I have a prime winter trapped mink in my freezer. I need to skin it out and preserve the pelt before my wife finds it and freaks out. I want to use it for Zonker strips so the skin must be preserved in a manner that keeps it soft and flexible. Any hints from knowledgable tyers on how to go about the skinning and preserving of this pelt?
“…whatever is true,whatever is noble,whatever is right,whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”
Speck, Another route you could take would be to find a local trappers organization. My son and I belong to one here in NY. The members often donate a few skins each year to the club to sell as a fund raiser. Perhaps someone would swap a skin that has already been tanned. Maybe they haven’t sent them out yet and yours could tag along with their shipment. They usually do it in quantity so the price is reduced. Just got my son’s red fox back and the total was $10.00. Large fox too! If you go that route, get some skinning instructions first. It will need to be case skinned, not open. kgilroy
I have several small game skins tanning in my basement as I write this. First the animal must be skinned and the hide scraped to remove blood & dirt. Then you wash in detergent; some say to wash in alcohol but I usually skip this step and my results are just fine. Then comes the fun part (this step is the reason most people don’t tan their own hides). You have to scrape the hide on a “fleshing” board. You are actually removing the inner layer of skin so that the tanning solution can penetrate the remaining layers. (This inner layer of skin is what keeps the blood from leaking out of the living animal.)You need a really sharp knife for this step and I really can’t tell you how to do it but it’s like peeling skin off a sunburn only MUCH, MUCH HARDER and MESSIER. OK, if you’ve followed me this far, now is time to soak the skin in your tanning solution. I use 1/2 cup of aluminum sulphate + 1/2 cup of non-iodized salt per gallon pf water. I usually leave the skin in the solution for a week with several stirrings during this time. Don’t take the skin out until it turns a snowy white. Now you can wash it in borax (small amount) and rinse it several times. I also like to give it a final wash in conditioning shampoo to make the fur fluffy. (Almost done.) Now you rub and stretch the skin. This will dry it as well. Take your fleshing board and polish it like a shoeshine boy using the skin as the shine cloth. If you don’t do this the skin will dry stiff as a board. Keep shining until the skin is soft and dry. Please note, there is a good chance you will ruin the first skin you work so don’t use your mink skin. You’re now ready to cut the skin into zonker strips. Phew! No wonder the Indians made their women do this stuff! Oh yeah, some people tell you to rub neats foot oil on the skin now, don’t do it. The skin will smell to high heaven which you don’t need for your purposes. My tying bench is surrounded by bird skins and self-tanned animal skins.
If your elk patches are not yet fully
dried out, you need to salt or borax them
and leave them exposed to the air. Sealing
in a plastic bag will be counter productive
before the piece of hide is fully dried.
Warm regards, Jim
Thanks, Jim and duckster. Right now they’re sitting with salt and pretty stiff. I suspect they’re about a dry as they’re going to get. There’s no odor other than a very faint scent. Store in a paper bag?
Hi DianeID, the simplest thing to do would be to wash them in detergent and soak them in a jar of rubbibg alcohol for maybe a week. This is called “pickling” and is fine for your purposes. Afterwards I’d probably air dry them and shake them in a jar or bag of borax to keep any bugs away. The reason I do all the other stuff is that I tye lots of double bunnies and my own variations of double bunnies. Plus I derive a lot of pleasure out of catching fish on flies made from materials that I personally shot, tanned/treated and tied. Good luck.
Speck, DianeID, What I was really saying by my long-winded (though I left out lots of details) discussion on tanning/pickling is call a taxidermist or (DianeID) take Merle up on his offer. You really don’t want to try tanning at home unless you find it facinating enough to take up a new hobby (like me). It’s tough, dirty and messy and you can easily screw up your skins. You will end up with a better product when done but you can’t possibly justify the effort by the end result. Good luck to both of you whatever you decide and don’t even get me started on bleaching and dying.
Sounds like the professional doing the job is likely the best course of action.
Jim,
I know what you mean about the Goodwill and Thrift Stores. I actually lined up outside one last spring to get in early enough to grab a mink coat for 20 bucks. The fur is beautiful and the way it is sewn together I can make very narrow strips just by tearing along the seam. The fish love the flies I’ve made from this source but the skin is a little weak and they tear them up pretty good. I was hoping to get some tougher, longer lasting strips out of my frozen specimen.
“…whatever is true,whatever is noble,whatever is right,whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”