what to do...

[hova]

so my ol' man and i meet up to swap xmas presents yesterday , and he has a whole deer skin in the back of his pickup. he asks if im still fly tying and i got all excited cause i thought maybe he had some macaw feathers for me or something , and he opens the box , and theres a deer mask staring blankly at me.

my first thought is rawhide and hide glue from the scraps , but i dont have anywhere i could stretch it or work on it right now , and its getting too warm to roll it up and shrink wrap it and stick it outside to freeze.

im not really looking to keep the hair on , maybe the tail , for soem flies , and some belly hair , but the rest would be just basically hide.

how much time and what kind of work is involved in getting a raw skin like this into shape to maybe make a quiver from it...i have seen a lot on tanning , but im not sure what is the easiest way. if i could stick it in a bucket with some chemicals , and keep a lid on it , thats a possibility , but i dont have anywhere to boil or really scrape it right now.

i guess i need to look around some today , but if you guys have some links to something that might be of help , please let me know


thanks
-hov

[b.glass]

I made a quiver starting with a rawhide tube then covering it with deer hide (hair on). If it is rawhide with hair on to begin with you could have a quiver with less work.

[hova]

thats what im thinking , ill have to get some googling done today. i think maybe some hair on rawhide might be an option.


thanks b!

[John Scifres]

You'll need to flesh and stretch to make rawhide.  Your other option is sending it off to get tanned.

[hova]

thanks john. thats what i figured , but its been a minute since i looked into it.

fleshing shouldnt be a problem , and i can probably find some osb to stretch it for cheap. until i get around to it , can it be frozen and come out ok , or will freezing cause the hair to slip?

-hov

[hova]

looked into it  , and i just dont have the room to do the tanning or processing here at the inlaws...anyone interested in trading it pm me.


a few arra shafts would just be awesome.let me know


if this has to be moved to the swap meet area , let me know , ill close this and make a new thread.


-hov

[John Scifres]

Flesh it and freeze it.  A fleshed hide does not take up much space at all.  Or, you don't have to tan it, just build a simple 2x4 frame and let it dry for a few days.  It doesn't smell or take too long.  If you have a size in mind for your quiver, you can make your frame about 6" bigger that the size, trim off the excess hide and then stretch and dry just what you need.

[hova]

im looking into it ,  but im still open for trade. i was going to talk to the inlaws about it , but they freaked out on me today because no one has called me for a job yet. no sooner do they start complaining , does someone call me for an interview. the left scowling , so im not even going to ask them if i can put it in the deep freeze.

inlaws suck , not having a house sucks , having a very nice skin and no way to mess with it sucks the worst...


thanks tho john , i appreciate your experience and use the tools every time i work n a bow.you've been a great teacher