mink oil and hides?

[Robert Egler]

Ok, I had this dry dear tail, salt dried and hard, sitting around, and decided to do an experiment. So I rubbed mink oil into it. After a day it is nice and flexible, but then I got to thinking (often a dangerous thing to do for me! :grin: ), since the mink oil replaced the natural oils in the skin taken out by the salt, but doesn't tan the skin, is the skin going to rot now, or just stay soft?

 

[Robert Egler]

Well, since no one seems to know, I'll let you all know if it rots. :haha:

 

[ladysmithtrading]

ST go over to braintan.com and ask over there, lots of leather folks there to help ya

 

[Robert Egler]

Thanks! :hatsoff:

 

[Seamus]

Been out of town for a while so I'm catching up.

If you rinsed the salt out of the tail before applying the oil then it shouldn't rot, the big threat is insect damage. Hanging it over a smoky fire for an hour or so will impart enough of a smoke odor to help repel any insects.

I've never done that with just mink oil. Let us know how it turns out.