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???
Mick, you might try cutting off a test piece and seeing how it responds to a good quality shampoo and conditioner. Something with less smell, and thus taste, would be preferred. I know that trick can save sable (squirrel) hair paintbrushes sometimes.
I doubt you can change the hide at this point. When the raw hide is dried, you want to stretch it as much as possible so it won’t shrink and end up like what you have. You could try rehydrating it and stretching but I expect, you’ll just have to use it as is. The hair isn’t effected so that is good news. Problem with trims is that they tend to be on the smallish side so not much to stretch.
“…are you saying that the drying and shrinking of the hide causes the fur to lie flat…” No, not saying that. The hair will be whatever shape the skin dries/cures. If the skin is rolled up or wrinkled, the hair will be very difficult if not impossilbe to use. You want the skin to dry flat so the hair will lie flat. Before drying, reaign the hair in the way it grew. Your hide is too late for this. the hair is what it is.