Dear Guy's

When in Africa what salt is best for skins?

I have herd many stories both good and bad.

Mined salt?
Salt from dried up lakes?
Sea salt?

Thanks Cam

"A" Grade salt.

the salt your ph and skinner have is best

The taxidermist was always ticked because they use rock salt instead of table salt.

I heard time and again "Do NOT use iodized salt", with all sorts of horror stories on what would happen to the trophies treated with such a noxious chemical.

Now, a decade or so ago I happened to be in the hides and skins business for a few years. We were buying and processing tens of thousands of goat skins per month. Did you know that you can stuff about 20,000 of the poor bleating things in a single 20' container, once you remove the critter from inside the skin?

Most of these skins were salted, and came from an incredible number of suppliers scattered over thousands of African square miles. I bet whatever you want that they were just using anything closely related to salt that they could lay their hands on, iodized or not.

I NEVER heard a comment from anyone in the tanning department about the merits or demerits of one type of salt or the other.

Now, if these people did not have a concern, I can't figure out what is so fundamentally different for critters meant to end up on a wall...

If anyone has a professionally sound, proven, and confirmed opinion to the contrary, I'll be glad to be enlightened.

I think the most important is for operators to keep their salt fresh. If they are reusing the salt over and over it will become contaminated and your capes will be ruined. Lost a beautiful sitatunga and black lechwe that way.

Mark

I thought I read somewhere here in the forum about Botsalt (sp) was bad and can induce hairslip. It is salt from the Botswana salt pans. I forget the name of the damn place though.

Steve

Angelina Jolie

quote:

Originally posted by SableTrail:
Angelina Jolie

Dang Moja,
Why'd you have to go and ruin my day like that? I would walk ten miles in the burning sand, barefoot, just to ...................

Steve

I can't remember the actual type my guys used, but they insisted that the grain be medium or smaller. They told me that the large grain size of coarse salt doesn't coat the hide well enough and often leads to hair slip, but that some outfitters to go with coarse because it's cheaper.

I collected deer hides for our game dept. winters over a 6 year span while in school. anything from wood ashes, Boraxo, rock salt, iodized salt, etc. the trick is to use twice the amount you think is plenty and change it when fully sop.

Salt that has the coarseness of table salt works very well. It is finer so it gets down into the pours and makes greater surface contact. One of the biggest issues is when the outfits try to keep reusing the salt instead of chucking it and using new salt.

What Chris & 458Lottfan said; A grade salt and don't keep reusing the old salt. It's exhausted and full of blood, etc. I used Morton for years for the first salting. Remove well the next morning and resalt or then I might go to curing salt (for Ham's). Brining is excellent for some delicate animals, but be sure there is an antibacterial added.
LDK

Make sure you use salt that was manufactured for the southerner hemisphere because of the Coriolis Effect

It is my understanding that Cabelas has started marketing a product called "Afrisalt". The stuff is supposed to be just perfect for all African species. This should really make taxidermists life easier and significantly reduce the risk of ruined capes. A similar product for those with deeper pockets might be the new "bespoke" salt being produced by Westley Richards. This will actually be species specific salt structurally altered to optimally preserve various high-dollar capes in the most efficient way possible. The costs will of course be high....but why take chances on an expensive safari when salt is really the cheapest part of the trip!

Thanks very much to all the people who posted a positive response.

Your advise has been great. Cam

The salt my PH used was course, grey stuff that looked like gravel - but he had it piled four inches deep over the skins. Makes the couple of kilograms I carry up the bush look a bit funny, though mine would only be needed for a few days.

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:
It is my understanding that Cabelas has started marketing a product called "Afrisalt". The stuff is supposed to be just perfect for all African species. This should really make taxidermists life easier and significantly reduce the risk of ruined capes. A similar product for those with deeper pockets might be the new "bespoke" salt being produced by Westley Richards. This will actually be species specific salt structurally altered to optimally preserve various high-dollar capes in the most efficient way possible. The costs will of course be high....but why take chances on an expensive safari when salt is really the cheapest part of the trip!

Cabelas .........I'm buying Westley Richards salt or nothing!!!!!!!

Brett

The only thing that will keep your capes ok is !
1.putting the capes in 60% salt wather for 3-6 hours.
2.Use A grade salt on them after they have been hanging and dripping off.
3. we never have had a bad cape or any capes loosing hair!but i have seen a lot of capes with hairloss and they all have been salted with rocksalt and salpeter salt So use wather with wery high salt level and then salt the cape with A grade salt!

The Maybe a few random thoughts and facts about salting skins can be of use to someone.

