I had a gray fox dried. Found him dead on the road early season so the pelt is kind of flat but I figured I would try my hand at tanning. So tonight I rehydrated in the appropriate salt water solution. The coon creek outdoors tanning video series on YouTube said that thin skins don’t take long at all to rehydrate. But I had a lot of trouble turning the head. I’m not sure if it’s because foxes have such a narrow neck? Or because I didn’t take the cartilage out of the ears? I pulled a little too much and stretched his eyelid holes lol. Just made a longer cut up the belly so he isn’t so much cased anymore, but open. Otherwise I couldn’t access inside the head to salt it.

Boco you out there???

TTT

I’m sure there’s someone who isn’t watching this joke of a football game?

I don't watch any stupid ball games.

To rehydrate a dried pelt...soak a big towel...squeeze out all excess water....wrap towel around pelt. In a couple hours you can turn it easily.

I’m not sure I totally understand what you’re getting at but if I have a Fox or coyote that dried too much I wrap it in a wet towel until it rehydrates and it is easier to turn canines by pushing the nose through the mouth.

^^^^ what the swamp wolf said

Why are you turning it unless you dried it fur out?

Okay! Wet towel! I was worried about leaving it in a bucket too long cause worried the fur would slip

Is it going in a pickle? I've put dried hides straight in many times. They soak up eventually. They don't necessarily have to be salted, but everyone has different opinions.

I wanna tan myself so it involves turning a lot? Snapping out water and salting and salting and then applying tan solution and breaking the skin. Idk I’m still learning. Sorry!

I wasn’t gonna do a pickle. I ruined the baby fox pelt that way I think because I left it in too long..

Thinning after the salt is very important

Very little in the process needs the fur out so there is no turning the hide until you pull it out of the pickle to do the final fleshing/thinning and you want to come the fur out to eliminate any hidden burrs or fur mats

Hummm. To rehydrate a dried skin, the whole thing gets tossed into the rehydrating bath for about an hour. Then you can do whatever with it, but the head is a bit stiffer than the rest but still very loose.
If it’s dried, the directions tell you to salt it or what?

If the pickle is done right you can't leave it too long, unless it's like a year. What are you tanning with?

Remember the longer you go from dried hide to getting the thing in the pickle the more chances you have the hide slipping. Salting is a wasted step on an already dried hide

PH strips are a must, a coworker left beaver in a bit long…..well, more than a bit long…lol. No hair left.
What directions are you using anyway?

You can't leave a hide in the pickle too long if pH is maintained below 3 and salinity is maintained.

Gotta have the right pH strips. Unless you have a specialty store that sells them, you can't generally get pH strips that read below 3 locally.

Hmm I do have pond strips to check ph. The salt ratio for the water is half a pound to a gallon of water. Pickle solution is written on a piece of paper that a taxidermist gave me years ago. Although, my baby fox may have already started to spoil before hand

I have two tanning solutions; liqua tan from McKenzie and also that little orange bottle they sell at bass pro and other places . I’m following coon creek outdoors videos. I didn’t know that salting is unnecessary when the pelt is already dried.