Preserving skins for fleshing

Hi

Ive received a number of sheep and cow skins from a friend who slaughtered them today. Im new to the whole process and dont have the time to flesh all of them right now. Ive salted them in the mean time.

Can you preserve skins for fleshing at a later stage?

Is this the right way to do it until I can flesh each one ?

If so, what do I do when Im ready to flesh a skin?

Thanks
JD

Ps. I need to keep the hair on.

If you have freezer space, fold the hides in half - skin to skin. You can stack them but make sure they're frozen before you pile too many on at once. The hair will insulate and prevent the inner skins from freezing, rotting the hides.

I'd say remove the salt. Since you haven't fleshed yet, you're only dehydrating the fat/meat that you want to remove. Not the skin.

If you can't freeze them they have to be fleshed, stretched, and dried. The hides can be re-hydrated when ready to tan.

You can tell if it is too late by hair slippage. Try to pull the hair from the hide. It should stay put.



-L. Daniels

Jonathan, I agree with Lee. Put the hides in the freezer asap. If you don't have fleshing tools (fleshing knife and fleshing beam) the salt won't work. Get your fleshing tools first.

Do you have fleshing tools? Get a fleshing knife like this if you don't: http://www.pcsoutdoors.com/standardfleshingknife-10.aspx

Do you have a fleshing beam?

To either salt or dry you need to full flesh the hides. I recommend salting in a wet, humid area.

If you have more questions feel free to ask me. I've braintanned probably 25 sheep hides.