Raw fur

[Drawerdoc 0]

Hope I did this right, any ways my son in law is a traper; he has given me some bever scraps frozen in a bag and iam not sure what else. Can I use u cured fur scraps he has traded? Thanks

[mikechell 0]

You can use them ... for the fur. Stake out the furs strips with the hide "up". Salt or borax the hide and let it dry out thoroughly. Keep it dry and you should be able to trim off amounts of fur/hair for tying.

 

I have also used a jar of kitty litter to dry out the furs and hides of raccoon. Should work well for small amounts of hide.

 

If you want to use strips whole, like zonkers ... you'll need to tan the hides.

[rockworm 0]

Sure you can use "raw" fur. Especially if your son-in-law has salted and dried the scraps prior to freezing. Skins treated this way tend to be hard and/or papery and/or fragile, but the fur is still fine. Thaw a few scraps, keep them dry and see what condition they are in. If they smell bad or if the fur is "slipping" from the hide throw them out.

[Gene L 0]

You don't really need to salt the skin, just scrape the fat away on the flesh side and tack it skin side up in the sun. It will dry hard and stiff, which is fine. I've used a number of raw hides for various animals. Mountain men didn't salt their pelts, either, they didn't have access to that much salt. Borax will dry up a lot of fat, but a good scraping will remove it entirely. If the Boraxed fat is there, it will make handling the pelt greasy.

[fshng2 0]

Earlier this year I dried 1-1/2 deer hides. Once dry I rescraped any fat I Could see. Then rubbed some borax on the greasy areas and let set for a few days to remove any grease residue. Once I was happy I used a very sharp pair of scissors that I recently bought to cut up the hide. I have done this to a variety of fur and feathered skins with good reaults. Just store in zip lock bags, then in plastic tubs and you should be good to go.

[Drawerdoc 0]

Thanks, that's what I'll do

[tidewaterfly 0]

The two biggest enemies of "raw" fur as far as fly tying is concerned is mold & moths. There are other insects that can be damaging, but moths are the biggest culprits. If what you have has not yet been dried, you would do well to wash them in a warm soapy water solution. Dawn detergent works very well for this. This will aid in removing excess grease, oils & dirt. Dirt will be on such fur naturally, as Beavers & other such animals live in places where mud will get on their fur even if it doesn't appear to be dirty. This dirt is "protein" & that's what is attractive to moths.

 

Mold & moisture go together, so after you wash the fur, follow what the others have said about placing the scrapes out someplace to dry thoroughly. But, before you do this try to blot as much water out of the fur, and even a hair dryer is not out of the question if you're willing to spend the time. Keep checking & turning the pieces to allow them to dry completely. The hide will take some time to dry out, but usually only a few days.

 

I trapped too for many years & have processed a lot of my own fur for tying purposes. It takes some effort to do, but in the long run will provide some very good tying materials.

 

I still process some things & do some long term storage in a freezer. Otherwise after making sure my materials are completely dry, I store them in zip lock bags to have them ready to use. A pack of silica gel in each bag also helps keep moisture levels down & I add moth crystals to some bags to aid in keeping the moths away. Some folks don't like the moth crystals, and there are other methods you can use that are not as "smelly", but I've never had any issue with the moth crystals so that's what I use.

 

I have in the past, not spent the effort to wash trapped fur items, and have had no issue with using it for tying as long as there's no blood, excess grease or excess mud on the fur. However, I got into the habit of washing everything as there's a higher chance of contamination if the fur has such attractants still on it. No matter how you try, there's no way to prevent moths from getting around your house completely, so it's better to limit the possible problems than deal with the damage afterwards.

 

I had a shipping container of raw fur get destroyed many years ago. I really thought the container was well sealed & had put moth crystals in it. This was dried scrapes of Moose hide I had purchased, but I'm not sure they had been cleaned. When I opened the container to process the scrapes, which was about 3 months after I received it. it was evident that moths had gotten in it & there wasn't much left. Lesson learned the hard way!

[artimus001 0]

after salting; i dry new furs in a slow oven (170 F). this dries them really quick and kills all possible invaders and their eggs.