Squirrel Hide

I just recently dried a squirrel hide with borax and it turned out great but fairly stiff. Does anyone know of any patterns that uses squirrel body hair i found a squirrel leach but for that the hide has to be pliable and tanned. Is there any way to turn the hide i have now into the fur that is used. I still have several hides in the freezer to kill any bugs in the fur and was wondering if there is a way to tan the hair easily and for more important cheaply.

Thanks alot,
-Zac

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The way to a flyfisherman's heart is through his fly




[This message has been edited by Bass_Angler_04 (edited 05 February 2005).]

[Rusty Rat]

You can shave that hide and mix those great guard hairs in with some beaver or any other dubbing material. I use the fur and hairs from the base of the tail in loops for a "Casual Dress". Explore! That's what this hobby is all about. RR

[swamp rat]

The body fur of a grey squirrel makes a great looking "hare's ear" nymph. I use it anytime I want to dub something grey with guard hairs.
Don't know about making it pliable. I think Cabela's sells a "home tanning" kit that might do the job. Might be worth a look, anyway.

Swamp

[Coach Robb]

Test

[jking]

Dave Whitlock's red fox squirrel nymph is a good pattern that uses the fur cut from the hide, so no softening of the leather is required. Google will get you lots of recipes.

Your squirrel tails are good for wings on larger wet flies. Picket Pin is a good fly for a variety of species. I think there is a recipe on this site somewhere, maybe in Old Flies. I landed a 32 inch salmon on a large picket pin.

John

[Fatman]

A guy on another board has a taxidermist friend who gave him the following mixture to tan skins.

2 lbs of salt.
250 grams of Alum. (The Alum is an astringent , topical disinfectant. In any pharmacy store.)
100 milligrams of borax.
2 gallons of water.

-Boil untill everything is melted down.
-Wait until it cools then add 1 tsp of Sulfuric Acid. Rubber Gloves at this point on! (you can get the sulfuric acid in a hardware store that sell plumbing supplies. Its in an industrial strength form. I got a 1 L bottle for $6.oo. You use only one teaspoon per shot. so you good for a while.)
-Make sure all the skins are submerged in the sollution. Put weight if needed.
-Ready in 4 days.
-hang or stretch to dry. ready in 3 or 4 days. Bend the skins to get it soft.

I haven't tried it myself yet but several other folks tried it and seem to like it.

Fatman

How do i make my own dubbing with it. I havent ever made my own dubbing before. I think i remember somewhere hearing about using a coffe grinder to blen things. I usually only tie flies for bass so i never used dubbing alot. But lately ive been branching out to a lot of other species so ive had to use it more and more.

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The way to a flyfisherman's heart is through his fly

[WarrenP]

I have no experience with tanning hides but I love using squirrel hair in my flies. Like one post has stated, it makes great hares ears plus I tie a clouser using the longer hair from the gray squirrel tail for the belly and the longer hair from the fox squirrel tail for the top. The two colors together come pretty close to matching the small bottom minnows and crawfish in our local rivers here. The longer hair from the tails also makes some good streamers. The body hair I usually cut off and mix with other material in a coffee bean grinder to use as dubbing.

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Warren

[swamp rat]

BA04,
I usually just pluck the hair and underfur out by hand, or cut it off very close to the skin with my scissors. Then, I pull it apart a few times with my fingers, and its ready to spin onto the thread. Nothin' to it!

Swamp

[stonefly71]

All you have to do is break the hide by rubbing it back in forth accross a small board stuck in a vise then put neets foot oil on it to soften it up or just work the hide and it will soften up that way also. But it doesn't matter if it's hard or soft if your using it for tying if you wanted to lay them say on a coffee table then you need to break the hide. If you have anymore questions e-mail me with Hides in the Subject. Later Matt

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To each there own !