Thank you so much for this post! With the pictures and your description, it's helped me immensely. I was gifted a beautiful elk hide, and in looking at your pictures finally was able to reassure myself that there really wasn't any fat on it, and very little meat. I'm pretty sure I've taken off all the flesh that needs to come off, and it's currently in a lime bath in the shop. I'm in Canada, and it's about zero here, so it will take longer for the lime to work. I'm being as patient as I can checking and stirring daily. It's a big freakin' hide, so I really don't want to ruin it as it's destined for spirit drums. I suspect it will be more than a week of soaking in the cold water before I can do any hair removal.
The rest of the pictures are really helpful too. I think I can rustle up a couple drums and 2 x6's or 2 x 8's for the de-hairing part of the job. My fingers and toes are crossed anyhow.
Thanks for a great job, and for sharing what you know with us newbies...I'd be lost, lost, lost without ya!
