Wyatt and I put 2 otter, 2 rats and one mink in the pickle yesterday. First we rehydrated with salt and dish soap. Our PH is around 2. Wyatt came up with a way to hold hides under. Couple pieces of plastic conduit.

Have you tanned before newfox or is this your first go at it?

Glad to see the Earpinator is still hanging out

Dale, Erppinator and I have tanned a few times now. He just left, we pulled them out of the pickle and scraped the otter tails and heads a little more, Wyatt thought maybe the tails would be better if we scraped them again. He has his sold , im doing mine for my granddaughter.

Here’s a mud method otter, out of pickle, I think it looks good we’ll see how it dries.



And Mia’s muskrats

I think the furs came out real nice so far.

Very nice Newfox

Thanks Dale, all ingredients were bought at grocery store except tanning oil that we bought from Trubond. I’m happy with the results, I won’t be selling anymore otter for cheap.

Otter looks pretty good, claws n all!

Great job!

Newfox, can you reveal your tanning recipe? I might play around with a few furs.Thanks

How’d the feet turn out NF?

Mike, I'll get it tomorrow for ya.
Mud, the feet are awesome, thanks for the tip.

Here is our recipe, well Trubond gave it to us. We weigh the ingredients. We use dawn for degreaser. As for how many hides per batch the recipe says it’s good for one deer cape. Maybe Boco could guide us in that regard, he has done a lot more than we have. Trubond 1000B is the oil we are using. We also start our pickle with warm water. Out of faucet.

Thank you! Have great weekend.

Newfox, is that well water or city water?

Dale, no city here.

Lol thanks, figured such but had to ask. I guess I was wondering whether city water with its additives like chlorine would be different on the tanning than my hard well water. No city here either, I'm still laughing as I type this. Thanks again

Dale, I hadn’t thought about that, I suppose the folks that have the city water could use distilled water. Or dip some outta the creek when they’re trapping. Lol

So Newfox on step 9 after the 2hours folded skin to skin do you unfold and let air dry and if so how long does it take before you start working it.
Thanks for the info.

Mad, yes after the two hours I turned it skin out and put it back on the stretcher. After day or two I turned it again fur out so fur could dry. Once fur is dry skin out again all the time on the stretcher. It gets whiter each day. Took mine about a week to dry but it was in the cool shop. Wyatt sands his with palm sander I hand sanded mine. I think after fur is dry if you were to turn couple times a day it would help soften it. I’ve found if you rub them on like edge of a board to soon you will crease it. By putting it on the board to dry they hold that shape.