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January 21, 2016
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As of now I send my frozen green capes out to a tannery and will continue to do so. I know very little about tanning and at best Im a novice on the fleshing machine. I tan a few on my own just to keep a steady work flow but dread it and it takes me forever to shave.
Anyways, I was wondering exactly how the salting process works. I have a mule deer and a coues that I salted and let dry, will be sending out to two different tanneries. Why two? Just because I want to see how they each defer.
Back to my question; how does salting work? I find it interesting that I had these raw and fleshed capes hanging and dripping fluids onto my floor but they didn’t rot. I understand the basic principle that the salt draws the moisture out, but does it prevent bacteria from growing as well? Just fascinating to me.
July 22, 2011
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It is not really the salt that is preventing the skin from, as you say to “rot”, it is the lack of moisture in the skin that holds down the growth of bacteria. Just to prove my point, try air drying or trapper drying a skin, there is no salt used and you get the same result.
These two processes are examples of preserving a green animal skin until you can get it to the tanning process.
Stick with that fleshing machine, once you get the shaving down you can save a lot of money tanning more of your on skins. If you have any questions give me a shout.
DP
