Tanning a coon skin

O

Old 3 Toes

Joined
Feb 25, 2000
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My neighbor shot a racoon about two weeks ago and I skinned it (with my CR Shadow IV). I scrapped the fat and meat off, stretched out, salted it, left it for a couple days, soaked it in salt water, rinsed it, salted it again (it is only laying flat now), and after what, three weeks now? It's still not dry. The skin side is still plyable, not dry and hard. What am I doing wrong? I heard someone say somthing about Borax, but not until it's dry. I've looked around the web for any info. I could find with little success. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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"Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Matt. 10:16
 
If you live in a high humidity area the salt is proubably drawing moister.It will continue to do so as long as salt is in the hide. What I have used with good success is Fels Naptha bar laundry soap. You must have ALL fat and grease out of the skin. Take a gallon or two of hot water and shave about half the bar of soap in to it,when desolved put the hide in. Water must not be too hot for your hand or it will be too hot for thee hide. Let soak for an hour then pull and scrub hide to help solution work into it. When cold [couple of hours] remove and rinse out ALL the soap. Hide must be restreached until allmost dry but stll plyable.Now the work begins if you want the hide soft you must work it until plyable if you are just hanging it up, just let it dry while streached. Hide will be tanned and the fur will be clean and fluffy.
 
Check out www.nativetech.org - go to the leather and clothes section. Also, go to your local library and check out a copy of "Outdoor Survival Skills" by Larry Dean Olson. He has a pretty good section on tanning and preservation. It is a very long process that requires many steps to be done right. Hope this helps.
JHall
 
Thanks for yor tips. I could'nt find that Naptha stuff so I used Octagon all purpose soap. The people at the store said it would probably work the same. Anyway, It's drying out. I'll keep ya posted.

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"Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Matt. 10:16
 
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