harvesting small animal pelts

There was enough interest in my post about Mike and Violet's pelt harvesting that I thought I'd create a separate thread.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:I had a dream. There was a group of us chasing down a pack rat (a wood rat). Three of us had shovels. One woman finally cornered the rat and dispatched it. Whew!

Then I woke to the scritch-scratchy sounds of a rodent. It sounded like it was in our bedroom. Paul heard it too, which is how I knew I was no longer dreaming. Ew.

Then, we found that one of our rat traps in the main part of the house had succeeded in dispatching one of them. Nice.

Mike and Violet skinned it. They admired it's health and how the fur didn't have any bare patches like some of the urban critters they had dealt with in the past.

Look away if you're squeamish, or hope you can unsee this somehow if your are - will try to see if this gif load in here.



Attached is a pic of its gorgeous pelt. Violet said she's like to use it for mitten cuffs.

Questions include:

Adrien Lapointe wrote:wow! this is an awesome looking pelt indeed. How is she planning to process it? (Maybe I should start a new thread)

Rick Howd wrote:Nice knife! The pelt is good too, how did it taste?

Here's a second picture of the pelt - while in the process of curing. It was a hurried shot and a bit blurry. I'll let Mike and Violet speak to the process they're using.

The next day we caught a second wood rat in the rat trap in the house. This one's fur was more grey than the first one. I'm not sure if Mike and Violet skinned this one.

Not for the squeamish, I suppose, though I agree with Mike and Violet that they are healthy, attractive little critters.

And they LOVE to make nest on top of the exhaust manifold in my tractor or cars!! They also love to nibble on the wiring harness while there >

They need to keep outside the perimeter of the homestead or there will be problems...

Neat. Never heard of the lil critters. First pelt looks nice though, like a teeny deer pelt. Soft i bet. once tried to nurse a feildmouse back to health after being a kitten live "toy" and it was remarkably soft. Lol and yes handwashing required and it did die, sadly at the time.

Thanks everyone! Yes it's a beautifully sof pelt; as soon as I touched the animal I knew I wanted to try to harvest it. I was also very surprised at how thick and strong the skin layers were, compared to a rabbit's. It also degloved really easily.

We just doing the easiest possible "tan" - an egg yolk version of brain tanning, followed with smoking hopefully. Picture below is of us kind of lazily stretching the pelt while drying it before applying the egg. It's currently sitting in an undisclosed location (where Sam almost certainly won't find it) and waiting for us to soften it.

mike jastram wrote: It also degloved really easily

Is that terminology only applicable to hand-sized animals?
I can't imagine saying "oh yeah, the moose degloved really easily"...
But I only speak New Zealand

I think its nicknamed degloved to pull the hide off in one piece for small animals because the small whole hide would be glove size-ish and/or probably meant to end as mitten lining etc.

Degloving is also a medical term. Don't do a google search for degloving unless you're not squeamish about injured human hands.

A classic degloving injury is to jump off your tractor, truck, whatever, and snag your wedding ring. The ring turns obliquely and then strips the hide off your ring finger. All of it.

Like taking a glove off (that finger anyway).


This same technique can be used on larger animals, if you have a winch or truck with low range/4-wd.


Again, don't go here if you're squeamish:

http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2007/01/fun-fast-way-to-skin-deer.html


They skin a deer -in one minute- .


Takes me like an hour. I've never tried the degloving method on deer. Maybe this year...




Hope that was helpful,

troy

mike jastram wrote:Thanks everyone! Yes it's a beautifully sof pelt; as soon as I touched the animal I knew I wanted to try to harvest it. I was also very surprised at how thick and strong the skin layers were, compared to a rabbit's. It also degloved really easily.

We just doing the easiest possible "tan" - an egg yolk version of brain tanning, followed with smoking hopefully. Picture below is of us kind of lazily stretching the pelt while drying it before applying the egg. It's currently sitting in an undisclosed location (where Sam almost certainly won't find it) and waiting for us to soften it.

I've never heard of egg tanning, how does that work exactly?

Two words: Air Skinning

I won't link any videos here. One can find many on youtube by searching for those two words. I don't know if you have access to compressed air at the Labs or not. For animals this small a standard bbq propane tank can be refilled with enough air to do several small animals and filled when you go into town.

Air skinning is the process of cutting a small slit in a leg/s and placing a compressed air nozzle under the skin. The pelt will fill like a ballon and separate the skin from the muscle, saving all that work with connective tissue. It prevents one from using a knife and damaging the pelt. This is especially beneficial if one is going to skin the small sensitive areas of the pelt without damage. Once the hide is separated from the muscle one can 'unzip' the hide with a knife very quickly.

[youtube]<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mFheq3Djr2c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/youtube]


This is a short non-offensive clip on what air skinning can do on small game.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFheq3Djr2c[/youtube]