Advice about a deer hide

[Tim Schulz]

Hi all,

After learning that I tied flies, one of the characters I play hockey with

[keith b]

I am sure a taxidermist could tell you the best way to cut the hide, and possibly even tell you how to dye it.

[mick mccorcle]

Fly tying guru AK Best has a book called Dyeing and Bleaching Natural Fly-Tying Materials that has a full chapter on how to do deer and elk body hair.

[keith b]

This comes from the guy who gave me the picture;
I cut mine one of two ways, both from the back side, cutting through the leather to the hair side.
1. Use one of those letter openers with a razor blade inserted.
2. A very sharp knife, such as a stanley box cutter style, and go through just enough to get through the leather.

see if this helps

I think I may have just offered my first real assistance to someone on this board 😮

[Shannon Drawe]

I’m still hung up on “propitiate”. I gotta use that word! I bet a wheel cutter would do the job of cutting. I am wondering about the tail actually. I purchased some from saltwaterflies.com (the top shelf grade), and they were substantially better than anything we can find off the shelf in Texas. There was a suggestion by a much more experienced friend that they were “Northern” whitetails with different qualities. I just don’t want to waste time dumpster-diving at the local processor for inferior tails. I’ll race you to that Best book! shannon

[Tim Schulz]

Keith:  Thanks for the selection chart.  Do you have a reference for the book?  No doubt about it, you have provided real assistance.  

Shannon:  I checked Amazon, and we should both be able to get one of the Best books.  Turns out this hide has its tail removed.  However, when I commented about that my friend said he could bring me a few tails.  Perhaps he wronged me in the past and this is some sort of propitiation.  (I have now typed that word a total of two times in my life, both in this post.)

Cheers!  

[keith b]

I will check on the book name for you.

[keith b]

The book is FLY TIER’S HANDBOOK by Gene Kugach published by Stackpole Books copyright 2001.

he must have gone to the book store more recently than I gave him credit for :-[

[Shannon Drawe]

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/home/department/Tools/Knives-Cutters-Splitters/Knives-Cutters-Splitters.aspx?navlocation=left

I’m from Texas! I should have thought of Tandy Leather just down the road.
Shannon

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