I've never dealt with with it. always used salt but i noticed fur buyers don't like it. i'm familiar with borax but never used it. where the heck do you get it, and is it used for putting up fur?

You can get it at Wal mart, check archives there are some threads on it.

You can buy it at almost any grocery store it's buy the laundry soap -- I use a little while fleshing - then when I turn the hide I'll rub it all over the skin side - then when the hide is dry I'll use it to clean any blood ect. out of the fur- just rub it into the fur dry -works really well -alot of guy's don't bother to evin let them dry fur in when using Borax..

thanks! i finally found a good thread in the archive. so it works good for the grease. man how come i didnt know about this stuff sooner.

Havnt turned a cat or a coyote in years, they all get borax after fleshing and onto the board fur out, wires to hold the front legs open. My cats always get a borax bath to brighten them up before sale time. Check out Steve Woods bobcatching video he goes through the whole process!

My dad told me about borax 40 years ago when I wanted to save some phesant skins -

I changed to borax the belly fur just after fleshing (rather than when dry before selling) as they are easier to rub and shake out when flexible.

I usually borax the flesh side of my cats and coyotes when they go on the stretcher, but as I'm understanding you - are you rubbing it into the fur and shaking it out to brighten them up?

I love the stuff! I first heard of the idea off of the "Bobcatching 1" video, also from "After the Catch". Then again on a few posts on the internet. Now I wouldn't be in the fur shed without it. Here are MY current uses for it.

1) On the stretcher - I use it all over the skin after fleshing so that I can put my cats, coyotes and fox fur out from the get-go. No need to turn.
2) Borax bath - I use it like demonstrated in Bobcatching by rubbing the fur side of dried cats and fox to clean them up and remove grease/blood/dirt/etc from the fur. Then shake out and blow out with compressed air.
3) Fleshing - I keep my end-of-season leftover borax from the borax bath container and use that (dirty borax) during the fleshing process. Helps on those stubborn spots during fleshing.

The cheapest and most logical I've found is the 20 Mule Team Borax found at the grocery store. But I tried some of the fine powdery stuff this year (almost the fine consistency of flour). I bought the fine powder borax at VanDyke's taxidermy supply. It was a little more expensive than the 20 Mule Team. BUT, after using the fine powder, I do like it better for the "on the stretcher" step. Not sure its worth the extra cost though. I would like to find a cheaper place to pick up the fine powder.

As for affecting the skin and tanning process, I am absolutley no expert on skins or fur grading, but I just don't buy it. I shipped my fur and saw no ill effects judging by the grades I received nor the prices. I guess I can imagine a complaint from a country buyer, as an excuse to give you less, but I don't think it hurts.

Borax! It does a fur shed good! LOL

Is this on wood or wire stretchers?

Unless I did something differently, I tried this on a coyote - borax the leather side and stretch fur out - and after 3 days the hide wasn't anywhere near dry or starting to dry...

...I didn't loose the hide and simply turned it fur in overnight like I normally do and then re-turned fur out and it dried normally.

Steve Woods is from Nevada with little or no humidity - keep that in mind when trying this. I cannot do it here as it is too humid and sounds like it is where you are as well. I can dry with fan (focus on arm pits and head) in about 2 hours in 70 degrees and then turn.

Also if you run the borax on after fleshing before boarding it is easier to rub in (more flexible than when dry) and easier to get out (shake it).

No problem with humidity...my drying room is sealed concrete where the temp is about 60-65 contant temp with fans...

...like you I just use borax on the heads (particularily bloody heads and water heads and maybe a bit under the arm pits (if this is dry when I turn I don't)...

...our eastern coyotes do tend to be a bit on the greasy side at times, so maybe this was the problem.

You sure about humidity? It looks like you are > 90% now same as me whereas Nevada < 50%. I do boraz on entire belly rubbing in fur and then shake before boarding.

i went to 2 Wallmarts and neither of them had it. right down the road at Cub Foods they had a ton of it.

it is actually some sort of detergent and yes, I am using it on all our cats. It really aids in drying out any areas that are thicker such as the head/ears and the front legs that get folded over.

Last year in the Trapper and Predator Caller magazine their was a great article on using Borax on coyotes. I think it was Mike Schoonvelt was the author of the article. It was a great article and have been doing my coyotes that way since then and have been having good success. I even talk to the fur grader at Fur Harvesters and showed him my pelts and he was happy with it. He didn't have any negative things to say about it. I have recently tried it on Fisher this year so I will let you know of my results. I would suspect that it would work on anything if it works on coyotes.

hey not trying to steal this thread but... if you like dont get all of the fat off and you put the borax on is there a way you cna go ahead and get it off or not? like once it has been on the board for alil bit?