Pair of bobcats[may be graphic for some]

[BowEd]

The other day a neighboring varmint hunter dropped off a pair of close to prime local bobcats for me to tan.A tom and a female.He wanted the claws to stay on and stay cased.Got em skined/fleshed/and salted.I'll wait till they are flint dry and put each in it's own tanning bath in a 5 gallon bucket.

[Outbackbob48]

Ed, sure ain't much fat on those cats, I'll be following this one to see how ya Tan these. Nice project for sure. Bob

[BowEd]

Bobcats are a dream to skin and flesh compared to beaver/badger/and coon.A lot less fat.

[Allyn T]

They look creepy that way. Do you use natural materials to tan?

[bjrogg]

I’ll be watching Ed. Nice job skinning.
Bjrogg

[JEB]

Will be watching this also. You going to boil the skulls?

[BowEd]

From a thawed frozen state it's kind of a tedious process skinning and fleshing this way.If it were fresh and warm it woudl'nt have taken as long.Took just about 2 hours per hide.Key is to have a very sharp knife.Luckily they were not blown apart bad by the bullet.Just tiny enter and exit holes is all.

I started the process of setting the hair by salting and drying.By that I mean this.Each hair follicle has it's roots set into the epidermis in a little cavity of oily collegen type substance.Salt will dry that out.Extract all moisture from that cavity and the cavity area will shrink in size and tighten around that hair follicle root.Setting it into the hide.For preserving a hide for a later date it's a good way besides freezing it.

Use a fine grain pickiling salt.Massaged into the flesh side.Don't use rock salt.I get mine from a grocery store.Very cheap for a 4# box.

I will tan these using aluminum sulphate and pickling salt which has no iodine in it.An easy way to pickle or tan.Thinner hides soften easily using it.No pests that I know of eat it.Lasts for decades and resoftens after being wet.

Aluminum sulphate technically is a natural material as I understand it.It lowers PH in water or soil.Mixed with pickiling salt which is acidic it lowers the PH in the water.

It is used for many things.Most popular is to purify water from even unseen impurities.Very safe,cheap,and easy to get.It is used in cake mixes of various types also so ingested moderately will not kill you.It can irritate eyes if gotten into though just like salt.

Another way I tan or have tanned is with brains and don't use salt.A hair on brain tanned hides' hair gets set when it dries naturally.When storing hides to be brain tanned they are stored as rawhide.A light spraying of insectcide on them keeps the pests away over time,or use the good old freezer.Also with tannin water to bark tan and use salt while tanning but to store the hide I will use salt to dry.

The skulls the varmint hunter never discussed with me.I feel he does'nt care for them.I might flesh/debone/boil/clean up and bleach them.I don't know yet.I've already got bobcat skull but an extra skull or two does'nt hurt.

If you've ever seen a skinned bear carcass.They almost look human.Now that's creepy....Ha Ha.Or better yet seen a coyote infected with the sarcoptic mange.They almost look alien.Terrible way to die.

[JEB]

going to boil the skulls and keep them?

[Allyn T]

Thanks for the info! I've got a deer skin in my deep freeze right now

[BowEd]

Allyn T...Your deer hide should be good yet if your freezer has stayed running all this time.

[BowEd]

The weather here this spring has turned to be warmer/windier/and high humidity during this time of year.It is stormy out.I have hung the 2 bobcat hides inside the house to dry quicker in lower humidity.
For hair-on flat hides to salt like beaver and such you can lay them on a surface flesh side up on a slight slant to drain fluids.Use a fine salt...Not rock salt.Massage it into flesh side well.I buy canning salt...cheap....from grocery store.

Now that they are fiint dry I made my tanning bath solutions.Be sure your hide is fleshed very good before inserting into tanning bath and even before salting.
2 pound aluminum sulphate and 4 pound pickling salt into around 3 to 4 gallons of water in each bucket.Dizzolving it in hot half ration of water first.Then adding other half of cold water to cool  water off.I like stronger solutions to reduce time the hide is wet.
I put each hide into it's own bath.
I estimate around 2 to 4 days for these thinner skinned bobcats or 6 to 8 days for a single deer hide or large beaver.This all depends on how big the individual hide is.You cannot ruin it by leaving it in an extra day,or by making the bath too strong,but I would reccommend to not leave it in bath much more than a week.
A natural hide is not an even thickness thickness leather anyway but needs to be left in there till the thickest part is tanned.
A good test is to cut a strip off at a thick edge.It should show white clear through it.Any difference of translucency color needs more time.
There are products out there from taxidermy catalogs to put in bath to deter bacteria but if your worried I would use 2 tablespoons of concentrated lysol into a solution of this size. That would be around a tablespoon to every gallon of water.
Stirring it or rearranging the position of each hide 3 to 4 times a day.

[Allyn T]

Can't wait to see the results

[BowEd]

I'll do my best Allyn T.I'll describe too how I oil it before working it to soften.
I struck a deal with this fella.A trade.He wants the Tom and will give me the female.To keep money or currency out of the equation.This type trade keeps away the need to buy a state taxidermy license then also.
I have plans for mine in the future of making a useful item out of it.The plastic harvest tag will then be removed from mine.His will hang his by the nose in his house somewhere.Those of us that enjoy fur and even the handling of it enjoy it in our own way.

[Allyn T]

The more modern the world gets the more I want to regress into the past. I say this while writing on my smart phone : (

[BowEd]

My sentiments exactly....Well it's been 3 days the hides have been in the tanning bath.I checked slicing a sliver on the smaller hide and it is ready.
I take another bucket with 3 to 4 gallons of luke warm water and put a good shot of dawn dish washing soap in it.I invert the hide hair side out and give it a good cleaning.I invert it again to clean the flesh side too.I then rinse it in 3 to 4 changes of clean water.

I then go to my fleshing beam and squeegee out as much water from the hide as possible while giving it a good refleshing removing any remaining bits and pieces of membrane.If you have no fleshing beam wring as much water out as possible.You should if you fleshed the hide....Ha Ha.At this time you can sew any holes that you would like to sew.

I then use an old garbage bag to lay the hide onto before oiling it.I will use 1 to 1 ratio of neats foot oil water and pre warm it double boiler wise on the stove.Just warm enough you can just keep your finger in it.I apply it to the hide with a paint brush doing 1 side,flipping over and doing the other side.You can massage it in also but I've never seen a benefit from doing that.




I then invert it back to hair side out and roll it up to soak in or sweat in over night or for 12 hours.

It's basically a race to get things dry now.I folded mine in half and put a low running fan on it to dry the hair faster.

I will show further progress later.I should mention if you are oiling a hide not cased or flat just folding it into 1/4ers' will work fine too.