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Post by joanne2 on Oct 22, 2009 12:16:14 GMT -5
Time for processing raccoon furs too! As if deerskins weren't enough to keep one busy this time of year. Anyway I managed to get 7 raccoon skins almost ready to thin. Still don't have the Dakota mounted to the table.. oh well guess a large family will slow ya down a bit... least the powerwasher's helping out tremendously.. and the shop vac. I'm all for useful machinery. This stuff is terribly time consuming I think I have 14 hrs into these 7 skins already... Now I just need chemicals, a tumbler sawdust, and a sewing machine and thread.. lol.. well anyway.... slowly but surely. I have to give one tanned coon back to the hunter.. That EVIL one! He gets the large one in front here. These ones will hopefully all be thinned down to a tannable thickness all over and have the tannage painted on. Thankfully the guy wanted the skin tanned 'open' and flat..I find it much easier to soften uncased fur skins when staking by hand. Takes a considerable amount of time to skin them WITH the faces and ear cartilage removed and toes and foot pads intact. Kind of a bad pic.. but give one some idea. I'm sure it's not gruesome enough of an idea but one can imagine.. these fat coon had a LOT of fat stored.. They must not have dens! Aww.. I think I deleted the pic of the fat ready to be washed off.. figures.. next fat one I get I take a pic of it.. have to turn the washer up quite a bit to remove all that fat plus the attaching tendon or whatever it is at the neck.. HOLY is it on there good and all I can say is DANG I'm sure I WOULDN"T be tannin' raccoon without that power washer. Gosh they're NASTY critters! Anyway I have big plans to make coonskin and buckskin bags, God willing, of course. Found a pattern by Markus Klek from a quick Google search.. hopefully will be cooler than Klek's example! How grateful I am for his pattern!
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Post by paskinner on Oct 22, 2009 12:55:44 GMT -5
That looks like a big one. I don't put quite that much time in them. All that skinning feet and such is just too tedious for me, I guess. I have a feeling I'm going to be tanning some of the smaller ones this year, as the fur market stinks right now and the small ones will be lucky to find any market at any price.
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Post by joanne2 on Oct 22, 2009 14:30:58 GMT -5
Yep.. tedious is right. I keep thinking "dexterity" so hoping all this extra time spent will be good for something.. I don't know!! perhaps NOT. Hey.. I think you were just mentioning something PA about using a dryer for a tumbler? I happen to have an extra working dryer just taking up space out in the barn. You have any idea how to fix them up to tumble?? Or how much dust folks are putting in them. .I am figuring that even lousy tumbling might be better than NO tumbling! Hopefully without the elements the motor running it could be hooked up to the 110. Yeah the guy that hunts these coons says that he'd much rather give them to me than just dumping them. I had one the other day that had some kind of skin condition..That was plenty creepie lemme tell ya!! the skin was all reddish.. kinda inflamed more in some places than others.. and lots of flaky skin that was all in the hair.. maybe cause I'd washed it AFTER going to all the trouble of giving it the works.. it was a good size coon but I just hadn't noticed that there was any problem.. I had two others that really weren't prime so I actually cut the head and legs off of both of those unprime smaller ones.. anyway after washing them all together and seeing that I just tossed them all! it was plenty disappointing but guess a learning experience! from that experience of wasted TIME I now inspect them very carefully.... perhaps it had lice or something? anyway had me scrambling to purchase some latex gloves.. Not sure which coon out of the next four I cut the top of one of the fingers on! Gosh I hate wearing gloves. Dollar store quit carrying the surgical ones. I can work with those but they don't last either.. one wrong move with the blade and you're subject to cooties! Well anyway....... I think the lg brown is a bit bigger than the blackish color one. How much do the large raccoons go for? I think you told me how fast you skin these raccoons and other animals you trap, PA and I was quite flabberghasted then and still am!
