Hides won't dry in moist weather - HELP!

I'm pretty frustrated. I recently salted, hung, dried a batch of furs, moved on to the next batch, pulling another 10 out of the freezer, salted, hung them.

Batch #1 was hung in the laundry room and made a mess, so I hung Batch #2 outdoors. #2 did not dry well and I'm guessing the moist foggy nights, so I brought them into the laundryroom. Its been a week or more and they're still pliable, I added more salt a few days back, but it wouldn't stick, meat bees having a heyday with the scraps of flesh on them, they just aren't drying hard.

Now Batch #1, safely stored in the laundry room (which has a door to the outside, not inside, left open for ventilation - hides are stinky and make a wet mess) is wet and soggy!!! What??? We have been having wet foggy weather the past few days, but really? Wet hides again? I just put them in my oven on "warm" to try to dry them out. The smell of cooking hides got my attention this might be a bad thing to do.

HELP!! I don't want to waste these beautiful furs!! How do I get the hides to dry in moist weather? Its not cool enough to run the fireplace to dry them next to. We'd roast. I have the oven on super low and the door open to see if that'll help but I'm afraid I'll be still cooking them...

TBH...I never want to do the scraping n salting n drying thing again. :lol: I don't like the leather's texture, and how it's turned out for me, and the salt being ground into my cuts...ahh yeah no thanks. All the salt's been making things rust and drawing moisture out of the air, and hides left for a couple months over winter by a woodstove STILL weren't dry. :s
For me, it's worked a lot better to freeze them till I can put them into the salt/alum bucket. I'm rambling, but I'd suggest washing them out real good and freezing them, or mix up your tanning solution. I'm doing salt&alum and I like it so far. It was easier by far to flesh the hides after the first alum/salt soak, too.

*EDIT; typo...ROFL X'D

Thanks Nyctra - well I'm not planning to alum tan these because of the labor involved to make them soft - I just don't have time. I thought I'd make things easier for myself to just pay for a nice tan job at a tannery. Not working out too good so far. I may plop Batch #3 into the freezer. I got frustrated with freezing too - I used newspapers to dry & separate the hides and I ended up spending an hour picking off newspaper stuck to thawed hides... whaaaaaaa...

Shake them out, resalt using the heel of your hand to rub it in good. Don't skimp, salts cheap. Lay them out where air can flow both top and bottom and put a fan on them. They should dry. You may not get them completely bone dry, but that's not necessary. You want them still a little pliable in order to fold to box for shipping.

Lastfling":29k4vy65 said:

Shake them out, resalt using the heel of your hand to rub it in good. Don't skimp, salts cheap. Lay them out where air can flow both top and bottom and put a fan on them. They should dry. You may not get them completely bone dry, but that's not necessary. You want them still a little pliable in order to fold to box for shipping.

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A-HA! THANK YOU!! I will do that pronto<br /><br />__________ Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:46 pm __________<br /><br />

Nyctra":29k4vy65 said:

TBH...I never want to do the scraping n salting n drying thing again. :lol: I don't like the leather's texture, and how it's turned out for me

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Thanks for sharing your experience... didn't realize the hide texture would be different?? after a post about how expensive tanneries are (I thought in bulk it would be cheap) I may be back in the alum/salt bucket afterall... but how to get all those hides broken in after they are cured, that is the hard part. Do you stretch them when you let them dry from the tanning solution, and if so what do you use to give enough force to keep them stretched? I imagine wire would just collapse as it dried.

If you want to dry out your hides to the correct measure in very moist weather, you simply must be thorough. As someone prior suggested, do not skimp on the salt. It is cheap and you do not need much per hide. What you must do is simply change the salt very often. Depending on how humid it is, you may want to change your salt anywhere between every 4 or so hours to once a day. Just play around with it. Rub the salt in when you salt them and do not use a huge quantity. You do not need to make a miniature Mount. Everest out of salt on your hide. Just use enough to cover the whole hide until you can't see the color or fine ridges of the skin.

As for stretching, I made a post on your other thread regarding stretching hides. Keep in mind that the average 8 year old has enough strength in his arms to stretched a rabbit hide, so do not worry about using tools to stretch it. You should have no problem with that.

If you're having trouble with insects some borax rubbed in with the salt can help and will also help with the drying. You can find 20 Mule team borax in the laundry detergent aisle in most large stores.

This summer the weather so humid the salt was actually drawing water out of the air and dripping down my pelts, WEEKS after I'd first put the salt on. What I'll be doing in the future is just leaving them in the freezer until the weather is better for it. Slip starts too easily in humid weather anyway.