Does any one have any advice about skinning a porcupine, how to keep from gettin poked. how to tan without losing to many quils
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to get past those quills but when I did mine, I bought suede garden gloves that fit snug. It kept me from getting pricked and the gloves were only a $5 investment. When I was done I cleaned up the gloves and I can always use them for another task. As for tanning... I can't say. I didn't tan mine. I fleshed and gently degreased and then I just boraxed before mounting. As it was I lost plenty of quills and I don't think that can be helped much no matter what you do. They lose a fair amount of quills in the wild too so I figure some patches of lost quills is okay.
I do at least a couple a year. I don't use gloves to skin them cause getting poked is not that bad. I just took one out of the tan this weekend and put in freezer until I'm ready to prep and mount. I also sent my first one to a tannery this year and it is done and on its way back to me.....very expensive, $125.00. I don't know if it is worth it yet. They're a pain but make nice mounts.
i did one not long ago and it was not bad at all. skin down the belly and then the bottom side of the tail, gloves are a must as mentioned above. i salted, pickled and liqua tanned, no tumbling. i got my form ready ahead of time, neutralized and rubbed on liqua tan before bed and then got up and mounted the next morning. you will loose some quills but there are plenty to go around.
i fleshed using my bird flesher with a wire wheel.
also install teeth in your mannikin, you really need them to pull off a nice porky mount.
Mount with the teeth and i use DP, works great!
Thanks this will help.