I've done a few squirrels and chipmunks before, but this time I was lucky enough to get ahold of a large recently-dead female skunk with a beautiful stripe pattern. I removed the skin easily enough (and avoided the scent glands without a hitch) but this was a VERY fat skunk. I don't know if this is normal for skunks, but there were huge layers of thick fat both attached to the body and the skin. When I started to scrape away the fat I noticed that the individual hairs went through the actual skin layer that I normally skin down to and were imbedded in the fat layer. This is not so much a problem on the front half of the skunk, but as you get closer to the back end and the tail, it is much more apparent. On the tail, the hair roots seem to extend well into the muscle and I've ended up leaving some grisle on the tail because scraping it only causes more hair to come through. I'm already into the salting stage, and I was hoping that the salt would help remove some of the fat more easily without taking out too much hair. I rubbed salt into the skin and let it dry open for 4 days. I just scraped it again today and I'm still having the problem. The areas where I've scraped down the fat to the skin the way I usually scrape to (the blueish skin layer without fat)
I notice that the hair roots are exposed at least a millimeter or so.
I'm sure that I'm not scraping down too far.
How do I remove the fat without removing the fur?
At this point, I'm considering just removing all the fur and making skunk leather, but only as a last resort.
Any suggestions? Is this normal for skunks or am I doing something wrong?
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I went through the same thing a little while ago, the fat seemed sticky also, my after thought is that I should have used a bird flesher then degrease. Im sure someone has the right answer.
My opinion is that you have an unprime skin, probably a summer pelt.
Your best bet is to wait for winter and get a pelt then. As the hide primes up, the hair roots will be in the skin.
As for the skin you have now, if you really want to mount it, I would flesh as best I could without cutting the hair roots. degrease with Dawn dish soap soak, then mount using dry preserve (egad! did I really say that?!?)Good Luck. I know there are many other methods some others will recommend, but this is just the way I would do it. This is what I usually do with most ot the small mammal mounts (usually road kills, people pick up in the summer time). Years ago, I turned down these summer finds, but I was turning down lots of work. I always warn customers that summer pelts can turn into a disaster sometimes, I get a non-refundable 50% deposit. To be honest I have never totally lost one of these hides.
Good luck with your project, and remember to HAVE FUN!
Thank you so much. I'm a college biology student majoring in animal anatomy, so I'm used to skinning animals for dissections but aside from some squirrels and chipmunks, I don't have much experience with the rest of the process and I really want to learn. I'm trying to get the school to pay for most of my supplies and I was able to get a spot in the lab with a fume hood and exhaust to keep my skins and animal parts :)
This skunk won't be mounted, I actually would love to do something with the skin like make a handbag out of it or something :)
She was a roadkill victim and I thought she was just too pretty to let the skin go to waste. What kind of Dry preserve do you reccommend? I've used Borax on bird skin before, and it's worked okay, but this is a different skin consistency. Also, should I treat it differently since it won't be mounted?
Also since this is an unprime pelt and won't be mounted, is it a better idea to just preserve the leather? I noticed that the skin has the same stripe pattern as the fur and it would be awesome to retain that if I lose too much hair.
Sorry for so many questions, and thanks so much for the quick responses. This forum has been an invaluable resource to me so far.
The skin isnt prime. That means the hair hasnt fully grown out of the skin. I would advise you differently, though. I would still get a later skin, but for this one, do as follows...
Next step is to pickle the skin, which swells the skin so that you can shave further with that false thickness. See why we keep telling folks on other posts you DO need to pickle? Then a good quality degreaser like McKenzie's Tannery Degreaser or Rittels Super Solvent comes next. Then go on with tanning as usual.
Just to let you know,all skunks are this way.What you are experiencing is very normal.Hair roots will be especially apparent on the tail.When you get to these hair roots you want to stop scraping-it just does more damage.If you do scrape over these areas,go from head to tail.This way you aren't dragging against the tips of the roots as hard.You can also flesh these areas with a small wire brush-this gets between the follicles rather than cutting them like a knife might.If you salt a skin like you did on your 1st salting,let it dry a few days and send it to a commercial tannry,you will get back a flawless skin for $15.00 to $20.00.If you keep messing with it you will be out a lot of time and probably have to scrap it.Moyle Mink and Tannery in Heyburn,Idaho is a good place to send such hides.They do a lot of furbearers for trappers and the fur industry.Good luck.Don't get discouraged with it.