I bought some videos like everyone on here recommends, thoroughly impressed, brings everything I've read on here MUCH clearer. Have a video on an open mouth coyote rug. Why do you put felt around the edges of rug mounts? I don't particularly care for the way this looks, just my opinion. Is there a reason for the felt? Can anything else be used? Thanks for any answers/insight you can give.
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I don't care for it either so I have the rug "bound". Binding is a process of simply covering the leather edge with a folded piece of cloth. Fringing started with bears to soothe your eyes at the armpit joints and to make the mount look a little bigger than it actually was. It also keeps the edge fur from being broken from use as quickly I suppose.
Appreciate it! How would you finish around the mouth or would you just stop with the binding where it meets the head form?
I have seen rugs bordered with buckskin(used and pinked like felt) and I have seen lace added to the felt on the border of a bear taken by a female hunter. And there have probably been other things, but both of these stood out as different.
The reason that a border is put on the rug is protection. You will need to do "something" with the edges. With age the deterioration of the skin becomes a factor to think about. All predators have amino acids in their skins, when the skin is tanned and dried the amino acids are present in the form of amino salts. Humidity allows the skin to draw moisture and the salts become acid and work on the skin, causing slow deterioration. For some reason canidae, wolves, coyotes and fox, seem to have this problem to a greater degree than other predators. I learned this from a furrier, they recommend storing fur coats in a cold environment(cooler or freezer) during the summer months to prevent humidity from deteriorating your "expensive" fur coats. While I have never "recommended" this to a customer, I always make them aware that deterioration can occur.
The point is, without some kind of backing(with or without a border) your skin will be a little harder to keep together over the course of time. A backing that is already there makes the repairs easier to do. This is from experience! I have had hides, both wolves and bear, that I know I could have repared if they had been rugged, but since the were just tanned with no form of backing the fix was more work that they were worth.