Look at me doing science n’at!
I mixed the one gallon of hot water with 8 Oz salt and 3 Oz citric acid. Dissolved. Waiting to cool down before I add the pelt. Got my pH paper in the mail today and it reads true between 1-2! Pickle time! I’m excited. Hope this works

I’ll update as days go by and try to show you the color of the skin side as it changes. Just put it inside the bucket. Pond rock holding it down

Got the aluminum sulfate yesterday and I already had the washing soda. The tanning oil will prob be in by the end of the week.

Step 2




Step 3







Took out of the alum and wrung out and towel dried.
Then turned the ears and removed the cartilage (not sure if this is necessary but I think it may make the head look less crumpled . Warmed up the tanning oil and slathered over the skin and rolled him up. Tomorrow I’ll stretch out to dry some, then the “scrunching” process begins later on!


Step 4; coming together! The fun part




Went on to the scrunching and breaking part. I don’t have a great setup for this so I stuck a t bar in picnic table slats and worked the hide over it while keeping the t side against my hip. Then sprayed warmed tanning oil with water mixed. It isn’t very pretty underneath but I’m happy that it is becoming more soft and supple and the hair has all stayed! More finishing to come later on.

Step 5?!

WHOOPSIE!!

Hobbie Trapper helped me out with something I didn’t quite understand; I didn’t remove the dang membrane. So the skin looked ugly and it was still kinda stiff. So back to the old drawing board! I used a scraper to try and get most of it off and then I worked the hide over the rebar again.







Final steps!

After I got the membrane off and worked the hide a little more I sanded the hide a bit and washed in dawn and tacked out a bit to dry and hold its shape. Once dry I sprayed the fur side with Mineral spirits and rubbed in with a rag. Put the pelt in a couple garbage bags with some handfuls of sawdust and tumbled in the dryer with no heat for 20 minutes. Brought out and gave it a few shakes and it’s all done.
I can’t wait to try a thicker and primer pelt!

Video below (hopefully it’ll post)

Following

Nice can’t wait to see the results. Have 2 red fox I’m going to try Boco’s method on as soon as things settle down a bit.

The waiting is the hardest part!!!

As soon as I opened this and saw the bucket I was afraid your septic had froze up!

The thread title would be much different then!
Would be more like “I’m up the creek!!!” Or “crap outta luck!”

I have no idea what his secret ingredients are so I didn't want to judge.

Will follow also. Would like to tan some more hides different from the other way I've done. Can't wait!

It’s always fun to try new things, the nice part now is with prices down money wise your not out much in hide cost.

I’d never catch enough to make any kinda money anyways. But you are right; I’ll save money instead of giving it to Moyle. Although they do fantastic work.

McKenzie taxidermy has ph strips that read 1.1 1.2 so on so you can really dial in your pickle. I used the same ones as you with success but plan on getting the more accurate ones when I re order also for your tan remember you can add some pickle to lower the ph or baking soda to raise it so don’t dump all your pickle juice.

Thank you I plan to keep this batch and try a raccoon. I know just a little about raising and lowering pH because of my koi pond.

Good deal I made that mistake my first time tanning.

I haven’t looked but what would a ph meter cost vs strips? That way you could get more accurate readings.

I ain’t looked either?? I have drops that you can add to water in a test tube but that prob is the same as strips…

If you are using his method and all the suggested prep, you can pretty much bank on his measurements. The strips are nice but I wouldn’t be too concerned unless you are reusing the mixtures.

where can i find boco's formula?

He will answer if you PM him. If not, send me a Pm with your email and I will forward it. K Snow sent it to me

PM me an email address and I'll send it out to you. I turned his posts into a single document.

Bingo