Full Deer Skins

[chris68]

I have been given 3 deer skins, one Red, one Roe and a Fallow deer skin, so, at the moment they are in the freezer, what do I need to do with them?

My thinking is, defrost one at a time, scrape of any excess fat, borax, cross fingers?

Any more experienced chaps out there with an idea of what I should be doing

Thanks

Chris

[stevekale]

http://www.uky.edu/~agrdanny/flyfish/petti.htm

[matt gregory]

Looks like you'll have your work cut out for following that advice!

[doonicus]

Allow skin to defrost, peg out on a suitable piece of plywood, a nail every 3" or so, to enable you to slightly stretch the skin. There will be little or no fat on the roe skin, but sprinkle liberally with salt, leave for a few days, shake of excess salt and apply borax, and allow to dry. Oh, remove about an inch either side of the belly skin incase it has already started to "ripen". Red deer skin, cut yourself a good sized patch, and bin the rest, I have in fact binned almost a full skin as I never had a use for it, roe deer being about the best for most of my sort of flies. Treat the fallow as the roe skin, salt, borax etc. and cut a 4" square piece and send to me, I will pay you for it, as I have never used fallow before.

If you need any further assistance, get in touch, hth,

Sam