Quote Originally Posted by Bass_Bug View Post
Borax on the hide side to cure and dry the hide I understand. Plain table salt works too. But I have to ask why one would want to wash the entire hide with a harsh detergent like dawn or a fabric softener????? Neither is made for natural hair. That's whats shampoo and condition are made for. Dawn NOT soften the hair, it will only remove the natural oils. If anyone wants to argue this please feel free to wash YOUR hair in either and see was it does your hair. The Dawn will remove the naturals oils in the hair, leaving it quite dry which will only turn it brittle quicker. Fabric softener? Whats the expectation of this?
You don't even need the borax on a hide to cure it. It will cure just fine without it. The borax is a deturant to flys if the weather is on the warm side. Salt will only make a mess of your hide. It attracts moisture from the air. Fabric softner is completly unnecessary as is conditioner.

I have been washing animal skins in detergant for the better part of 50 years. It does a great job of cleaning blood and grim from the hair. It does not remove the natural oils that has permiated the hair itself. It might if you soaked the hide for several days which we don't do. It does remove grease from the hide that gets on the hair during the skinning and fleshing process. I have never noticed hair being brittle as a result of my cleaning process. Perhaps I just gotten used to brittle hair over the past eight or ten deer hides I have done. I think not.

Use your shampo and conditioner if you want, I will stay with the Dawn and borax solution.

fishbum