I have a few fox, coyote, and bobcat pelts I plan on tanning for wall hangers. The home tanning kit I have says for best results start with green furs. But I'd like to practice drying, stretching, and just generally putting up fur other then coon. The kit does have instructions for soaking dried hides before beginning the process so it can obviously be done. My question is what if any is the down side of stretching and drying first? Also are there any benefits to drying first? I would think a stretched pelt would look better on the wall.

The only possible problems with dry fur are a result of poor scraping and storage and or drying with heat-leading to grease burn.This will become a problem when dry furs are stored for extended periods of time at room temps,or can happen right away when pelts are dried near heat.Grease burnt leather will not tan properly.
Pelts that are handled grease free then dried at low temps and stored in a freezer over the summer will tan up just like a fresh pelt as long as they are rehydrated properly.
The best way to prepare a fresh skin for tanning right away is to trim off excess flesh,salt the flesh side liberally with pickle salt,fold leather to leather,roll up skin and prop up on an angle to drain overnight.
Next day shake off the old salt,give it another scraping on the beam,re-salt with fresh salt for another 24 hours-then it will be ready for washing,degreasing,neutralizing and then into the pickle.
Dried skins are re hydrated for several hours,washed,neutralized,and into pickle.

One other thing-a salted skin can be subsequently dried,either stretched or not.Salted skins that are dried are prone to damage from cracking of the leather when folded,whereas properly dried fresh skins are not.Also salted skins dont store as well longer term as a properly prepared air dried skin,and should be re hydrated and tanned within a couple months in cooler weather and sooner in summer.
Salted dried skins with fat left on will degrade faster from grease burn than will air dried skins that have fat left on.

I only have a couple years of tanning under my belt, but I've always put fur on a stretcher or board to dry out even though what I use says to start with green skin as well.

Doing this I feel like you get a better shape on in the final product.. oval beavers, stretcher shaped canines and otters, etc

I'll actually board the fur, fleshed of course, and salt it while boarded to help draw out any remaining oils in the skin and to help it dry faster.

Not sure if it's proper, but just the way I've done it in my limited experience. I use TruBond 1000B and always get a nice white, easy to break hide in the end.

I've only had one screw up tanning, and that was when about 5 beavers all slipped while in the pickle. Had them in there for a week and the pH was always less than 2.5, still can't figure out how that happened.

I got about 60 pelts in the freezer that I'm gonna start working on once I get my Steinmeyer knife in the mail, it's gonna take me several months to get them all done, but I've never sold to a buyer. I tan all my catches and sell them that way. Make about 10x the money for honestly not that much more work IMO. Fleshing is the toughest part for me, tanning seems easy the way I've done it.

I also have a question...I'm currently in the process of my first tans, and I've wondered if I can dry my "treated" fur on a board? In other words, can I scrape (flesh), salt (x2), pickle, then apply tanning solution, and board? The method I used seemed to shrink the leather considerably, another question would be can I "break" the hide at any stage, or should I wait till it's completely cured?

John you might have luck sending a pm to Boco if you dont get a response in this thread.

Thanks NT!

You can do that but you may end up with rattly leather instead of stretchy leather.
Likely not a problem for a wall hanger but not the best for sewing.

...meaning drying on the stretcher? Should I wait till fully cured to break/pull?

You should start working the leather after the oil has sweated in for a couple days-after sweating for a couple days unroll the skin but leave it folded leather to leather,flipping it over a few times until the fur drys.Once the fur dries,unfold the hide so the leather starts to dry.When the leather starts to turn dark,start pulling/stretching the skin.If it gets too stiff,apply some warm watered down tanning oil to the leather-sweat it in for a couple hours then repeat the stretching.On thicker parts of the skin,you may have to do this several times.
If everything else was done correctly,you should wind up with a nice stretchy skin.The fur may look somewhat soiled after the oiling,so take the next steps to clean up the fur and do any repairs on the leather.

Thank you very much sir!

Boco the instructions say to only leave fox in the pickle for 15 minutes. Is that right? Will I hurt anything by leaving them overnight? Plan on trying the aluminium sulfate and soda wash tanning solutions you posted on home tanning last year.

Normally you can leave a skin in the pickle indefinitely as long as the ph remains between 1 and 2.
I dont know which type of tanning instructions you have?Could be correct for different types of tanning.
There are some synthetic tans that will tan a skin in 18 hours.

Sounds like orange bottle...it's what I used also, I'm happy with the results, just feel I need to refine my process.

Yes the orange bottle. Just dosen't make sense to me why the instructions say to leave all other pelts in the pickle for several hours yet fox only 15 minutes. So far I've done 2 beaver, a bobcat and coon with the orange bottle solution and am happy with the coon and cat but not fully satisfied with the beavers. Currently have a bobcat, coon, beaver, and 2 fox in the pickle plan on using the rest of my 2 orange bottles on the cat, coon, and foxes and using the aluminum sulfate solution on the beaver. John after letting the tanning solution set in I boarded my coon and bobcat after turning the cased pelts leather out I thought it would give it a nicer look. They turned out well I was just making wall hangers.

I ended up applying a second coat to the coon I do feel happy with the suppleness of the leather, but I need to thin the neck/saddle a bit. I may do the same with my possum, as it's pretty firm, but I think I'll try to dampen the fur and pull it first.
I have never messed with a Fox, but from what I understand they are extremely thin, and very prone to slippage, that would be my only guess on it.

I did a coon that turned out great. I had a coyote that turned out pretty good. The ears slipped.

I’d follow the directions before I tweaked them any.

Did you remove the cartilage on those ears? I'm still so green, I haven't figured out how/when to do that yet.

I think the fur handling pdf either Nafa of Fha has shows how to remove the ear cartilage.

Found it the diagram is on page 12.
https://www.furharvesters.com/pdf/pelthandling.pdf

Thanks NT, I actually have that brochure. I have looked (not tried) while skinning, and when fleshing it just seemed like a nightmare! I'll get it down eventually, just will take some practice. Anyway, Tailhunter, great info if it applies to your situation, give it a try!