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Posted: 1/4/2006 6:16:08 PM EDT
What do you do to cure a pelt?  To make the skin soft, unspoilable, etc.?  I read that you're supposed to soak it in salt water or something, but is there more to it?  I soaked it for almost a day, and it's not soft like the kinds you buy at a shop.
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 6:21:58 PM EDT
[#1]
Buy an "At home tanning kit" from sportsman-warehouse..   Its for deer, coyote, etc...
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 6:31:03 PM EDT
[#2]
basicly the soaking or coating in salt will remove any mosture that will cause the pelt to rot. now you need to introduce some kind of oil or fat that wont go rancid to soften it. you can use mineral oil but it is not the best, some use the fats from brain ( brain tanning ) i have even heard some people using motor oil
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 6:35:19 PM EDT
[#3]
I use anti freeze on the rattlesnake skins that I have done. Works pretty god.
TS
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 6:38:01 PM EDT
[#4]
Use a commecial tanning solution and work the hide as it dries.  Working it is the only way to make it supple.
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 6:49:28 PM EDT
[#5]

Quoted:
basicly the soaking or coating in salt will remove any mosture that will cause the pelt to rot. now you need to introduce some kind of oil or fat that wont go rancid to soften it. you can use mineral oil but it is not the best, some use the fats from brain ( brain tanning ) i have even heard some people using motor oil



Would some kind of pure cooking oil, like olive or peanut, work?
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 7:01:41 PM EDT
[#6]
Cat Pelt?
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 7:06:02 PM EDT
[#7]

Quoted:
Cat Pelt?



Chinchilla.
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 7:06:59 PM EDT
[#8]
what about the one-step products like the Kwik-N-Eze "Paint on tanning cream" here:  Rittel Supplies

are they as good as the "soak it in salt, then pickle it, then neutralize it" processes?
Link Posted: 1/4/2006 7:28:06 PM EDT
[#9]
Google= Brain Tanning
Link Posted: 1/5/2006 5:16:33 AM EDT
[#10]
Go to www.vandykestaxidermy.com and order a Lutan-F kit.  You need to do it right or it'll go to crap.  There's a possibility you've already ruined it by soaking it saltwater, but who knows.
Basically, you want to freeze or dry a skin asap after killing (and skinning) something.  If you let it stay warm and moist bacteria will start and then when the hide is tanned hair will fall out.  If you have a hide you want to tan and don't want to freeze it, then spread it out and coat it in salt.  Let it sit for a day, then remove that salt and coat it again with fresh salt.  After removing that salt it should be pretty dry.  I freeze any furs I plan to tan.  Even then you should fold them up and not roll them.  Fur is an insulator and hides can go bad in the freezer if you wad them up too tight.
Not knowing any better, I froze a whole red fox.  I took the whole thing to a taxidermist for tanning.  When I got it back the hair had slipped off the hind leg area.  There's a chance that the taxidermist screwed up something, but chances are it took a very long time to freeze and that part of the hide went bad in the freezer.
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