So last year I tanned four hides. An XL coon, grey fox, red fox, and a bobcat. I had little to no hair come out. This year I have literally ruined a red fox and a bobcat. I took a red fox out of the pickle batch and went to wash it off and the tail literally fell off of it. The skin let loose and all of the hair just fell off in the sink. Other than using borax I’ve been following the direction on a bottle of Nu Tan. Has anyone else had this issue that tans a few hides?

Give us the step by step process you followed and I will troubleshoot it for you.
Borax is an alkali,can cause problems if introduced in the process especially the pickle if not monitored closely.
Many many other things can also cause hairslip.

Never use borax on something you intend to tan. More often than not, problems arise between the time the animal dies and is dried, before the pickle. Usually, animals aren’t skinned soon enough, or too much time is taken skinning, with warm hands warming the skin. Fox are super delicate and can turn in a hurry. A lot of furs that are sold in the fur market would never make it through home tanning. Anything I intend to tan get special attention and is skinned and salted ASAP.

Ok, so without a forty page post I’ll simplify it.

- Skin, flesh, salt ( I used borax ) let set for 12 hours ( I did 24)
- Remove excess salt (borax), shave and re-apply salt (Borax) for another 12 hours (24)
- Rehydrate until playable (30 minutes)…1 cup salt and teaspoon of bleach per gallon of water ( I used Clorox)
- Pickle bath consisting of 1 1/2 cups of Salt and 1 1/4 cups vinegar per gallon of water (24 hours)
- Remove from pickle bath and shave again
- Clean using household 1 tablespoon household degreaser and 1/2 teaspoon bleach ( I used dawn and Clorox )
- Allow to dry until flesh is slightly damp and then apply tanning solution.

**Note: The tail fell off when I went to wash it after the pick bath

Could I wash the borax off a pelt o currently have and still be safe? It’s been on there for about 10 hours.

I think you caused your problem.Why would you use borax?Salt sets the hair when it pulls the moisture out of the hide.

Never really done this before brother! No until last year. Sometime over the summer I seen a trapper on YouTube using borax on his hides. I didn’t really think much about it.

The borax made the hairslip.
Borax is not salt nor is it a preservative for hides.
Salt removes moisture removing the medium that bacteria thrives in.
Borax,being an alkali will destroy keratin.Although borax is a weak alkali if the skin remains wet the borax will destroy the keratin.keratin is what holds the hair in the follicle.
Next time follow the instructions.

Well I hate I wasted him for lack of knowledge. God forgive me

It's pretty common knowledge for home tanners to not use borax in the tanning process.

Most professional tanners will advise mot to use any borax to dry the pelt.

Why would you change when you already had good results the first time ?

If I'm not mistaken Moyles have told me it didn't matter as far as they were concerned. My coyotes that were boraxed have come back perfect from them.

same here been using borax for years never had a problem with moyles tanning my hide ?

boco, do u use only salt to dry your fur?, an what kind?

A commercial tannery and tanning in a basement is two very different things. Borax is always bad, but on a commercial scale a little borax won’t hurt. To use borax in place of salt when home tanning though, will almost always end up with a slipped fur.

Don't beat yourself up too bad. More knowledge is gained through error than most people realize. You won't do that again for sure
You'll constantly gain improvement and a better product. Good luck on your next tanning project

On the upside, if ever there was a year to mess up some fur, this is it, lol.

X2, x2
Live and learn... go catch some more and try again

I don't know of a fur buyer that doesn't use borax

They are doing things in batches and probably using better chemicals than most home tanners are

First of all, vinegar is a poor pickling acid. Combine that with having borax and if you using tap water that is hard, your pH is going to be screwed up. You have to monitor your pH levels. Needs to be in the 1-2 range, so you'll need test strips that can read that low, you arent going to get those locally in most places.

I know a bunch that hate it. Especially the skip the flip guys using wire stretchers. The parts of the hides that contact the stretchers are all slipped when they come back from the tannery.