making beeaver pelts smell purty

[travis]

i would like to put up a beaver pelt on hoops and hang it up inside my home.  What would be the best way to make sure that it does not smell? Could i soak  it in salt for a few days  before i dried it?

thanks for any help

travis

[Wackyquacker]

If you pickle the hide before you hoop and dry it will preserve it. You may still wish to do something to prevent "bugs" from dining.
 
If it were me, I'd soak it in a brine of 1 lbs salt and 4oz battery acid per gallon of water.  After a day or so drain and wash with a detergent in the washing machine (hint do this when the Misses is away).  Return the hide to the brine or better  a fresh brine for a day or so.  Drain, rinse well to remove salt from the hair, hoop and dry.  These are basically the first few steps in most tanning processes.  The acid sets the hair.  Combined, the acid and salt prevent spoilage.  All of this assumes that you have fleshed the hide to the skin (removed the outer membrane and all fat).

This process should also get the smell out.

[travis]

thanks for the info. I don't have any battery acid so will work without it?

thanks alot

travis

[Wackyquacker]

You can get sulfuric acid (battery acid) at NAPA.  If you can't get there it is possible to use vinegar (acetic acid) .  The problem is that I'm not certain howmuch you will need.  I think I would go with 1 qt vinigar and three quarts water.  Use hot tap water to disolve salt lbs per gal.  Then add the vinigar.  The water should be room temp before you add the skin, well just not very hot.

[travis]

thanks alot for the info Wackyquaker. I will do just as you told me and i will post here with the results in about a week or so.

thanks

travis

[22MK1]

thanks alot for the info Wackyquaker. I will do just as you told me and i will post here with the results in about a week or so.

thanks

travis

   I can't believe I just found this discussion. I had the same thing in mind.

  I'll be anxiously awaiting your results.  The town is in the process of trapping some beaver and removing their dam just upriver of my house, so my basement doesn't become an alternate branch of the Bouquet this spring.
  I have a friend who has a couple of skins as you described and I've had no luck in getting him to cut one lose, so I spoke to the guy who is trapping them for the town to ask what he plans to to with them. He said he was going to throw them on the dump as they are bringing so little, it's not worth his time to skin them because it's such a pain to get al the fat.  He wouldn't be trapping them either if he wasn't working for the town but they're paying him overtime to do it.
    Do you have hoops, or are you making them. If you're making them, what kind of wood and what dimensions?