Skinning roadkill animals is such a win-winner. Rather than left to rot, the skins can be rendered like this. I skin the animal, tack it down (pushpins) while stretching it, fur side down, on piece of plywood. Then I cover it with salt so no skin is visible. In about a week I remove the salt, roll it up, and ship it to Bucks County Fur Products in Quakertown, PA. In about 6 weeks, UPS delivers a beautiful tanned skin. Ooops! Haven’t I said all this before?
Shown are 2 weasels, and a fox with a thick glossy coat; fur seems best in the cold season, when their coats are maxed out. I need another fox or two and then my friend Louie and I are going to make me a fur coat. Fur inside. Roadkill coat. I like that.
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
Skinning roadkill animals is such a win-winner. Rather than left to rot, the skins can be rendered like this. I skin the animal, tack it down (pushpins) while stretching it, fur side down, on piece of plywood. Then I cover it with salt so no skin is visible. In about a week I remove the salt, roll it up, and ship it to Bucks County Fur Products in Quakertown, PA. In about 6 weeks, UPS delivers a beautiful tanned skin. Ooops! Haven’t I said all this before?
Have you ever eaten the meat? A few years ago I wrote an article about eating roadkill raccoon (spoiler: it was delicious).
You can read the article here: http://thetyee.ca/Life/2007/12/25/Roadkill/
Those are beautiful, and it's a great idea to harvest roadkill. I'm concerned about the pollution caused by chemical tanning, though. Is Bucks County Fur Products somehow better in that regard? I'd love to find a place to send deer hides and other animal skins.
That's awesome! Say hello to Louie for me!
Stefan
If you want to go a step further check out deerskins into buckskins (http://www.amazon.com/Deerskins-Into-Buckskins-Materials-Gatherers/dp/0965867242). It's a great book on tanning with emulsified fat and smoke. It focuses on fur off tanning, but if I recall correctly it's got a bit about fur on as well.
All the home tanners I know swear by it.
I second what Jess Mink said! Here's a great how to article: http://braintan.com/articles/furs/george1.html