Borax to dry skins

[Robert Egler]

My daughter is a zoologist and I recently learned that they use borax to dry the skins on the study animals that they preserve. They don't tan the skins, just dry them with borax. I asked her why they didn't use salt, and she said she was just taught to use borax because it dried better than salt, she didn't know why.

So, when I got a raccoon last week I thought I'd do an experiment. So after I skinned it I divided the skin into 2 main parts. (I kept the head and tail for my own uses.)
One part of the skin I cleaned, stretched, and put salt (normal non-iodine table salt)on in my usual manner. The other part I cleaned, stretched, and put borax on.

I changed the salt and borax after the first 24 hours like I usually do. Both parts were treated exactly the same except for borax vs salt.

So the results after 4 days are amazing. The borax half is much, much dryer than the salt half. I'd say that the borax half will be dry in half the time the salt half will.

Now I've been hunting and trapping for close to 40 years, and this is the first time I ever heard of using borax.

My questions are: 1) am I the only one who never heard of this before? 2) is there some other down side to using borax, like maybe does it affect the tanning? 3) WHY does borax dry so much faster than salt?

Any answers?

 

[LRB]

Borax is great on rawhides. It was recommended to me many years ago by a taxidermist friend of mine. It protects against most, or all insects. It also preserves snake skins very well.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Check the information on Borax on Wikepedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax

Borax is a salt, and because of its complex molecular structure, it draws moisture out of the air, or from other surfaces faster than does common salt, alone. It is used as both an insecticide, and an fungicide, both qualities that you want when tanning hides.

We hear of Borax mainly when talking about fluxing steel and other metals for welding, and its still a very good flux for these purposes. Apparently, the molecule has sodium in it, and when mixed with Ammonium Chloride, has both elements of common salt. ( Sodium and Chloride). Perhaps one of our chemistry experts can chime in here.

 

[mazo kid]

I've not used it on larger small game, but did use it to dry a snake skin and several rabbit pelts a few years ago. It worked great for those applications.

 

[crockett]

Yeah- I use it for snake skins, I got a 40" coral a few years back- that's a pretty big coral ( And YES it was a coral snake)

Borax clogs the gills on bugs and kills 'em- standard stuff with pest companies.Poisonous to us so wash your hands.

 

[GreyWhiskers]

I got a 40" coral a few years back- that's a pretty big coral ( And YES it was a coral snake)

Wow! What part of the country do you live in? I'll bet that would make a purty hatband. GW

 

[Robert Egler]

Thanks! I appreciate the information from everyone. :hatsoff:

 

[Rogue River]

I had a fish mounted once and the taxadermist told me in the future to cover the fresh caught fish in borax and it would hold the natural color much better until I could get it to her.

 

[tg]

The advantage of Borax over salt is that Borax is not so hydroscopic/corrosive, it also works to preserve deer toes/feet. you get enough hides hangin around the shop that are salted and things not even close to the hides start rusting. Borax is a good way to hold fish roe for bait as well.It has a lot of uses ...just ask the old Ranger..

 

[paco97]

I use Borax for my Skull Caps. Use it on the Hide that covers the skull cap. Works great.

 

[fatboy]

Yes borax has some good uses I always used it on dear tails and other small critters that I wanted to keep for fly tying and for covering the deer skull after removing the hide and cleaned the tissues away then brush away after things are good and dry. As Wick stated it keeps bugs away. I ve been using it for flux at my friends historic forge while doing some welding