Prep Game bird skin adive.

[Moshup 0]

Asking for some experienced advice on the proper way to prep some skins. I have two woodcock and 1 Ruffed Grouse skin waiting for me in the freezer and I want to thaw them out and make them useful. Any advice would be appreciated

[prairiedrifter 0]

Remove ALL meat and fat, including all wing bones/meat. Rub with borax and pin it open skin side up on cardboard to dry.

[Moshup 0]

So the skin is facing outward prairiedrifter ? What about salt ? Do you wash these skins prior to cleaning and pinning. How long does it take for the skin to cure while pin on the cardboard ?

[Bimini15 0]

Not my thing, but I once ran accross this in the internets.

Hope it helps.

http://www.uky.edu/~agrdanny/flyfish/petti.htm

[Moshup 0]

Thanks Bimini it sounds like more trouble than it's worth but I think I'll give it a go and keep them i my garage over winter far from my tying stuff.

[prairiedrifter 0]

You can wash and dry the feathers before you pin. I would only wash if the feathers are very dirty. Yes, skin facing out. I have used borax as a bird skin preservative for 35 years.

[Moshup 0]

Thank you prairiedrifter.

[fshng2 0]

I've done this quite a few times with feathers and fur.

You can wash these type feathers but if they are not dirty I never bother.

If you decide to wash, use a hair dryer to completely dry before the next step.

Furs always get washed because they are usually dirty and bloody.

 

First step lay down some cardboard and put the birds skin side up.

Cover skins with about 1/4 inch of borax.

No pinning necessary see next step.

Place another piece of cardboard on top (or plywood if you have some).

Put something heavy on top like a tool box, concrete blocks etc. The idea is to press skins flat which makes them nicer to tie with.

Skins should be done in about 3 to 6 weeks depending on the humidity.

After the skins have dried I take them outside to get any remaining borax off. I usually smack them against my foundation wall.

After you are finished removing the borax put them in a zip lock bag.

 

You can buy borax from Walmart.

[Piker20 0]

Doing your skins this way, with borax means you need to keep them dry for storage. I use ziploc bags. But the skins last forever more like this.

[RickZieger 0]

I have a few friends that pull feathers off the birds and give them to me.

Have not had a problem with using the feathers that have been pulled off the skin.

 

Rick

[mikechell 0]

I have a few friends that pull feathers off the birds and give them to me.

Have not had a problem with using the feathers that have been pulled off the skin.

 

Rick

Just like strung hackle. You could pluck the feathers, sort and bag them appropriately. Time consuming, but you'd never have to worry about the skin again ... and you can s**tcan the feathers you know you'll never use.

 

On the other hand ... if you've got a taxidermist near you ... they can tan the skin much more professionally, and you'll have a supple skin, rather than a "stiff board" with feathers on it. Not necessary, but much better to the touch.

[tjm 0]

I have dried the skins with salt and others with borax and both gave me hard skins, one book I read long ago gave a mix of water and glycerin, iirc 3 parts water and 1 part glycerin, to work in to the dried skin to soften it, that did work. But after some years I ended in plucking those skins and storing the plucked feathers in zip locks by type and the wing feathers I wanted I paired a primary from the left wing with one from the right, left & right secondaries etc and bound the quills together with masking tape.

Greatly reduced the storage, with duck or pheasant about 3/4 of the skin contains feathers that I will never use.

 

I book marked a page at uky.edu that has some suggestions/answers to home preparation of fly tying materials; search "faq processing fly tying materials at home" and it should be at top of the page. How to wash and dry the feathers using panty hose among other things.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Tjm, here it is.

 

 

http://www.uky.edu/~agrdanny/flyfish/petti.htm

[tjm 0]

yes that's the page, and in rereading the above I see that Bimini15 posted the link already.

I hesitated to post the link because I'm new here, may be rules I haven't learned yet. I thought the article a good reference because of the varied sources and quotes.

Generally borax would be my go to for drying, semi-preserving skins, because of it's bug killing/repelling characteristic, plastic tub filled with enough 20MuleTeam to bury the skin, I work the borax into both sides of pelt and leave it for several days then blow excess borax off with compressed air or shopvac on blow. Note dry borax may not be good to breath so protect yourself when working with it.

Dish soap or naphtha to degrease really fat/oily skins. The pantyhose/pillow case trick I learned from an acquaintance in the late 1970s.

[Gene L 0]

I'm not worried about parasitic bugs, they live off blood and will perish with the death of the animal. I've bought prepared partridge skins that were slightly greasy; I think they were coated with borax. Not tanned.