Preserving hides/bird skins

[krebsie]

Preserving a hide, whether it be a bird or a hair bearing critter is actually very simple. You will need an old piece of plywood preferably 3/4" and it needs to be several inches larger than your skin. Some small nails say about a 4 penny and a hammer. Salt or Borax, either will work and enough to cover the hide about 3/4" to 1" thick two times.
1). Skin out the critter and remove all the flesh and or fat that you can from the hide. Especially any big chunks that can be cut or scraped off. These will take way to long to dry out. No need to worry about the thin stuff right on the pelt. Although the cleaner the hide the quicker it will dry and the longer it will last. 2). Lay out the hide, flesh side up, on the plywood, being careful to keep the feathers or hair laying natural. If there out of order they will be that way permanently. Drive a nail through the hide about 1/4" to 3/16" in from the edge leaning the nail away from the hide. The hide will shrink considerable as it dries and if your nail is straight up and down it will pull out. Go to the opposite side of the pelt and repeat. Stretch the hide snug but not tight or it will pull off the nails as it dries. Continue all the way around the hide in this manner with nails about 1" to 1 1/4" apart. Yep that's a lot of nails but it takes em. 3). Cover the entire pelt with a layer of Salt or Borax about 3/4" to 1" thick so that you can't see any part of the pelt. Store in a warm, not hot, DRY place for several days. Drying time depends on the thickness of the pelt and the amount of fat left on. The Salt/Borax will form a crust in a couple of days,on top, it's doing it's job, drawing the moisture out. After several days brush off the salt and clean the pelt with a light brush. Repeat step 3. It's finished when you remove the salt/Borax and there is no greasy residue left. You can't over salt and the salt could be left on indefinitely without hurting anything. Pull the nails and clean the pelt with a soft brush and several good shakes to remove all the salt. It would probably be a good idea to store your first try in a ziplock bag just in case you don't get it dry enough. If in doubt salt it again. The finished product will have a slight smell but nothing that will keep it out of the house and will be hard and a little brittle. But if it's done right it will last a long time.
Have fun
Krebsie

[trent]

Where do you find borax? Are there any special ways of handling it? Is it a solid?

If you use salt, do you prefer a specific kind of salt, i.e. can you use the stuff for melting snow on your driveway, or should you use table salt, or something else?

[krebsie]

Borax is in the laundry detergent isle (20 mule team is the brand I bought last time)at most stores, Marsh, Payless may even try Wal Mart. It's a detergent additive and as far as I know it's harmless unless you eat it or something silly like that. Just plain table salt works the best. You don't want to use a coarse salt as the surface area of coverage wont be as large as with a finer salt and thats what your trying to do is cover as much surface area as possible with the drying agent to get as much moisture out as possible.
Krebsie

[trent]

A follow up question on tying with hides (at least for the fur bearers)...

Does it matter whether the animal is harvested in the summer or winter? I would assume that tying a fly with rabbit hide from summer would be different than one tied with hide from a winter harvested animal.

Does it make a difference? If you commercially buy hides, what is the default, e.g. thinner coat or thicker?

[rstaight]

Trent,

First of all I have to agree with Reelteacher in his response on the discussion of wet flies and streamers.. You have asked some great questions.

In regards to your question about the time of year an animal is harvested.

I recently read an article about deer hair that may answer your question. At least partially.

Deer that are taken early in the season have a shorter hair that lends itself for use on small poppers and hair wings such as those on a caddis pattern.

Deer that are taken later in the season have longer hair that is good for use in large poppers and divers.

Does it make a difference? Only if you want to tie a large fly and you have shorter hair. You can always trim the longer stuff for the caddis flies.

On the commercial stuff about all you can do is look at everything they have on the shelf and select what best suits your needs.

[trent]

Rstaight:

Do deer have an under coat, or do they just grow longer hair in the winter? I can't say that I have ever seen a deer that was "blowing" an undercoat but that certainly doesn't mean they don't.

I would think that rabbits might grow a soft undercoat, but again I don't know much about hides.

Are there upland hunters or duck hunters on board? I was reading a little about the different furbearers and feathered critters that are good sources of tying materials. Sounds like most of the upland birds are good (and less likely to get you in trouble if you possess feathers vs. picking something up off the ground that might be protected) and waterfowl as well. I came across the term CDC feathers which I had to look up. Sounds like I need to become a duck hunter as well! Now if I could just harvest some birds when I hunt. Argh.

[krebsie]

If anyone is interested? I have a Muskrat that I'm going to skin and dry using the above method. If you would like to watch the process let me know what a good time would be and I'll get you some hands on. Saturday morning say 9:00 or 10:00 am or evenings after 6:00 pm will work for me. Need to know at least a day ahead so I can thaw him out. He 's a bit stiff, like me, only he's frozen!
Krebsie

[trent]

Krebsie:

I'd be interested in checking this out. How soon are you looking to work on the little guy?

Another question for you, do you do anything special to prevent insect infestation. One page I was reading recommended the freezing method much like what, from the sounds of it, you have done. That page also recommended briefly microwaving the pelt to be sure to kill any kind of eggs, etc. that may be lurking. It specified to not use your wife's good microwave or at least not when she would find out. I think it also said it was better to do it outside and if you did it too long, it basically stunk up the place pretty bad.

[krebsie]

I almost always freeze any critter just to preserve it until I can get time to work on it. The side effect is that, yes any little critters living in the pelt will die then. This isn't something that I worry much about because most wild critters are cleaner and healthier than there domesticated relatives. But don't mess with any animals that look anything but completely healthy. Even if it's road kill, look at the pelt and see if it is shiny and full and in good condition before you touch it. In response to an earlier post about the time of year that the animal is harvested and or picked up. Check your local game laws before you pick up any critter. You can get into lots of trouble by possessing certain species out of there legal harvest periods. So there is the answer to your question about time of year. You can't possess a muskrat in your freezer before trapping season and you have only a month after the season to do something with the pelt. Sell it, tan it.... There again if a critter is going to have any kind of bug/disease its more that likely to going to be in the warm months of the year, and not only that but the pelt will be thin and void of the under coat. The thing about the microwave??? I'm dieing for someone to try this! Let me know what happens! No not to the hide, but to the husband who has enough guts to put a muskrat hide in his wife's microwave. I'm going to skin the Rat around 10:00am Saturday. Give me a call if you want to help. 491-0728
Krebsie

[phishphinder]

I learned to preserve my hide when I was young by blaming things on my older sister.