Just wondering what recipe everyone uses ? Will the fine shavings for bedding at the farm store work ?

Hard wood shavings are preferred, pine can have sap/pitch residue in it. Ground corn cobs can work as well if you are just tumbling to polish the hair a bit.

I use kiln dried sawdust that is specific for tumbling fur.

I use those horse bedding pellets. A 40 pound bag lasts a long time.

We used corn cob grit in the fur rooms I worked in. We got it in 50lb bag. It was brown paper and was folded and glued shut. We would order it by the pallet load. We dumped a gallon can of solvent in the new grit and ran the drum a little to mix it up. We ran three bags at a time. But the drum was about eight foot tall and six wide with a expanded metal side just as big. We ran them in the grit side and when they came out you shook them out a little to save on grit, then they went in the mesh side. The ran 13-15 minutes a side. All the cats we removed the feet to get rid of claws and tucked the hind legs inside and rubber banded them to keep them from ripping up the back.

X2

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...xa9L5zplzPYoOZfxEpLFlcdrD_RoC6EcQAvD_BwE

I run hardwood sawdust with hot water and a detergent liquid soap like Downy.

Depending on what I am drumming I will use either a course hardwood sawdust, for like beaver and a finer hardwood sawdust if I am drumming fisher.

I buy my sawdust from a supplier here in Ontario.

Figuring out the right ratio is the answer to doing a good job.

In order to do a good job the mixture needs to be damp but not wet, the detergent cleans the fur.

I mostly drum wet beaver and you would be surprised how dirty the sawdust is,

My drum is an old dryer.

Hardwood sawdust is my preferred material because it comes out of the pelt easily.

Corn cobs is what I use

For long hair furs, cracked corn works outstanding. Not corn cob grit, but cracked corn like you feed birds.

I always used sawdust from a cabinet shop here in the city

They cleaned it from any objects and dirt and kept hardwood separate from the soft woods which real nice, bagged it up in 20 lb bags to, was a real money maker for them as hard wood can be used for many things !

I put it in after I had most of the moisture out of the pelt and never added any thing with it, tumbled five or six
large pelts at time for half a half hour first check.

Then another half hour did this for many years and after the cleaning and polish on the furs

Just shook them out after words and they were in excellent shape for a home tanner.

Sold al my equipment many years ago but still remember the time I took to get those furs looking like
the pro's for my work with them. One needs the time to take to do a great job though !!

Gibb really enjoyed the video , thanks everyone for the information.