Re-hydrating and Washing Coyotes
 

Has anyone ever re-hydrated and washed a coyote pelt has has been boarded and dried?

I was behind with skinning so I decided to try a custom skinner for the first time for a dozen of my yotes. The pelts weren't washed and I can't send them in the way that they are. I'm either going to have to clean them all with Borax or re-hydrate, wash and re-board them all. I'm hoping that washing them will work but I'm just not sure if I'm risking them slipping. Thanks!

You can wash them, just soak them for abit in warm water and you'll never know they were dried already. That sucks. Or use borax depending how bloody or dirty

you can use Borax.... what will that do? I have several I was thinking about redoing also and wasn't sure about soaking them again.

If you rub Borax into the pelt with a brush it'll clean and whiten them. It's just a lot of work to do. I use it on red bellies to whiten them.

what do you mean rub it in with a brush... I have borax at home but its grainular like dry laundry soap. Do you make a paste out of it Dave? Can you do it over the entire fur side?

Your Borax sounds good to use the way that it is.

Borax is a cleaning/drying agent and will absorb moisture from the air and become hard like sugar does. When it does I grind it up so it becomes more of a powdery substance. With the coyote pelt on a board I put enough Borax on it so it can be worked into the hair on the pelt. I use an ordinary bristle pet brush to work it into the hair right down to the hide using a back and forth and even gentle circular motion. Once you do the pelt you brush as much of it out as you can and flick the pelt to get it out. DON"T GET IT IN YOUR EYES! Probably not a good idea to breathe it in either. You can get most of it out but not all. Maybe a leaf blower would work well to get it out?

I don't use it as a paste and I generally use it on dry pelts but it can be used on wet ones as well. Try some on one of your red bellies and see how it whitens up the fur. Doing 12 whole pelts with it is a PITA and time consuming so I'd much rather just wash the pelts.

When using borax simply hand wash excessive blood clot areas, wiped the area as dry as possible with a rag then board the pelt as usual. Once the skin as dried and the fur turned out work/rub considerable DRY borax powder into the stained areas, let set for 10-15 minutes and then comb, brush, and shake the borax out. Using this borax treatment method works extremely well. As well as removing blood stains the borax also cleans and brightens the fur.

For before and after pics go to https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthre...ar#Post6662655

Tomcat, I think that it was you that I learned to use Borax with your postings on here. One of the best tips that I learned on here. :happy0034:

You all are more experienced then me but...
Depends how bad it is.
Spot washing and borax might be better .
I washed and dried my last damaged coyote
Then used Borax where there was some red still hanging out around the holes and it looked much better.
Didn’t take good pics but the damaged coyote looks like this. Sorry no belly pics.

Never use warm water when washing a raw skin. Its not healthy for the skin, likely will get hard, thus tannery problem later, plus warm water will melt fat into oil and make the fur very greasy.

thanks guys... lots of help there. Had a look at your dog that you did the b4 and after pics, CRAZY difference

Don't bother trying to re-hydrate if you have a bunch of pelts to do. It takes +1 hour to re-hydrate enough to safely turn the pelt and you still might not be able to turn the face without pliers. I re-hydrated two pelts good enough to put through the washer. No slipping but one had a 10" rip that had to be sewn (probably from the still hard mouth). It was quite a chore getting them on the boards fur in. It didn't help that the skinner used narrower boards than you're supposed to.

In my ultimate wisdom I decided to get a start on a couple more pelts by soaking them in water. Now I have to deal with those two but I'll wait a couple of hours before attempting anything.

The other 8 pelts are cleaned up and in a bag. Those ones at least look decent.

Apparently combing out burrs, etc isn't something that everyone does before skinning and fleshing.......who would have known? I was brushing out sticks, burrs and even bird crap. It's hard for me to believe that Trappers would actually send their fur in like that.

Totally my fault for not doing my due diligence. I got EXACTLY what was agreed upon and that was skinning and fleshing......nothing more than that. Lesson learned.....never again. :budo:

Re-hydrated pelts will turn okay after a four hour soak. Doesn’t appear to be any fur slipping.