Submitted by Hunter on 3/20/99. ( )
Fellow-Taxidermists: I've recently completed my very first mount,
a grey squirrel, and I think it came out pretty well - thanks in
large part to one of the Rhinehart videos. I used regular ol' laundry
type Borax as a dry preservative while skinning, then fleshing.
After completely cleaning out the animal I pickeled the skin for
about 10 minutes in a 50/50 mixture of denatured alcohol and water.
I noticed in the video that the instructor used a powdery white
preservative unlike my course laundry Borax. Does standard laundry
Borax do the same thing? Should I avoid it in the future and
use taxi supply company "special mixture" preservatives? If so,
can I use the special mixture preservatives titled "Bird/Fish
Preservative" for small mammals as well?
Thanks Much, Hunter
This response submitted by Carl on 3/20/99. ( carl@argyle.ednet.ns.ca )
He may have used what I used to buy as puffed borax, its just a finer grade. I use the 20 mule team borax on all my birds and for any thing else that requires borax and it works just fine :)
This response submitted by George Roof on 3/24/99. ( georoof@aol.com )
Borax may work well on small game, but one of the very best is sold by Touchstone Taxidermy. It's called Bess Made. It combines a super refined borax with pepper and moth crystals (and some other secret ingredients that Mr. Sam thought up). It is not harsh to your skin like several of the others and has a pleasantly sweet odor. I've been around the yard a few times, but this is the best dry preservative I've run into.