Hide tanning - vinegar pickling smell

[mcrawfordaf]

Hey all, doing my first deer hide for a soft tan. I’ve done squirrels in the past and turned out great. Trying a different route from the salt, flesh, egg wash method I did with the smaller animals.

I removed as much meat as I could before salting. Salted for 24hrs. Rinsed clean. Then added to a pickle solution (2gl water, 2gl distilled vinegar 2lb salt per gallon of liquid - per online instructions). I then neutralized the hide in a water and baking soda solution. Then I washed with dish soap and fleshed any remaining membrane or fat. The skin side is very white and I’m happy with the overall quality of the hide. No hair slippage. My issue is this bad boy smells A LOT like vinegar still. Like my wife doesn’t want it in the house pungent. I have yet to apply the tanning formula because I’m not sure if I should wash it again? Any recommendations?

[BlackRiverTaxidermy]

Here’s a few insights and tips for ya. First off, I commend you for attempting this on your deer hide.
Here goes… I hate to break it to you but vinegar wasn’t a good idea
You started right, Fleshing-good, salting-good, pickling- good but DONT use vinegar. Pickling is used to draw out fats within the skin and to make the skin more tenable for shaving and eventual tanning. Formic acid or citric acid is much better, safer, and you will get a softer leather and won’t leave that sour/vinegar smell. However the biggest and most detrimental step you still need to do is shaving the hide down thinner than what it naturally is. This is different than fleshing. Deer and elk leather is the best rain gear God ever made. It’s thick and built to repel moisture. Shaving the hide down to 1/8” thin allows the tanning product to permeate thoroughly within the hide. Thinning the hide through shaving also makes the hide much easier and pliable/soft. That’s why you hear stories of guys home tanning hides and they get super hard like a board. Pictures of native american women scraping Buffalo hides were the old way this was done. Following fleshing they ‘scraped’ the hide with bone tools that thinned the skin to a much thinner piece before they brain tanned it and then smoke treated the leather. Today the tool commonly used is a shaving wheel.
The vinegar smell won’t leave either, sorry. The good news is you can still salvage it and may be able to get rid of the vinegar smell, if your interested msg me and I can give ya some ideas of that before you tan it
Hope this helped and gave ya some options

[mcrawfordaf]

Thank you for sharing all that. I really appreciate it. I’ll shoot you a message here shortly.

[pashok23]

Let it sit in the baking soda for another 20 min or so. It will go away, once you apply tanning oil and it dries, use 36 grit paper  to sand. It will be soft and flexible. I did many coyotes with that solution and never had a vinegar smell problem. Good luck