I have tried looking through the search, but I couldn't find what I'm looking for. I've noticed a lot of people say they wash their bird skins. I don't understand exactly how this is done. Do you just stuff the entire skin in a bucket of cold water and dawn dish soap? That is what it sounds to me like. Do you have to be super careful not to damage the feathers? How many rinses does it take to get alll the soap out of say a pheasant? How do you dry them in saw dust without making a sawdust-mud mess? Do you need a tumbler? If not how else can you dry them? I'll bet it takes hours to dry with just cold air. Please help me out.
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Bob
I wash all of my birds. I place them in cold water and dawn dish soap. Let them soak for
thirty minutes to an hour depending on how dirty or bloody they are. Rinse them in cold water for a few minutes
untill all the soap is out of them. Make sure you get all the blood out of the feathers. You can then degrease
at this point if you need to. I use Kemosol degreaser. Once degreased place back into the dish soap and let soak for
30 more minutes. (You can omit the degrease and second wash
if you are working on a non greasy bird.) Remove and towel dry by squeezing it between a towel folded over it. Then I place in a
tumbler for about 10 minutes. I use fine hardwood sawdust and a little puffed borax mixed together. Remove the bird and shake
out all the sawdust. Take a shop vac and reverse the air flow and blow/fluf the feathers until completly dry. You
can omit the sawdust and tumbling but drying will take longer. I like a shop vac because it blows a warm air after a
few minutes and helps to dry the feathers faster without drying out the skin. This is how I do it, others may have a different method.
Good luck
Stuart
Bob,
Its no rocket science but their are many ways to wash bird skins.
Here is another way, pretty close to Stuarts.
1. Wash bird skin in warm to hot soapy water using dawn dish soap, invert and gently scrub inside of skin and let stand for about 15 minutes, invert bird skin again and use new soapy water and gently scrub feathers and let stand for about another 15 minutes. This usually is all it takes to clean my birds, unless I have a extra greasy duck skin and I'll do it again untill water is somewhat clean after washing.
2. Rinse bird in cold clean water then gently squeeze out excess water.
3. Insert bird skin in coleman fuel or mineral sprits, I prefer coleman fuel, and let soak for about 15 to 20 minutes to degrease bird a little more and pull water from skin. After soaking, gently squeeze out fuel ( I suggest using rubber gloves for this process ) then I hang it out for about 20 to 30 minutes to dry out skin.
4. Put in tumble mix, all I use is corn cob grit and tumble in old dryer with heating element disconnected for about 3 minutes. You do not want to dry out bird out to fast. Take out of tumble mix and I like grab a hold of the bird by the wings, about the middle and shake the bird gently and remove most all the corn cob grit.
5. Use common house hold hair dryer and put setting on cold to light heat and blow dry the bird until down is fluffy. Once this is all done, you can start the mounting process.
P.S. If you dont have a old dryer you can use all different kinds of things to accomplish this task. For example small garbadge bag and rotate for side to side until bird is to your liking.
Good Luck
Later Jeff.
Bob, I do just a bit different still. I wash them, yes, submerge them, in alittle dawn detergent as well, but I degrease them first. I dont feel that gasoline and thinners are degreasers, so I use water soluable degreasers instead. Im not sure how well my studio is anchored to the footers, and dont wanna find out...(as in KABOOM!) I like to rinse them in alot of cold water, repeatedly. Then I damp drain and tumble like the other good advice you got above from these other guys. I have found that not drying them all the way makes them easier to mount, with the majority of the drying being left till after its mounted. Just another opinion, though.
Bob,I agree with Stuart and Bill ,BUT the solution I wash in is called Epo-grip Bloodout/ Degreaser sold by Newton Supply in Miami ,FL. It is a concentrate that I cut 20:1 with water and it only takes 15 minutes with some agitation ,rinse in fresh water ,towel dry,tumble in borax/sawdust ,blowdry with the shopvac til almost completely dry- a little dampness keeps the feathers out of the way as you sew and taxi the feather patterns then finish drying .With more delicate ducks like woodies you might want to check the degreasing after 10 minutes, Trust me it works and your birds (and fish) will come out extremely clean with minimal effort. Hope we all have helped ,you have a lot of great advice givers here.
CHUCK