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Post by Cody ( The Patriot ) on Oct 22, 2009 17:30:20 GMT -5
Them are some dang fine coons .We dont get that many that fat they are usually lanky like a jack rabbit .Do you eat them too ? They are fine eatting I parboil them for an hour first .My Grandmother said back in the early 1900s they used coon lard to make biscuits with yum yum
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Post by joanne2 on Oct 22, 2009 18:52:10 GMT -5
Uhhh, actually I have cooked 2 of them, no three I think it was. I probably should have parboiled them too hmmm. It is a shame to toss them away. I am the only one in the house that will eat it. I think if I par boiled it and roasted it with some barbeque sauce on the oven it'd be some quite a bit less greasy. Meat is meat right?? I think the sad part is that I don't just whip up some bisquits and make handmade soaps and all. Just ignorant NOT to use everything one can. Shameful to live such wasteful lives. Have a darned good clue that things are turnin' full circle!
Yeah they're awesome raccoons. Wished I'd had a scale! Had a bit of a time hanging the black one for some reason, getting weak I guess! The coon were all shot in the head cept the big brown. That one was shot in the behind. It must have made a heck of a thud when it hit the ground is all I can imagine. The hunters with the dogs sure get geeked up about their sport.
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Post by Buckskin Billy on Oct 22, 2009 20:57:01 GMT -5
yummy yummy. good ole coon slow cooked on a smoker and then bar-b -q. it sure be hard to beat
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Post by joanne2 on Oct 24, 2009 7:36:44 GMT -5
Well you sure make it sound great Billy, lol. I'd try it.
Got the fleshing machine mounted and running yesterday but couldn't shave the skins down because I couldn't find the right allen wrench to adjust the guard plates! OMG Best laid plans. Not sure raw salted raccoons are the best things to learn how to use these machines on but it's gotta beat a draw knife.. I don't probably depending on who's using the draw knife. I'll bet ol Bad Hand there thins 'm down for softening just right! well anyway I'm excited about starting. Two of those coons would NEVER easily soften without plenty of skin coming off first.
Just talked to an old employer friend of mine that was telling me all about taking electric dryers apart.. probably would have totally evaded me about how to take the lid off before I talked to him. He says the tumbler comes right on out of the dryers easy by just removing the belts on them and that I should be able to disconnect the heating elements and convert it to a 110 with no trouble too. He was thinking of using flashing to seal the drum. I think I'll use cornmeal and wouldn't want to loose it all. Too many raccoon to tie them all in individual pillow cases with cornmeal in each.. although it is a thought. Was reading on the taxi.net forum about using the dryers and someone said 24hrs running. and that is probably after getting the coon 80% dry.. they're oiled with who knows what. I'm sure Protal tanning oil would be good but who knows maybe once thinned just fine any water soluble oil.. maybe not.. some of those tanning oils may indeed have something in the oil making them like 'active' whatever the heck that means.. Maybe just that.. Active and more likely to get to where one needs or wants it to soften skins.. I don't know but I'm not for working myself to death tanning hides!
I had to cut part of the underside of my table that I mounted the flesher to away last night.. man, if only we'd checked out the clearance that might have been needed for the dang motor before cutting the hole in the table top. I was bending and twisting and well I need a dang jacuzzi or massuer not sure how to spell that! HOW about IBUPROFEN.. I can spell that well enough!.. now to just find the right allen wrench.. I can go to work making holes to stitch up in all these almost holefree coon skins.
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Post by Cody ( The Patriot ) on Oct 24, 2009 19:32:59 GMT -5
Yup par boiling is the way .They have a taste I cant get used to even after eatting many but after boiling they are fine to me ,meats meat I recon I eat most of the beaver I catch and last year we had some bobcat ........might try a female next time .I dont have to thin my coon leather here but do have the mountain of fat that Im sure you have double of up there .Id like to have one of those fleshers like you speak of I saw a tax. useing one before .I have one of those dryers like you spoke of from back in the early days of tannin ,some yehoo told me to put baseballs in there .............dang what a racket it made and still I had to hand soften but I bet it would do what your speakin of.Good luck and dont put balls in there.
