How do you clean a skin after its dry?

[BrianMyers 0]

I got a ground hog skin off of ebay. It was cased so the skin was inside out and was folded to fit in the box it was shipped in. The skin is VERY sticky and that stickiness was transfered to so some of the fur while in the box. I razored the skin to lay it out as flat as I could, pinned it to a board, and boraxed it. After the stickiness dries out on the skin side, can I just hand wash or surface clean the fur with soap to remove the stickiness from it? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

just use a mild dish soap and it will be fine

[Fred&Ruth 0]

wash it in dawn dish liquid and then use a hair conditioner on it. That will make it softer and easier to work with. Hang it till it dries again and its ready to go. If you store it in a baggie or whatever put a mothball or two in with it.

[Jeremy Parker 0]

Sounds to me like you got taken.

If you now wash this hide it will lose all the oils that are important for use of this fur???Iuse about 3 hides/yr get them myself on my property.

Here is what I do when I get one clean the raw hide all fat and meat off as much as possible.

get a small barrel you will need 2lb alum 5lbs salt and ten gallons of water(I use rain water).

I normally heat the water so the alam and salt will melt. Let it cool to room temperature.

 

Then put your hide in it put a stone on top of the hide it must always be covered any left to the open air will rot.Stir it twice a day you want to make sure everylittle bit of the hide is coverd with solution.

In about three days you can check it snipe the corner of the hide and it should show signs of tanning by a change in the color of the hide.

 

This works for all hides no matter what they are deer cougar, antelope, squirrels ... etcccc.

 

PLEASE ALWAYS USE RUBBER GLOVES WHEN DOING THIS NOT GOOD FOR YOUR SKIN UNLESS YOU WANT THEM TANNED?

 

Hope this helps??

 

Blessings,

Jeremy

[BrianMyers 0]

Thanks Guys. I let the borax sit for a bit and then go from there.

[buggybob 0]

That stickiness is probably fat/grease from the hide. Groundhogs are well known for being very greasy. As has been said, wash in Dawn dish soap and then in non-scented hair conditioner or Woolite. Then you can dry it by hanging or using borax. That will clean up the hide and preserve the softness of the hair. Cut it in pieces (half or quarters) if you want before washing to make it easier to handle.