Hey guys, this is my first season trapping and as far fur handling I don't have a lot to go on besides what I've read here or seen on YouTube. Ive got 3 pelts drying and 5 more in the freezer waiting on my Post fleshing knife to get delivered. I'm starting to freak out that I've ruined the first 3 and want to make sure I don't ruin the rest. The first skin I split up the belly and stretched out on plywood like we used to do squirrels. Then I salted it. The others I made boards for and stretched cased, then rolled the boarded pelt in salt a day or so after starting to dry. The first skin looked good I thought and I cleaned off the salt and hung it up. The others seemed like they would not ever dry, and one day I checked on them and they were all dripping wet with condensation. I put them together in a room of the shop with a box fan and the next day they were all much more dry. A few days later though they all have a thick hard white crust on them. At first I though mold, but you can't even begin to scrape this stuff off with a sharp knife. I thinned one on the board with a wire wheel, and it looks more uniform and feels like dry suede. But its still solid white. At first 2 of the skins looked like everyone else's pictures of dry skins, kinda dark tan with darker places on the head and back. Then they got wet with condensation, now all 3 are white and hard. I can tell they're obviously dry now, but I don't feel like this is the finish I'm supposed to be shooting for. Are these furs ruined? I've worked hours just on these 3, to preserve the resources I took from these animals. So I really want to salvage all i can. Also, I am NOT selling my furs to a buyer. I am mainly interested in tanning them myself. Hence the salt on the hides.

Ok, there is a lot to sort out here. I understand what you are trying to do...I think. But, a few questions first: can you describe what your process is/has been with fleshing? So you are planning to tan yourself, but have you ever attempted to do that

The reason I ask is what you are describing doing to the hides doesnt sound anything like what one would do to prep hides for tanning. As such, it is almost impossible to answer you stated question: "have I ruined these hides".

Without more information the answer is you won't know until you try and tan them. I tan furs for myself and occasionally to sell and nothing you have described fits with how I do it-aside from salting the hide.

They are not ruined. That moisture u had was from the salt pulling the moisture out of the hide. That is the purpose of the salt to draw out moisture and set the hair.the white hard crust is just from the salt it won't hurt anything that is normal. When you rehydrate getting ready to tan it will go away

what Arkansas said. what tanning method are you using?

Fingertrapper-I skinned the hides and hung out in the cold before fleshing. Then fleshed on a beam with my cheap weibe knife (im waiting for a better knife before I attempt these other coons). I studied on fleshing fairly heavy beforehand and I'm pretty sure I got as much fat as I could. Then I tacked one up and salted it and it looked normal.(normal compared to other trappers pictures). The others I boarded and air dried, but changed my mind a day or so later and decided to salt since thats in the directions of the tanning solution and I wanted to be sure to set the hair. So I just rolled the boarded hides in salt. I'm aware this is not conventional but it was just a gut reaction thing I did.

Arkansas- I kinda figured the white might be a result of the salt, as theres little spots of raised hard white that look like maybe where individual grains of salt were. I thought it might be condensation on the hides though because the actual fur was dripping wet. Ive seen salt pull the blood and wetness out on squirrels before and the first coon skin and the moisture drew up into the salt and clumped it together. This looked like beaded water on the fur and leather. It really freaked me out as we all know water spoils meat and hides. Not saying you're wrong just clarifying what was going on. I think youre right about the white being from the salt, I just didn't expect the skin to look like that compared to one air dried. Plus I've salted skins before amd they still looked similar to air dried. If I can get by the shop in the morning ill try to get some pics of the skins.

Trapper20- deer hunter and trappers orange bottle stuff

My guess then is that the strange reaction you saw is because you air dried for a time and then salted. So it drew moisture in some places and not others. Also, the salt would not be picked up by the hide in places where it was dry to the touch. Another reason for appearing blotchy.

Assuming you did well on your fleshing there should be no problem. In the future, there is no need to dry completely if you plan to tan. You can salt or air dry the hide but shouldn't do both. Of course this does depend on your tanning method too, I should add.

For perspective, I once put a trapper dried skunk into my pickle solution and left it for 9 MONTHS to see what would happen once I tanned it. It came out beautifully. So, if you are pickle tanning, and can maintain the correct ph, you can add fresh salted hides as they are ready, let them soak, and tan the whole batch at once. You must keep your pickle solution correct this whole time though.

Last thing, I wouldn't recommend using a wire wheel while the hide is in a quasi dry state. Thinning should be done at a different time in the process. I recognize that might not have been your goal though, so I understand.

Salt really draws out the moisture and oils really fast compared to air dried hides. It is normal for coon hides to get wet like that after salting.coon hides are really greasy and the salt draws out alot more moisture than squirel.usually I will salt them and let sit over night then nock off all the wet salt and re salt again

Fingertrapper is right about not a good idea using the wire wheel to thin while dried.you can get it down to thin pritty quick that way and if you thin it down to far and get into the hair roots to much it will cause hair slippage later on.if you want to thin the hide you need to do it after it comes out of the pickle when the hide is swelled up and thicker. Then you won't be as likely to thin to deep.and wire wheel won't do for thinning at that poit you need to use a blade

10-4. Thanks for the info guys. I won't worry as much about them now I think they're ok.