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Post by joanne2 on Oct 25, 2009 7:15:27 GMT -5
Lol.. I've heard of using the tennis balls too.. I think it was mostly in reference to folks wanting to soften brain tanned deerskins in the dryers however. I truly believe that folks like Bruce Rittel aren't kiddin' when he says you need.. I forgot what he wrote now! it was either a four or a six foot drop.. but hey when times are tough! All I have is a functional dryer to lose! Well it's seen it's day so all I have is time spent rolling hides in it. Even with the larger tumblers the amount of moisture other hides and stuff ie. sawdust or cornmeal, number of skins.. it all comes into play.. the biggest thing with the smaller dryers is that they spin so quickly that they're not DROPPING much! Anyway perhaps if I try it I may see SOME benefit..(as to why I need a larger one with a larger drop most likely, lol). Anyway I finally got the machine up and running and borrowed my neighbors allen wrench.. do believe that it may be the 3/16ths.. my hubby says I should take the one I have that is pretty close and take it to something to hone it down a bit to fit.. He got a funny look from me but I wish he could see to do all this stuff.. He that is so frugal..Me on the other hand, I need a money tree in the back yard! Yesterday all I could think of was my dear dad in heaven saying. "bout time you got the lead out of your a$$!!!" He didn't mean so much to be critical but that was along the lines of his sense of humor or something! Yep and I'm glad I finally got the flesher going! This was the first of hopefully many and well it was the smallest of the seven raccoon. So obvious the thinnest as well to start with. I made all my mistakes on this one and well I'll share with ya's. Right between the eyes and right behind the right ear where that brownish coloration is I just shave it way too thin and caused a couple of holes besides the bullet hole in it's head! Well one thing about the machine is that fear/respect for what it can do to your fingers is a healthy thing! One thing I did recall about these machines is that if you should shave a finger the bleeding takes a long while to stop! Well all seven raccoon shaved very easily and it was neat to feel just how the salted raw skins seemed to relax in your hands. mostly in the head and neck areas and also the coon tails are very thick and lots of that fat is difficult even with a power washer to deeply wash to get to it all. I washed them again following fleshing and they were indeed slimier feeling. I was out of my favorite scouring "DAWN" too so really the solvents that the taxidermists use are produced for a 'reason'! I have used white gas once but hey my kidneys don't need those toxins.. very bad, very unhealthy for one to mess with using those chemicals and surprisingly they don't work either.. they just displace the grease rather than dissolving it..so.....Guess I'll use Dawn when I can till I hit the lotto or something! This was the total accumulation of shavings from the 7 raccoon. I recall feeling glad that I had a number of them to shave too cause it was well something new.. I surely wouldn't want to flesh skins with one day in and day out! But it was fun to use. That was my grandmothers old table that we modified.. modified the legs awhile back for use in the barn.. it had huge pedestals in the center.. it was a dining room set at one time with I think it had 3 or 4 leaves and the sides opened up into more seating.. so the one folding leaf is still attached. I finally got some elk skins yesterday and learned that the guy wants one of them back tanned with the fur on.. so I might get some use out of that folding leaf soon. One of the two elk skins is mine to do whatever with but there are a number of scores. I think the guy thought he was doing good because he hadn't made any holes! Boy will I have to enlighten him.. which could result in them calling me when it comes time to skin more dead elk! Heard that there would be two more.. and one a bull so I'd better be careful of what I wish for.. naturally I used the washer to flesh these elk.. oh yeah.. while I'm writing away there are some legs to skin.. and one is naturally started and started wrong! Think I'll just finish that one the way it was supposed to be removed.. from the front and get those ready for an elk skin hock back.. geez.. 'no rest for the wicked'!! sigh. Boy those babies are big. Had to have my teenage son help me lean the frames back on the wall I framed them fleshside up and washed and squeegied them out and salted them.. I got the fur side started drying too with my shop vac so hopefully I will be able to get the fur dry on them and the flesh sides dryer so that they would be more amenable for shaving thinner.. makes sense to try to get rid of a bit of that neck skin especially of course it's here a large majority of the scoring IS too.. so ah we'll see. Wish it was worth more money but He has more skins and well the first ones the most reasonable.. lol.. least it's some money and with times like these that's not usually the case..so...... guess I better get back to tanning.
