Coon skin .. help?

[Fox]

So my friend and I are trying to tan a coon skin fur on.. we’ve tanned buck skin and a few chipmunks which where fur on, and we just tried to tan a squirrel fur on and all the hair slipped and we don’t know why... so we really don’t want that to happen to the coon.. how we’ve been tanning them is,  flesh, membrane, then put in tannins for a while the chipmunks was like a week, squirrels maybe two weeks.. then we take them out, get them to the correct moisture content and then oil only the flesh side with emulsified oil, then stretch until dry... so the coon we just put in the tannins, the fur was real oily from the fat, which we are worried about and we’re not sure how long to have it in the tannins... anyone out there know about fur on tanning that could give us some tips ?  Thanks ..

-Fox

[gutpile]

I would flesh it good and put in a frame and let dry hard.. then brain it in frame.....and soften in frame...when almost dry take out of frame and soften till dry.. then smoke it.... JMO... gut

[BrianS]

I have tanned raccoons using a product called Dixie Tan. They come out pretty good. Not super soft condition but good for stuff like bags and such.
Here is a picture of a raccoon and deer fire kit bag. The raccoon was Dixie Tan and the deer was brain tanned. The Dixie tan is pretty easy to use. The bag in the picture is a couple of years old and no issues yet. I have done a few more since then and no problems with them ether.

[Morgan]

Give this thread a read.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=62713.0

[Fox]

Nice looking bag. Thanks Morgan that’s a great link ! Tons of info in there !