Prepare bucktail

[melk]

Hi all,
I just got a deer tail from a friend this morning. I need to get directions on how to prepare it for use!!
Thanks,
Mike

[Bass_Bug]

Is it fresh from a hunting harvest and is the tail bone still in the tail?

[melk]

Yes - fresh about 14 hours, bone in, just the tail!
Thanks,
Mike

[Fatman]

Kicking in on Bass_Bugs ?? If it's fresh and the bone is still in they here's my way of getting it ready. Get a really SHARP knife, or really good sharp pair of scissors and I cut in a straight line on the underside of the tail all the way to the tip. Usually after this you can use a pair of vise grips and hook on to the bony part and peel it right out.

Take your sharp knife and scrape off all the fat you can without damaging the tail. Next using warm water and dawn dishwashing detergent wash it really well making sure to get any and all blood off of it, and rinse it well. This next step is a personal one I use and you can skip it if want but I like doing it: use unscented hair conditioner on the tail and then rinse it really well, take an old hair brush and brush the hair straight.

The next step I take is lay it flat on paper towels front and back and I press out as much water as I can (I've also heard of some who use a hair dryer to get alot of the water off but use a low setting). After that I put it on an old piece of plywood and use three pushpins one on each corner and one down near the tip and cover it with borax laundry detergent (some folks like to use salt, I've tried it and like the borax better).

Leave it in a dry place where no kids or animals can get it, check it every couple of days and if you see any wet spots on the borax use a spoon to get that clump off put some fresh on that spot. I usually leave mine for two weeks then I take all the borax off and check the tail. If you can't feel any wetness and the meaty side is totally dry and stiff you should be ready to go. I put mine in a zip lock bag with a piece of flea collar (usually the pet stores put ones just about to expire on sale and I buy a bunch to use, open one stretch it to activate and cut a piece about
1 1/2) and then it stays away from all my other tying supplies for three or four weeks or more, kinda like a quarantine period.

Usually after this, I make a check of it and then it goes in with my other stuff. Never had any go bad or spoil and only a few went back through the wash, dry, borax cycle.

I learned most of it between Eric Leisers book Fly tying materials and info from different boards. Good luck and if you have any more questions just ask.

Fatman

[melk]

Thanks Fatman! I have the tail at work, the book at home and wanted to put the two together! I'll get on it this afternoon. I'll keep you folks posted as this is my first try!
Mike

[Bass_Bug]

Fatman pretty much summed it up. I've dried complete deer hides with salt and borax. Both work.

-If you use salt, you'll need to replace the salt once it's all wet and feels like wet sand (every couple days at first). Scrape off the wet salt and let the wet salt dry out in another place and put fresh salt on the tail. You can re-use the salt this way.

-If you use borax, borax doesn't seem to adsorb the moisture like salt, but will dry the raw hide just fine. Where the moisture goes is still a mystery. Borax seems less messy because of this, but salt is much cheaper. Both work. An oscillating fan in the area to keep the air moving around it will help some too. The main factor that will determine how long it takes is the relative humidity. The first deer hide I did (with salt) was in an unheated garage in early December, the weather stayed above freezing and rainy for the first couple of weeks. Obviously wet things take much longer to dry out in these conditions.

The only difference I have with Fatman's method is that I wont use Dawn or any other 'detergent' on hair. I only use shampoo and conditioner. My feeling is if you wont wash your own hair in it, you shouldn't use it on natural material like this. For those that say say Dawn is safe, I say use it on your own hair and see how your hairs feels afterward. If you're unwilling to use Dawn in your shower what does that tell you about how harsh it really is. I still say if Dawn will dissolve crude oil, what do you think it does to the natural oils in hair? In living animals natural oil is replenished through the body. In harvested animal hides, any natural oil lost in the cleaning process will never be replaced, and using oil dissolving detergents just makes it worse.

I know, I know, there are many people that have been using Dawn for years and never had any problems, but if that's the only way you've been doing it then you don't know how much softer the hair would have been by using shampoo instead.

[Betty Hiner]

Ewwwww! Ya lost me at this ... "after this you can use a pair of vise grips and hook on to the bony part and peel it right out".

[melk]

Okay, tail bone out, run knife a number of times over tail, nailed to board, salted, no Borax at school, let's see what happens! Thanks all!
Mike

[fishbum]

Never never use salt on a hide to be used for fly tying. PERIOD. The worst thing you can do to a hide us use salt on it. Salt draws moisture out of the air and makes a soggy mess out of the hide. It also will be absorbed into the hair and hooks that that hair is tied onto will rust in the box. If you are preserving the hide to go to the tanners then it doesn't make any difference. Only use borax if the weather is warm enough for the flies to be out. The hide will dry just fine without using salt or borax.

Dawn is the best detergant to use to wash a hide with. I have used shampoo, both adult and baby, and it doesn't do the job that dawn does. You are washing off the surface grease. The natural oils are permiated into the hair and will not be washed out with a washing of Dawn. You don't need any conditioner either.

I have been doing animal skins for over 50 years. I think I just might have enough experiance in this area to to be able to give some sound advice.

fishbum

[Steven McGarthwaite]

I wash my hair with "Head & Shoulder", I also use "Head & Shoulders" when washing any ofmy fly tying hair material that has started having a foul scent. I add a small dab of "Oil of Olay" to the mix to help neutralize scents that fish can detect, but humans cannot (has something to do with turtle oil in the "Oil of Olay".

Parnelli