Recently I bought some offcuts of fur and hides from a taxidermist on EBay.

They did not cost me much money, and were well worth the cash for me to get some English Badger fur pieces, which were A1.

However the lucky bag also contained some pieces of hide from an English Roe Deer, Fallow Deer etc. Now these pieces were obviously taken from summer coated deer in summer colours and with very short hair. The way they have been dried has made the hides really really hard and board like, almost brittle, and the short fur is lying very flat against the hide and not always lying in the same direction, which makes it very hard to cut off.

Is there any way to rejuvenate these hides, or prepare them better????