Any thin skin animals such as fox, rabbit, possum, squirrel borax can be used to tanned their skin. Borax can be purchased at any grocery store where laundry detergent is sold. If your skinning the whole animal, turn it on its back, and make a I incision on the animal. Starting with a leg go right across the leg to the other leg. I find using straight edge razor blades do a fine job and relatively cheap to buy. Then start on a front leg and go across to the other leg. Then straight down the belly to where your first incision was made. (becareful not to cut into the belly, less smell) and then pull gently on the fur and you will see a spider web effect from the hide and meat, cut this and you'll see how the fur comes off the animal clean and no fat. After your done skinning and happy with the removal of the carcass, Get a bucket and put a cup of any laundry detergent ans 1 capful of fabric softener (this will make your fur shinny and soft) with cold water (never hot water-hair will slip) and wash skin thorougly and rinse 2-3 times until there is no evidence of soap in the rinsing water, Using a old towel place the fur on the towel and roll up let it rolled for a few minutes to get as much moisture out of the hide then evenly spread on the borax and lay it on newspaper over night, then shake off the borax (scrape it off where its wet) and with fresh newspaper spread another even coat of borax on the animal and put it aside until you see the hide dry. Then shake off and cut into patches, stripes, whatever you desire. If you want a softer hide, as its drying cut into your desire length and you can rub the hide side against a work bench or plywood edge and work it back and forth for a few minutes a day and this process takes a few days to do.
On the tail- cut the underside of the tail from the base to the tip and start by pulling gently on the tail to get the spider web effect. It's easier to skin (carefully) around the butt area to be able to put your fingers right around the bone, then detach the bone from the carcass, makes it so much easier. Once you have the bone out, make sure you have all fat and meat off the skin, cold water in a bucket with 1 cup of laundry detergent and a capful of fabric softener and wash the tail then rinse with cold water several times until no soap bubbles are seen in the water. Take the tail out and roll up in a towel or old rags and let it sit to get as much water out of the tail. Then lay the tail out and put newspaper under it and put a generous amount of borax on it to sit over night. *note* for deer tails use either kosher salt or table salt -never rocksalt- and let the salt on the tail over night, you'll see where it has blood or wet spots, shake the salt or borax off and reapply another generous amount. Make sure every inch of skin is covered. If you want a soft tail do the same thing you would with the hide as mentioned earlier.
After the skin is dried you'll see it turn a light color whether off white or a cream color, you can put them in plastic bags but out of sunlight or heat, if you see moisture in the bags, open a end of the bag and move the bags to a different location.
If anyone needs further help email me and I will be happy to help you out or answer any questions
antlers2fins taxidermy
