Scraping a deer hide.
As you know my deer hide has been soaking in
A lye solution for about five days, More than,
Enough To get the hair to slip.
I gathered my tools together.
This consisted mainly of my,
‘Bou Bone Scraper and
a razor sharp Mora.
This type of scraper is new to me.
It was made especially for my,
deer-skin project.
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An adequate scraper and,
what I normally use is a dull draw-knife.
Here is a pic of mine in and out of,
the sheath I made for it.
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The Mora is an excellent inexpensive carbon steel knife.
Razor sharp when I got it and easy to maintain that way.
In fact this knife is the one that field dressed,
skinned and quartered my deer.
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Here is the lye soaked hide slopped on a scraping pole.
My pole is actually a two by four. The best pole
is a slim tree trunk. Its rounded surface allows,
you to scrape a much wider area.
When you approach the edge of
a board you can scrape The sides,
but risk gouging the hide if you at all,
scrape on the edge/corner. In fact this is so,
easily done I strongly advise using a pole.
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Here is the hide with one length scraped.
The bone scraper worked admirably.
Listen when you scrape. There is a pleasing,
scraping,tearing sound when the scraper is working well.
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Tearing may be the wrong word to,
use as it is The last thing you want to do.
The sound is only reminiscent of the act.
Can you see that the hide is flopped over,
the top edge of the board ? You trap a,good,
portion of the hide between board and support.
This squeezes/traps the hide and,
stops it from sliding down the pole.
A wet hide is an incredibly sloppily slippery customer.
Would muciloid be the proper term ?
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When skinning the deer you will notice,
some edges especailly the belly retain.
bits of fat, meat and membrane. This is,
a natural occurrence. You may be tempted,
to cut that portion of the hide off. Leave it on.
It won’t hurt the hide nor rot during the soaking.
The edges are the hardest to scrape.
They stretch under the scraper instead of allowing,
the scraper to ride over them. This is true whether,
the edge is cleaned or scrungy.
Leaving the scrungy edge on means the edge you
Have trouble scraping can be trimmed away later,
without losing anything but the scrunge..
Here are some of the scrungy edges I mentioned.
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O :K : All the hair has been scraped away.
Time to flip the hide and scrape the flesh side.
It is hard to see here. These pics are of the,
Membrane you have to scrape away.
P:S:
In the second pic you can see the arrow entrance and exit holes.
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Here is a pic with the membrane partially scraped away.
As you can see it is a curious thin skin-like structure,
with what appears to be a fleshy meaty color. I am,
sure this could be a nutrtious food in times of need.
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The hide is rough scraped now.
A good thing as after two solid hours,
my triceps were starting to wimp out.
The hide will get rinsed off and dumped,
in a pail with a few good squirts of sunlight dish soap.
This will help degrease the hide and aid in getting,
rid of unpleasant odors. A fresh hide,
can give off a tremendous stink.
Kevin
P :S : More to come when I draw the pattern,
For the quiver I have decided to make from the hide.
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Originally Posted by BONES
