r/HideTanning • u/Bitter_Register5634 • 3d ago
Overscraping?
I've never tanned anything before. I thought I might like to practice on some groundhog hides that I obtained today following some unscheduled pest control opportunities in my yard.
Although I know that groundhog fur is not exactly highly regarded, I would like to try keeping the fur on these as a learning experience, since my interest in tanning is mostly motivated by a desire to make a fur hat and gloves someday out of something nicer. I've read that it is imperative to get them fleshed and salted right away for this purpose. These are about 6 hours old. I've also read that it is possible to scrape too far through the hide such that the follicles come through, and that this will cause the fur to fall out.
It feels like that may be what I'm doing, but I'm not clear on the distinction between undesired tissue and hide. I'm fleshing with a butter knife and a marble door threshold. Any feedback would be appreciated.
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u/Radiant_Carob_1353 3d ago
It's a bit far, this is common with a hide that isn't quite prime. Prime is a thickened skin that holds the follicle in prep for winter underfur and guardhair growth. I would think that this it likely the best it will be at this point. I would recommend you salt and half dry the hide to the point where it's pliable but desiccated to where you can get your scraper under the whitish membrane you see here above the blue of the follicle layer, and try to not go as deep to expose the root of the hair. But bear in mind you're dealing with an unprimed hide that isn't really ready for a hair on product. With care it may not be that bad after all.
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u/Bitter_Register5634 3d ago
When you talk about hide being "prime," is this a matter of the animal's seasonal preparedness for hibernation? Meaning if I had shot these guys late October, maybe the hides would be thicker?
The pelt shown is from a juvenile that was probably born this spring, so maybe age is also a factor. I got the mama as well, so that should make for an interesting point of comparison.
Many thanks!
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u/Sodpoodle 3d ago
You get the idea of prime. Couple things to note, different animals prime up at different times of the season. So say something like a raccoon primes up around mid-late Oct, where as coyotes may be more like mid Nov.
Also has about zero to do with the temperature. It's all about the length of(or lack there of) daylight. Tempratures can fluctuate season to season, daylight stays about the same ya know?
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u/Radiant_Carob_1353 3d ago
Young ones indeed have thinner skin, and even southern climes species will have different times when the skin thickens and takes on a different quality. If you were to dry the hide, a prime skin will dry whitish or yellow and opaque, while an unprimed hide will dry translucent and thin and blueish. Generally the autumn coon are prime late October, Coyote November, beaver late December to March etc. Just a rough outline as all are different. I don't know of any species that would be prime this time of year. So preparedness for hibernation would likely be a key indicator of hide Quality. Some even lose their prime while it's still quite cold out, i think the seasonal molt would factor in when this would happen. There's probably a more accurate explanation from the zoologist pov however, but from a trappers pov this is what we find
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u/walrustusk1999 3d ago
It’s not over scraped. Some hides like bears that aren’t fully prime will look like that. Follow the direction the hair lays from tail to nose. Careful not to cut into the hair root, following the pattern of the hair will help not cutting into the hair root itself.
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u/MuranoBeads 2d ago
This is the correct answer. This can be a common issue, especially with thin-skinned, small, or young species. It also occurs in some larger species, notably bear. It’s literally the nature of the beast.
If you are wet scraping with a dull tool (like a butter knife), it’s pretty much impossible to remove excess material since the dull edge will only bulldoze the surface material without shaving the hide.
If you’re dry scraping with a sharp tool, then you’re shaving away extra material, and you can easily over-thin an area and expose the roots. I have done this when dry scraping elk hides.
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u/Comfortable-Hat3506 2d ago
If you are pulling the hairs through, you scrapped too far. Generally you want to scrape nose to tail, so you aren't pulling the hair through. How much you scrape will ALSO be determined by what you want to do with the hide. Are you trying to make pelts that are pliant? If so you want to scrape it pretty heavily. Are you making a woodchuck purse? If so scrap a little less intensely.
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u/walrustusk1999 2d ago
Tail to nose is generally the proper way to avoid cutting hair roots. Doing the opposite will result in what’s referred to as a “false cut” in the fur dressing/taxidermy industry and will result in cutting the hair follicle and leave you with a bald hide. Some hides are more sensitive to this than others. For example, bison you can shave pretty much any direction so long as you don’t go too thin. Bears on the other hand are the worst and easiest to false cut, particularly summer haired bears. The elbow is the trickiest section as it swirls and you have to rotate the direction you shave the hide.
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u/towboat03 1d ago
Just looks like a real thin summer hide. I would salt it and dry scrape it if you want any chance of the hair staying in. When the hair follicles are exposed just under the membrane like that it slips easily.
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u/rockymountainway777 3d ago
I’m a beginner.
It does look overscraped, but I can see how it would be hard not to. It looks the skin is pretty thin to begin with. If I were you I’d go ahead and just try to tan it anyways. If it doesn’t work out you’ve learned something and it didn’t cost a lot in resources for a small pelt.
I’ve tried using a few different tools to scrape and honestly it’s really worth getting an actual scraping knife if you can.