Cleaning the fur on dry beaver?

[limbhanger]

I had a guy put up my beaver and when we were packing them for shipping I noticed that several were oily on the fur side. Wish I had noticed sooner.

How do you get the oil out of the dried hides?
The ones that were clean looks so much better and I am sure that this will affect my grading.

[robertw]

" noticed that several were oily on the fur side."

Were they stacked wrong or was the guy just a slob about keeping his scraping beam clean?

Once those beaver are dry your just about limited to paper towels and a comb. Sawdust would probably help pick up the grease out of the fur but...combing out the sawdust would be a real hassle.

I know the Beav and a few other's are lucky enough to have good custom fur handlers but I have I never found some one that would work my fur and do a respectable job.

[trappnman]

You could try a brush-in dog powder shampoo- or cornstarch works well also.

I'm just talking about ways to clean w/o water on fur- never tried it with anything but live hounds.....

[limbhanger]

They were stacked correctly. Must have been the beam.

I just hope it don't hurt me on the grade too bad.

I will definitely get them earlier next time and clean them best I can.

[trappnman]

brush the cornstarch in, let sit a minute and brush out.

[briankroberts]

I mix a small amount of Mineral Spirits in some sawdust and coat the fur with it, let them sit a minute ir so and brush out, really cleans them up and make them as soft as can be.....B.....

[thorsmightyhammer]

Interesting note on stacking of beaver. When I was at the Nafa depot in Stoughton Wi this winter all the beaver that I saw were stacked leather to fur after they had the bar code attached to the hide.

[scott kimball]

limbhanger, i use a thinner for oil-based paints it is called (VM&P NAPHTHA) it removes oil and other things fur can accumulate and the thing is it will leave no smell once it is dry. try it on a kit beaver and see what you think.if you dont like that you can buy degreesers from taxadermy supply houses that will do the trick. just some thoughts for the future.

[thorsmightyhammer]

I dont think it would be a good idea to use anything that would "degrease" a beaver.

I think a degreaser would pull out the natural oils of a beaver and the fur will loose its "body".

If you want to see what a beaver looks like thats lost its "body" just leave it sit in the water for much more than 4 or 5 days. It will never look as good as one removed from the water in a couple days. Reason why is because the fur has lost its natural oils.

[Scrapper]

Take dry saw dust and rub into the hide real well. Let this on the fur for awhile to soak up the greese. Then take an air compressor and blow the sawdust out. Comb. And wala, nice clean beaver.
Scrapper

[limbhanger]

Thanks for the advice.

How will this affect the grading of my beaver.

Not all of them are this way, I just noticed that some were really oily.