Hi! I’m fairly new to tanning, i’ve been doing it on and off for about a year but this is my first bigger project, a poor possum I found very freshly dead. 

before I give too much context, my question is how do I smooth out the skin side? I’ve been defleshing during pickling with a scalpel, a bigger defleshing tool (for small game, about 2 in wide), and a pumice stone. But I’m afraid I’ve thinned it out too much in some places, where I can see the hair poking through. 

I skinned it and mostly defleshed it 6 or so months ago and then salted and froze it. I thawed, then rehydrated it in a bath with a surfactant (had to cut a poorly defleshed piece off that didn’t rehydrate well). It’s in the pickle now (been there for 24 hrs and plan to keep it there for another 36-48 hrs), with another surfactant and so far no visible fat coming off of it so I think I got most if not all of the fat off before freezing it (surprisingly). 

I’m a beginner so I’m not expecting this to look professional, but i simply can’t tell whether i’ve done enough to let the tan soak through and/or if i’m gonna hurt it and threaten the integrity if i do more (i’ve already got 4 or 5 little holes from scraping too roughly). am i just being clumsy about it? Please help! 


too little or too much defleshing? and any tips for smoothing it out?