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Need some quick bobcat skin advice

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Mesophilic:
A friend donated to me two bobcat skins he harvested winter 2018-2019.  Mostly fleshed, and then put in the freezer for the last year.

I have some tanning solution coming in the mail, but the tracking number is showing a miship.  Might be a few more days.

The hides are mostly thawed and sitting in my fridge with ice packs (I love how my wife no longer tries to murder me for my actions  ;D )

Is there anything I should do right now to keep the hair from falling out or the hides from degrading?

Pat B:
You could salt them then rinse them off when you tan them.

Mesophilic:

--- Quote from: Pat B on March 06, 2020, 09:38:09 pm ---You could salt them then rinse them off when you tan them.

--- End quote ---

Sounds like a plan.  These were cased and rolled up fur side out.  The head area is still frozen ao I wasn't able to fully turn them inside out.  So hopefully some of the salt will work it's way in and help to melt over night.  It's 32° in my shed so we'll see how it goes.

Can't possibly be as hard as brain tanning an elk hide in Nov  ;D

BowEd:
It would'nt hurt to refreeze your skins till your tanning chemicals come.
Your skins after thawing and before tanning should be thoroughly fleshed good.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,62713.0.html

Mesophilic:
My tanning solution made it this afternoon.   Spent a good chunk of the day fleshing and scraping, just waiting for the hides to dry some more then I'll apply the solution before I go to bed.

One of the hides was so greasy that a washing with dish soap hardly made a dent.  So I worked some ashes in to the skin and let that sit for a bit while I worked on the other one.  A couple of washings with more dish soap and I think I'm good to go.



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