Tan yer hide

[check your fly]

I was the benifactor of a fresh roadkill red fox squirrel (somewhat uncommon in these parts) Wednesday. After skinning and cleaning the hide it pinned it out and put on a thick coat of borax. In 24 hrs the hide was very well preserved but just as stiff as the one I air dried a while back. Anybody have much experience tanning hides so that they come out soft? Is there any way to make this one soft at this point?

Thanks and Tight Lines!



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Chuck Hitt

[tlooze]

I have done this using alum.
Check this site: cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_l/l-103.html

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Tom

[William Fitzgerald]

No need to tan if you are going to use it for tying flies--one of the countrys biggest dealer in deer hair only air dries.

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Bill

[flyfisherjoe]

tanning is a lot of work and not necessary. Clean the skin of fat and flesh as thoroughly as possible, scraping works good. If it's a mammal skin just salt the hide. If it's a bird skin use borax instead of salt. Pin it on some cardboard to dry. If oil surfaces, apply more salt (or borax)to those areas.

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Joe

[darrell]

To soften it (if you really must) use a tanning past- apply it, let it sit for a couple days, rinse, reapply, a couple more days, rinse - let dry and work the stiffness out.
A quick and inexpensive paste :
One part washing soda
2 parts salt
4 parts alum
mix with soft (boiled or rain water) water to make paste

Or if you just want the tail - chop it off - in one hand pour a pile of salt - hold tail at base, and rub cut end in salt until it doesn't take up any more salt. Store in bag with mothball or a few grains borax.

[James Smith]

Since I find that I only use "donated" squirrel fur for dubbing, I've gotten so I don't even skin them anymore. I simply grab a bunch of fur between by thumb and finger and give it a quick jerk against the way the fur is growing (towards the head). The fur slips right out and in about 10 minutes, I can have 90% of the useable fur off of a squirrel in a baggy without all the fuss and bother of skinning, scraping and drying a skin. Works great for me and you might give it a try on the next fresh squirrel you come across.

Jim Smith

[check your fly]

Thanks everyone.

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Chuck Hitt

[white43]

I never done any of this, but somewhere I read that you can tack a skinned animal to a corrugated cardboard box and tan it that way. Apparently there is formaldahyde (sp?) in the corrugation. JGW

[This message has been edited by white43 (edited 09 October 2005).]

[billknepp]

I've only ever scraped the hide clean of meat and fatty depoisits and salted em..Squrriel,Rabbit,Deer...Raccoon hides are a real nasty to get clean...and to think I'll soon be able to do all this stuff again soon....as here in the city, The life of a country tyer, Just is'nt exactly practicable...lol...Pitty with all the Natural Black Squrriel's I've seen since moving here...Extreamly rare to see back in PA....My tying has gotten alot more expensive here than I'd anticapated,But relief is fast approaching....!!!!!!!!!...all to happy to take these kids out of here to a place where they can run and play.....ok ok...I'll try and contain my enthuseam!!!....

If you really want to try tanning...Cabela's sells Tanning products...Never tried em,Just seen they offer em..and in smaller quanties suited to tinkering....Have given it thought though....

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"I've often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before" A.K.Best

Everyone wants to excel in this sport but at the same time we let traditionalists place restrictions on our tactics, methods, and ideas. Fly fishers often refer to Fox Statler as "out of the box." The truth is that I never got in the proverbial "box." I always assumed that fly fishing was a sport that allowed imagination, creation, adaptation, investigation, dedication, education, revelation? : Fox Statler, On Spinners (Not the dainty Dry Fly kind) "Spinner'd Minner Fly"

"Wish ya great fishing"

Bill

[ashbourn]

Clean the best you can and then stratch it out as flat as you can. It will be a little softer, easier to get fir off, and most important there will be little if any oil lost. I have done many hides like this and the results are great, the cleaning is the longest part but the more you can get off the better.