Zass' Caribou Story? Fur Slip

Zass, how do you feel about sharing that Caribou story? I am wondering if there are early signs to fur slip.

I am halfway into working on a goat hide I got from family. The goat died suddenly and unexpectedly (stuck his head through the fence and a herdmate rammed him tooo hard Have heard about it happening, but this the first time it has happened in her herd)

The hide went right from the goat and into a bucket of vinegar. I read a few posts from people who had left deer skins in vinegar for weeks instead of days, with no issues. I was glad to read that because I couldn't work on the pelt for a few days. I fleshed most of it on the 3rd day, then I cleaned & changed to fresh vinegar and stuck the skin back in the bucket.
I was surprised; NO smell other than vinegar.

But today when I pulled it out, I saw that there was quite a lot of hair in the bucket. I laid the pelt on my work table and just in the brief time I was fleshing, it shed more hair. I tugged at a few spots, and no hair pulled free, but if I am seeing loose hairs... is this the first sign of slip? Maybe the long exposure in acid is breaking it down. It still doesn't smell like anything but vinegar. I didn't salt it, I just changed out for fresh vinegar and stuck it back in and I hope to have some free time tomorrow to work on it. Tomorrow will be day 8 in vinegar.

The caribou story...now...that was traumatic!
And kinda embarrassing.
It was given to me by a hunter that just didn't want to throw it away. A big doe. You know, that was the biggest fluffiest pelt I've ever gotten my hands on. Much bigger than my dining room table.
and I ruined it with inexperience.

I simply didn't know enough about tanning back then.
At the time, I had only made one hair-on rawhide from a whitetail that came out so well, I have it to this day.
I figured I'd easily repeat the process. But no. The conditions weren't exactly the same.
It was a complete disaster. The pelt didn't dry fast enough, started to stink, and hair fell out in big patches. In my inexperience, I believed that once hair started to fall out, it was ruined. I gave up on it and composted the thing. And then I cried.


I know now that I could have saved much of it even after slip had started with salt and acid. It certainly wasn't the only time fur slip has reared it's ugly head. You wouldn't believe how many far-past-saving whitetail pelts I've been given over the years.

I probably still wouldn't try braining or imitation braining a slipped pelt, althouh some do.
If a pelt begins to spoil an acid pickle will take the smell out. Nothing else I know of will.
It took years of trial-and-error, but eventually, I did also learn how to make hair-on rawhides without slip.
But, I always put my most precious pelts into an acid pickle. I've used vinegar for rabbits, but nothing larger yet. Are you using salt in the pickle? If you are planning on using a syn tan, adding salt to the solution is strongly recommended.

Remember to stir your pickle and keep tabs on your acidity level if you can. And also, don't keep it anywhere warm.

The beginning sign of slip is usually an "off" smell. Not always though. Sometimes it's a complete surprise. The hair comes out in clumps, not as single loose hairs.

Your hair-in-the-pickle-and-on-the-table could be loose hair from inexpert skinning (lots of broken and damaged hairs), the animal struggling while trapped, or the goat being in moult. It's hard to tell without actually seeing(and smelling) everything.

The beginning sign of slip is usually an "off" smell. Not always though. Sometimes it's a complete surprise. The hair comes out in clumps, not as single loose hairs.

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Thank you for this, Zass. I had a LOT of loose hair in my bucket when tanning this batch of pelts(which are actually very important, they're the mittens for my mommy). But they weren't clumps, and when I took the pelts out, I wasn't losing clumps, so probably from inexpert skinning, lol.

Whew, so sorry about that Caribou! Thanks for sharing this; talk about invaluable information for a beginner like me. I feel much better about the shedding of this goat hide; I absolutely know I handled it roughly. So whew! I wont give up on it then; I was about to compost it too!