Quest for Deer Leather: Day 4

Things are smelling better around the “Kelley Tannery.” And that’s a good thing too!

After the ghastly events of Day 2, I thoroughly soaked the hide in a solution of water and hydrated lime to make hair removal easier. Early this morning I removed the hair from the hide.  Rinsing the hide in a natural, moving water source is easier, so I opted rinse it all day long in the overflow pool below my grandmother’s fishing pond (see pic). Rinsing the hide gets the lime out of the hide and returns the PH of the hide back somewhere near neutral.

This evening, I retrieved the hide from the overflow pool and began scraping off the membrane on the flesh-side of the hide. The next step will be the actual tanning of the hide. For that I have some chestnut bark extract that I will be using to make the tanning solution.

So far, so good…  I think.