Yes, I suppose it smells like wet skin, because it is.Some of those hairs could have simply been hairs that were cut during caping. Is this for a mount or a hanging? If for a mount,there's no need to oil after the McKenzie tan. It doesn't take too many capes under your belt to realize how useful a shaving maching would be. Everything gets faster the more you do, but I still spend more time thinning with a skife knife and scalpal than I do on any other part of the mounting process.