,  I put the hide in a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer until I have a chance to do more with it.  Thanks for the advice.