Tag Archives: egg tanning

Fox, deer, happy new year

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Fox find.

I took some time in the bitter, bitter cold yesterday to get a better look at the fox. I’m glad to have him, but it hurts my heart to see the state he’s in and the evidence of being run over by a motorist. I want to take care of him now. It wouldn’t have been right to leave him out there to get more squished and mangled.

I question the state of his skull – it may be smashed. Some of his vertebrae might end up being alright. His front legs and hind feet are okay (hind legs are broken).

And of course, his pelt. I think I’ll be able to salvage a good bit of it. Most of the back and shoulders, some front leg, maybe the face, and the tail. I think the belly portion is a loss. The birds got to him before I could.

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Last day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar

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By my reckoning, the new year began at dawn on 12/22. But, I suppose it’s NYE today.

I wasn’t slash am not satisfied with the custom deer hide for the young hunter. I just couldn’t get the stiffness out of it no matter what I did. So, I took a closer look at my neatsfoot oil – the oil I used in my soap solution to dress it for tanning – and here’s the thing:

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Sunday skin smoking

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My version of church.

5:30 pm, 32* Fahrenheit.

The deer skin before smoking: looking good! No further hair loss, fairly supple, decent drape. I scraped it a bit on my beam with my mezzaluna, to remove the dry alum and soften it a bit more.

Then it was time to smoke it.

No pictures after this point in the process because guess what? My phone died.

I also smoked the egg yolk-dressed sheepskin, and re-smoked a small shearling just for the hell of it (and to add more color).

I used the last of my punk maple, which I forgot to take pictures of.

The smoking took about two hours.

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Smoking skins; not getting everything right

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My hair still smells of woodsmoke, even after showering. The sheepskins in my home smell darkly smoky, cleaner somehow than they were.

Hide smoking tent
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Short update

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The deer hide got a bit of a scrape and stretch today. Then I decided to wash it in a bucket of cold water, since it was a balmy 40*.

After drip drying all afternoon, it’s now in my bathroom, because I guess I just don’t learn.

Post scrape, pre wash

I also opened up the egg dressed sheepskin.

Nice color, but it didn’t seem as soft and full in the skin as when I use soap and oil. I did a little scraping but it wasn’t quite ready, I don’t think.

Very… eggy.

I folded that bad boy back up for tomorrow.

Let’s try “egg tanning”

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1:30pm, 32*F.

My soap tanning dressing did get a bit stiff on the hides last night – it went down to 10. The deerskin looked fine and I’ll leave it another night before I scrape again and start breaking.

The sheepskin, which was dressed after the solution had cooled considerably, was a bit stiffer and some of the dressing looked frozen.

It was just barely stuck together when I unfolded it, but since it shouldn’t be stuck at all I decided to scrape and redress it.

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