Tanning 101

[JohnP]

Jim - I may have missed it but is your method with fur on and also may I copy and paste your directions on another site?  I'll give you full credit for the post.

[FinsnFur]

The article posted here is fur on.
Dehairing an making buckskin has a whole additional process before tanning though.
And yes...your more then welcome to paste it or share wherever you'd like.

[JohnP]

Thanks Jim, appreciate it.

[coyote101]

Jim,

I am trying to tan a raccoon tail and have a couple of questions. I stripped the tail from the coon and did not split it, and I can't turn it inside out, so scraping the fat and crap from the skin is not possible. I watched a video of a guy who tans tails and followed his lead, which is pretty much the same as the instructions on the tanning solution I used.


The tail is soft and supple, and doesn't smell, but the hide part feels very oily. I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong? Should it have been salted longer? Should I redo the process, or is it not possible to get a good result without splitting the tail?

Pat

[FinsnFur]

Pat...I've never been a believer in those, "all in one lotion tans". But regardless... what was the actual process?
You said your wondering what you may have did wrong. But I'm not sure what you did yet.

[coyote101]

Pat...I've never been a believer in those, "all in one lotion tans". But regardless... what was the actual process?
You said your wondering what you may have did wrong. But I'm not sure what you did yet.

Jim,

I filled the tail with table salt and let that sit for a day. Then soaked it in a salt water solution for a day. Then washed it with Dawn detergent and let it get semi dry.  Then applied the tanning solution and let it soak in for about sixteen hours. Washed it again and shampooed it, and let it dry. That's pretty much the directions on the bottle. except for scraping the hide, which I can't do that since I didn't split the tail. It is soft, but still feels greasy. Suggestions?

Pat

[FinsnFur]

So when you say the "hide feels greasy" you mean the fur?
If your referring to the skin, it might be the tanning lotion. I've never used those but I'm guessing it would have a residue.
If your referring to the hair. I'm surprised the dawn didnt work for you. As you know coons are greasy ass creatures to begin with, so I'm guessing it just didnt get degreased enough.

There's a couple things you can do.
One - damp a wrap with white gas or lantern fuel and wipe the fur down with it. Thats how I used to degrease bears. It works well.
or
Two - fill a ziplock bag or plastic grocery bag with hardwood sawdust and throw your tail in in with it. Then put it in your dryer and let it tumble for a while with NO heat. The saw dust will clean up the fur. I made a tumbler for doing this on a large scale and the hides just rode in the barrel with the saw dust. But this small scale quick fix version should do the same for your tail.

Or you could do BOTH methods.

[coyote101]

The fur is clean and soft, it's the skin that feels greasy. I may just watch this one, to see if it dries more, or begins to smell. I have a couple more that I'm working on, and I think I will salt them for several days and change the salt every day, to see if that makes a difference. I'd like to do this without splitting them, but I may have to. I have a coyote tail as well, and it's hard to get the salt all the way to the tip of the tail, so I may just go ahead and split it to begin with.

Pat

[FinsnFur]

The saw dust tumble will clean the skin too. It does wonders.
I used to use a scalpel to slit the tip of the tails and then poke salt down into them until it came out my slit, using a very tiny rod or small screw driver.

[coyote101]

The saw dust tumble will clean the skin too. It does wonders.
I used to use a scalpel to slit the tip of the tails and then poke salt down into them until it came out my slit, using a very tiny rod or small screw driver.

I don't have a tumbler, but may see if I can pick one up.

I like the idea of putting a small slit near the tip. I have been using a wooden skewer to try to jam the salt all the way to the tip, but once the salt gets a little moist, it's hard to move.

Thanks Jim.

Pat

[FinsnFur]

No problem keep us up to date let us know how it goes. By the way your clothes dryer will work as a tumbler as mentioned above. Maybe I didn't elaborate on that enough to explain it. But putting your tail in a bag of sawdust to keep the saw dust from getting all over your dryer it will still tumble with the tail and clean it and condition it. Almost every Tannery in the world today uses hardwood tumbling techniques.


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[coyote101]

No problem keep us up to date let us know how it goes. By the way your clothes dryer will work as a tumbler as mentioned above. Maybe I didn't elaborate on that enough to explain it. But putting your tail in a bag of sawdust to keep the saw dust from getting all over your dryer it will still tumble with the tail and clean it and condition it. Almost every Tannery in the world today uses hardwood tumbling techniques.

Thanks Jim.

Pat