preserving pelts

[kenny g]

sounds like good advice for tanning.
I've heard some of the old timers say that every fur-bearing animal has enough brains in his scull to tan his own hide .

[Jason_G]

I've heard some of the old timers say that every fur-bearing animal has enough brains in his scull to tan his own hide .

I've always heard the same, and assume it's the truth. I've never found it not to be true. If you did run out of brain material, you could always go to the butcher and get some.

Jason

[8mm]

i dident think of that use the brain from the kill.

[JACK308]

when I tryed brain tanning a coon hide I bought the brains at the butchers and put em in a old blender for about a min. then I pined the fur back so the smoke will go to the skin just let it hang for awhile to tan but it didnt go to good with that GREASEY HIDE didnt get all the FAT!.

[Jason_G]

i dident think of that use the brain from the kill.

Sorry, I just assumed you knew. Yeah, like kenny g said, the common tale is that every animal has enough brains to tan its own hide. I don't know for a fact whether it's true or not, but like I said, I've never found it not to be the case. I have tanned some though where I had just enough, but that was probably due to me not diluting it enough.

If you are really interested in doing the brain tanning thing, this fella, George Michaud, wrote a pretty good "how to" article on it. You can find it here. It's basically the same thing I do, but he uses store bought and frozen brain from the butcher instead of from the animal. I always just take it from the animal. A BFH and a cold chisel, or a hacksaw can help you get into the cranium. You might could even use a hole saw on a drill- never tried it, just now thought of it actually, so I don't know if that one will work or not, but the other two, along with some elbow grease, will let you get in there.

I do want to caution you though, there are some brain-borne diseases out there, like mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease, etc., mostly forms of spongiform encephalopathy caused by prions, which are not really understood well. If you suspect an animal might have had a disease like that before killing it, don't mess with it. There's no evidence to show that CWD is transmissible to humans, but I wouldn't risk it if you think that the animal had it.


Also forgot to add, winter hides on pretty much any animal are going to be much better suited for tanning than those taken during other seasons.

Jason

[FrontSight]

i want to preserve them and make things out of the skin like rugs ect.

OK, I recommend this book, then, if you want to do it yourself by hand; it's specifically for buck skin, but can be altered for fur-on:

http://www.amazon.com/Deerskins-Into.../dp/096586720X

If you want to use a kit that you purchase (much easier), then use this:

http://www.fntpost.com/Products/Tanning+Kits+Supplies/Rittel's+EZ-100+Tanning+Kit

[mapsjanhere]

For rug-use I found aluminum sulfate a cheap and easy way to tan a hide. After drying you need some neatsfoot oil or similar to soften the leather.

[Gunplummer]

I did not tan anything for a couple years, but the new pastes are reasonably safe and work well. Try Van Dykes for supplies. Somebody else said Borax and that will hold the skin until you can work on it. If you want the hair on don't use salt. I had guys bring me deer capes and they were ruined because some one told them to rub salt into it.

[603Country]

I used salt on a bobcat hide recently. It worked just fine, and after the hide was good and dry I gently scraped off any remaining tissue (using the non-toothed side of a bowed hacksaw blade). Then I rubbed neatsfoot oil into the dry hide. The hide never has gotten soft, but that isn't a problem. But, if I wanted the hide to be soft, I wouldn't know the best way to do it.