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Post by Cody ( The Patriot ) on Oct 26, 2009 8:36:11 GMT -5
Are you going to be able to handle those big hides and thin them on that machine? How much does one of those things cost ?
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Post by joanne2 on Oct 26, 2009 9:19:28 GMT -5
Welllll I think that's what the tanneries would do for hair on elk skins.. course I've never been to a tannery and well the coons were my first fleshing project.. I see I have some pull through on those and it can only be from thinning them a bit too much/so.... I know it can spell big trouble to do that with elk skin especially since elk skin are loose fibered creatures to begin with.. but there is a bit much on the necks and a lot of that can GO! so.. I will just shave a bit all over on those just pretty much to ensure that the oil I use gets in there real easy and then this ol lady plans to take advantage of the weather.. I've already messed up by not taking the skins out of the frames last night as I woke up to newly wet skins.. great.. so I was running the shop vac again.. that machine IS truly helpful hopefully I can get that HOLLOW elk hair real nice and dry and the flesh side ready to oil. I surely don't have room in the freezers for them! lol.. so timing is everything. It's cold and damp here. lucky to hit fifty today.. but kinda hard to get a fire going in the house as my stove will run everybody outside! and warm and damp is NOT good for keeping the fur on anything! so.. it's all kinda critical.. I washed and hair conditioned all the raccoon furs this morning so everything is all kinda just hanging around in need of some vigilance and TLC. I almost took all of yesterday off for church. I did skin the hockskins and crammed those into the freezer so hope they're allright. The Dakota Pro fleshing machines are 1200. I think it's really harder without one of those so I took the plunge while I had the chance. I'm lucky to have two damned nickels to rub together today but if you don't invest in yourself and your dreams who else will? Gambling but with prayer and hard work? who knows. Guess it keeps me out of trouble. Anyway, hard to go wrong with quality equipment. Both the belt drive powerwasher and the Dakota pro hold their resale value. Hopefully I find the fleshing machine to be as useful as the powerwasher! NO way could I have fleshed those big elk skins in an afternoon without using the washer and well the elk can be thinned with a dry scraper but I just ain't that good or fast with well either a drawknife or a dryscraper so I think that the chances of pulling of a semi soft couple of hair on elkskins are probably more than 50/50! We'll see. I'm sure that I am my own worst enemy! these elk hockskins are real purty aren't they? Our youngest daughter and I taking a break at a local park.. think I'm turning into my mother!
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Post by yotman on Oct 26, 2009 10:28:13 GMT -5
I have found that a parent needs to spend as much time with their kids as they can when they are younger because as they grow up they want to hang out with there freinds more! It's nice to see you having fun with your daughter enjoy it while you can..
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Post by paskinner on Oct 26, 2009 12:04:57 GMT -5
Yeah, that's one reason why I like to pickle hair on hides. If you have a good pickle, you can get them to that stage and then leave then in there until you are ready to proceed, with no worrys about the weather, as long as you keep the pickle in a heated environment, like the basement, of course. Good luck! I'm not too keen on taking on large hair on projects, myself.
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Post by joanne2 on Oct 26, 2009 21:28:30 GMT -5
I was blessed with half a dozen of those critters Yotman and boy you sure got that right.. they grow up fast and then well they're still here!.. These are our youngest 3 plus my grandson! They're all hams. Take after their dad Yeah I wish I had lots of Rittels products. I'd use the saftee acid if I had any! so anyway I got the two of the cow elk shaven and dry as I could get them and now they're out chillin in the barn. Boy was that ever a workout..whew. Wouldn't want to to that everyday! Kept going over and over till it was the blue shade I wanted. Hopefully it'll brain or egg well and soften fine. Think I'll make a couple of smaller frames that'll fit in the barn.. just have to rearrange the barn to accomodate a couple BIG frames! Oh well needing a good cleaning anyway. Will hope to park the truck in it SOON! I hate scraping iced windows.. really sucks big time.
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