Getting hock skins, sinews, and "needle bones" from deer legs

 Hunters are rarely interested in keeping the legs on their deer and often toss them in the field. I recently found one on a trail, probably carried around by a dog for a while. It looked and smelled fine and the hair was still solidly anchored in the skin so I took it home to show you how to get hock skins, sinews, and some funny little bones from it.






The hock skin is the skin of the lower leg, including the dew claws, which are the little hooves on the back of the legs, just above the big hooves. It is fairly thin but the fibers are woven very tightly, making it a nice addition for bags or other projects.





There are two different looks you can get. One is having the dew claws spread out on the outside of the skin by slicing down the back of the leg and in between the dew claws. The other one is having the dew claws close together, as on a deer, by slicing down the front of the leg. I prefer the second option and that's what I'll be showing you here, though the principles remain the same in both cases.

Note the tendon running down the leg on the upper part of the picture

Using a sharp knife, cut the skin all the way around the top of the bone and then slice down the front of the leg to the hooves. It's better if you can do this with the blade of your knife pointing up so you don't dull it on the bone; just be careful and always slice away from your body.

Then lift up the corner of the skin with your knife to get the skinning job started. Once that's done you should be able to pull the skin away from the bone with your hands only so that you don't cut into it with the knife.

This should be pretty easy to do until you reach the area of the dew claws, where everything has a lot more membranous tissue.

So when you reach that point you can start using your knife again to free the skin from the bone. In this picture you can see the bluish skin, the yellowish bone, and the white membrane in between. Make sure to only slice that white part and not into the skin itself. Then pull a little more to expose more membrane and gently slice that. Repeat until the process is completed.





Then, starting at the back of the leg, cut the skin all the way around the bottom of the bone, as close to the hooves as possible so that there's as much skin as possible below the dew claws. Above you see the front of the leg toward the hooves, with the tendon diving in between the toes. It is easier to deal with the dew claws if you free that skin from the bottom of the leg first.

If you are using front legs (it's not present on hind legs), though all the membranes may make it difficult to see everything the first time you do it, you will find a little bone running up on the back of the leg (center of the picture). Just below that you will feel a slight crease. Cut through that crease to separate the dew claw bone from the other little bone, as shown on the picture.










Here I have freed the little bone from all the membrane and placed it back where it belonged. You'll notice that, to its left, there's another bone that was in between it and the dew claw bone.

Of course, there's one above each of the dew claws. Curiously, one of them is bigger than the other. We call these bones "needle bones" because they can fairly easily be shaped into needles. But that's a project for another time.

Once both dew claws are free it should be easy to just pull the hock skin off the bone, though you can use your knife carefully if membranes are still attached.

There's very little fleshing that needs to be done afterwards. As seen at the top of this picture, there's generally a little fatty tissue right below the dew claws and you should cut as much of it off as possible. If the tendons remained attached to the skin, you can simply pull them off. They can be a little slimy to hold firmly so I tend to use pliers to do the job.









Here is the cleaned up hock skin as well as the pulled tendon to the left. You'll notice that tendons come in a sheath. In a next post we'll use the tendons to make sinew cordage. Hang the tendons to dry. You can compost the sheath or dry it so it can be used for making glue later.

Tendon in its sheath

 



The only thing left to do is to tack the skin to a board to let it dry. I had tried to tack it fur side down but I didn't like the look it gave me, as the dew claws were more buried into the skin. I like it better when the flesh side is to the board, letting the dew claws sort of hang out, as they are on a deer. Make sure to leave the skin in a warm (not hot) and dry environment. It should take a couple of days for it to dry completely, at which point it will be as rigid as cardboard.

You can then remove the tacks and store the hock skin away from dogs and other critters until you need it for a project. I'll show you what I've done with mine in other posts (see my stylish bark and brain tanned purse!).

Now, if you want extra credit and some more sinew, you can pull the tendon situated in the groove at the back of the bone. It's pretty easy at first but if you want the whole length of the tendon (which I definitely recommend), things get a little more tricky and gruesome toward the hooves.










At the toes, that big tendon splits in two, each end diving toward its own hoof. Sever each end at the hoof and then do your best to separate the tendon from the rest of the leg, using your knife if necessary. Things can get a little juicy there because there's a scent gland between the toes that releases a liquid. I'm not quite sure but I think it's the little brownish out of focus spot that appears below the cut tendon. I don't have a sensitive nose but the smell was not offensive at all; better stay away from it as much as possible anyway.

When you're done, peel back the sheath to reveal the actual tendon. The anatomy of the bottom ends is particularly interesting, as seen below, with the tendon at the top of the picture and the sheath at the bottom. Again, dry the tendon and the sheath if you want to use them later.

Tendon and its sheath

Now that you've done all that, you may as well cut the whole foot off from the leg. At this point it should be pretty easy; just cut the tissue around the articulation and twist off the foot. You're left with the cannon bone and that can be used for making some bone tools like bone awls. You can also collect the hooves, to make rattles for instance, but it's a whole lot easier if you're dealing with a fresh leg.

Cannon bone

 Please enter your email address and click the "Sign up for updates" button below to receive our once-in-a-while newsletter for more sustainable living skills and receive a free Gifts of Plants e-book!

Email:

We respect your email privacy