Deer Hair .. skin / hide .. buy or DIYS

[gordon in nc]

How do all ...

Have a buddy that is an avid deer hunter .. BIG TIME .. and other critters too.

If he bags (of which I have no doubt he will) a deer this year .. is it worth the time and trouble to do what ever you have to do ( read.. no clue ) to the hide to have a life time supply of deer hair ... or should I wimp out and just buy as needed?

If it's a do it yourself project .. how do ya do that ?

OR .. just ask for the tail thingy

Gordon in NC

 

[madjoni]

How do all ...

Have a buddy that is an avid deer hunter .. BIG TIME .. and other critters too.

If he bags (of which I have no doubt he will) a deer this year .. is it worth the time and trouble to do what ever you have to do ( read.. no clue ) to the hide to have a life time supply of deer hair ... or should I wimp out and just buy as needed?

If it's a do it yourself project .. how do ya do that ?

OR .. just ask for the tail thingy

Gordon in NC

hi Gordon
It is not too good to have realy much of any fly tying material.Deer hair,and other natural stuff,and when it stay lot of time it gets stiff and no good...
So since you have friend that hunts it is better to ask him for piece of deer skin every year...

 

[wjc]

A taxidermist buddy of mine who was moving his shop once offered me a bunch of bucktails and some other stuff. There must have been a hundred filthy stinky bucktails in that box, so I threw them all in the washer with some soap.

I wound up with deer hair stew so thick the water wouldn't drain out.

So, whatever you decide, don't for the "quick" cleaning method.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[Ard]

Gordon,

I would opt for a couple nice patches of body hair (say about 4"X4") and a couple from the back of the neck where it is longer (think muddler here) patches this size will be easy to cure and store. If he gets one every year you can do the same next season if you need more.

The tail is a no brainer

Ard

 

[Jimmie]

My vote would be to buy. Last year my buddy got an Elk. I asked for some hair/hide. When I saw what I faced, and having no experience I had to pass. It looked like a lot of scraping, tacking, salting, drying to possibly wind up with a crusty brittle hair piece of Elk. Could be wrong though.

 

[Ard]

I am pretty much agreeing with Jimmie on this after giving it some thought. Unless you are going to use a huge amount of deer hair I would buy it pre treated. I have cured my own rooster capes years ago and scavenged a few road kills for 'Urine stained fur from a vixen fox' (need this for a real Light Cahill) and I collected a weasel once that had been hit by a car (pretty rare) other than these examples I have always purchased furs in patches for fly tying.

I used to have pointers and had access to lots of pheasant and grouse every year. I always plucked the feathers I wanted and bagged them because I already knew what was involved in curing the whole skins. Now I buy skins that are cured.

 

[darwin]

so I threw them all in the washer with some soap.

I wound up with deer hair stew so thick the water wouldn't drain out.

Only a guy would do this... hope you didn't get into to much trouble

 

[Frank Whiton]

Hi Gordon,

I think the best deer hair comes from Northern Deer. The belly hair is the best for spinning. The body hair in natural brown is good for everything else that you might use deer hair for. The belly hair is usually white and can be dyed to any color.

I would get a square foot of each. You need to scrape all of the fat and meat off of the hide. Then stretch and nail to a flat board. Let it dry and then remove from the board. It will be stiff but usable. You can now cut into smaller patches. For long term storage keep in an air tight container. A wide mouth Mason jar is the best I have found. Put some deer hair in the bottle with the skin up. Light a small piece of paper and place it in the jar. Immediately put on the lid and the burning paper will go out. This removes any oxygen and prevents deterioration.

Or, after the pieces of hide are dried you can tan them. Tanning takes some knowledge and not something to do in your kitchen.

Frank