Prepare bucktail

[hap]

What fishbum said...

Salt on tying materials is a huge mistake!

Letting the skin dry with the salt is not a problem, but the salt MUST be washed out before the hair gets used for fishing.

The only point I have a mild disagreement with in fishbum's excellent post is the borax use only in fly season... I always use borax and often tumble skins in borax and sawdust to clean and polish it after washing.
art

[Fatman]

Bass Bug - If I get another tail I'll try the shampoo instead of the Dawn and then compare the two.

Betty - Sorry LOL yeah it does sound bad

I'm a complete ameature on this stuff and I've only done about 20 deer tails, 3 muskrat skins and a rabbit skin and knock on wood no major disasters LOL so more info is always good!!!!!

Thanks All

Fatman

[aged_sage]

I must take exception to fishbum's admonition that salt is the worst thing you can put on a hide. If you stop and think about it, hunters in the field, our initial source of raw hides for the materials in the shops, traditionally use salt to 'preserve' the hide until they can get it to a hide buyer or taxidermist, and have been doing this for hundreds of years. I have first hand knowledge of this as I have visited a hide buyer's 'shop' in Wyoming during the elk/deer hunting season, and all of the hides he had on hand had been field salted. The majority of such hides delivered to a taxidermist have been salted, and what better cheap source of various types of hide than the cutoffs from a taxidermist; which ofttimes have not yet been tanned! There is an element of truth in his admonition, but it is readly corrected. The hide can absorb some of the salt, which can lead to hook rusting, if not removed. I have done numerous deer hides over in the past 40 years, not to mention squirrels, and even a very large Norway Rat (GREAT substitute for muskrat for the Adams pattern). All of these hides were salt cured, then washed to remove blood, dead vermin, etc., thoroughly rinsed, then re-stretched on the curing board to dry. The board is always propped up at about a 60 degree angle to facilitate drainage of the excess water, and placed in a sunny, breezy area to dry, which can occur in just a day or so, depending upon the humidity. And yes, I live in an extremely humid area; Houston, Texas! The hides DO NOT rot while drying.

His comment that the salt absorbs moisture out of the air has some validity to it, depending upon the relative humidity; but, it is also absorbing the water and blood out of the hide. The moisture in the air is NOT what causes the salt to turn red; it is the moisture AND blood that has been absorbed out of the hide that causes this color change.

My 40 years of experience, and knowledge of the 'chemical' process involved, is also worth something.

I have NEVER had a hook rusting problem where any of my salt cured materials have been used. And I have tied thousands of such flies over the past 40 years.

aged sage

[Gandolf]

Hi All,

I am pretty much with Fatman on this. A couple of thoughts to add, though. When Fatman talks about Borax Laundry Detergent he is talking about "20 Mule Team Borax", which is actually a pretty good grade of Borax, which is used as a laundry additive, and it has no soap or detergent in it. Other products, such as "Boraxo" have detergents and or soaps in them, and are not suitable for use on hides.

I have salted hides of various types going back 40 years, and salt does a good job of preserving the hide. On the other hand, I now believe Borax is much better for preserving a hide for fly tying, because of the corrosive nature of salt.

I do know a thing or two about salt and it's use also, as I was the quality control and lab manager of a major salt company for a number of years. If used carefully, and thoroughly washed from the hair before the fly is put away, it is fine. That said, I do not want loose grains of salt falling off of a skin and into my fly tying stuff, or on my fly tying desk where it can lead to corrosion, so I have gone to Borax.

Salt is inexpensive, and is excellent for preserving hides for processing. A huge amount of it are used on cattle hides, and also deer hides by hunters, and for that purpose, I believe it is the best choice, if you look at the cost to benefits ratio. However, again, for fly tying one box of 20 Mule Team Borax will do all of the animal hides that I need for fly tying for a very very long time.

For what it's worth, I also use Dawn or other detergents, just whatever my wife has in the house at the time. Shampoo will also remove the natural oils from hair, just as will Dawn, and in fact that is one of it's major functions. In that respect they are not really different at all.

Regards,

Gandolf

[fishbum]

You guys are right about salting hides. If you look at my post you will note that I said hides going to the tanners it dosn't matter.

I must tell you that I have handled hides that number many thousands. As a trapper I had my own fur to take care of. In addition to my own game I worked during trapping season for a local fur buyer skinning game. The raw fur was not salted.

You can do as you will, It really makes no difference to me. I just don't like to see people do work on skins they don't have to do. for flytying pourposes I maintain that you should wash, rinse, scrape, 2nd wash, rinse, partially dry, streatch and finish drying.

fishbum

[kbproctor]

I'm still having trouble with the image of Drill Sgt. Parnelli using Oil of Olay.