Here goes:

1. In salting a skin, remember that the idea is not to flavor the skin for eating - so use much more than you would put on a steak of the same thickness.
2. In salting a skin you are also not adding salt, like for biltong, with the idea of preserving it for eating after drying. Use much more than for biltong the same thickness.
3. Salt from certain salt works in Botswana [Sua Pan] and elsewhere [Lake Natron] may be contaminated by Soda Ash. Chemically salt is NaCl and is acid/base wise neutral in solution. Soda Ash is Na2(CO3) and is quite alkaline in solution. This alkaline pH may start chemically degrading and partly tanning the skin before drying. The taxidermicts just hate working such skins.
4. The main reason for adding salt to a skin is to dehydrate it. Look at it this way, dry salt is very soluble in water, and when added in great excess to a wet skin, the salt 'draws out' water from the skin into which it can dissolve and so dehydrates or dries it. It is this dehydration that helps to preserve the skin. The fact that salt also helps to 'preserve' the skin is of secondary importance.
5. The bacteria commonly involved in spoiling a skin cannot live in high salt conditions - this is the 'preserving' action of salt. But there are bacteria that can degrade skins AND live in a very saline environment. These 'halophile' [literally salt-loving] bacteria can live very happily in water saturated with salt - and that my friend is very salty indeed. The reason why salt should not be re-used after becoming soiled with some bloody water is that the conditions for these halophile blood-eating bacteria to grow in exists while the wet salt destined for re-use dries results in some numbers of them contaminating the salt. With two use cycles the number of bacteria inoculated via the re-used salt onto the skin may very well be sufficient to cause skin degradation even before the dehydration of the skin takes effect.
6. It is blood on a skin that starts rotting the easiest. The actual collagen of the skin, and thin layer of muscle [used by the living animal to shake the skin to ward off flies etc.] does not start rotting as easy as the blood that may still be in/on the skin. A thorough washing of all blood and even a few hours soaking in water - yes strongly salt water is OK - helps to reduce the blood content in/on the skin. But it also adds water to the skin, that requires additional salt for dehydration later. “Drip dry’ well before salting and use very liberal amounts of salt for such soaked skins.
7. The finer the salt used - I love getting so called "butter salt" which is a very fine powder - the more intimate contact between salt and wet skin is possible. This enhances rapid dehydration.
8. Fat on a skin is really bad news! Neither salt nor water penetrates well through a layer of fat. So the preserving action of salt is reduced and the dehydration is retarded. Make sure that there is simply no fat on a skin before salting. Be particularly careful with zebra mane and all cats.
9. The amount of iodide - note NOT iodine, but iodide - used in iodated salt is so small that I personally cannot see how it can have any effect. (But I stand to be scientifically corrected on this one.)
10. The Coriolis Effect is only important in the southern hemisphere where the animals were shot with rifles with a right hand twist. If salt manufactured in the Northern Hemisphere is used on such skins rotting next to the bulet entry hole is common. Exactly the reverse applies to animals shot in the Northern Hemisphere where using rifles with a left hand twist can cause problems when salt from the Northern Hemisphere is used. For safety use salt manufactured near the equator for all animals hunted in the tropics.

I've run out of thoughts about salt and skins. That's all folks!

Andrew McLaren


I've run out of thoughts about salt and skins. That's all folks!

Andrew McLaren

quote:

Originally posted by cameronaussie:
Dear Guy's

When in Africa what salt is best for skins?

Thanks Cam

I've always been more concerned about the quality of the tequila & the freshness of the lemons. I've even scraped salt off a livestock salt-lick for that part of the cocktail....

The utmost important part of caring for a cape is fleshing. If there are thick areas of meat or fat on the skin the salt will never draw the fluid out of the pours of the hide.

Also. You have got to be one interesting guy to hunt with if you are bringing your own salt with you to Africa… Just saying.

This has been covered pretty well and I agree about the fine salt being better than the coarse rock salt. It gets down into the folds of the skin better and draws out moisture better.

Lots of places in Southern Africa are pretty dry in climate during the winter and you can get by with things that would not do so well in wetter, more humid areas. The use of rock salt is one of them.

Using clean salt as people have said is very important.

I am not a fan of washing skins before you salt them unless they are really dirty or really bloody. As stated above, you are trying to dry the skin out quickly, so why wash it, prolonging this drying? small amouts of blood or dirt etc.. will wash out later when the skin is dipped/rehydrated.

If you just have to wash, a strong brine is best and for no longer than needed to get the grime off. NEVER soak a skin in plain (unsalted water)water for any longer than a few minutes as you are asking for bacteria growth by doing this. hang the clean, fleshed skin to drip dry and salt immediately. let drain on a rack so the fluids can drain off (not laying flat on the floor) shake the wet salt off the next day and resalt again with fresh salt. If animals are skinned soon after death, fleshed well of meat and fat and salted twice you willl rarely have problems.

I would have no problem bringing my own salt to Africa if I thought it was needed. That being said I would not hunt with an outfit that I believed was not up to speed on trophy prep. I can do it all myself but why bother unless they reduce my daily rate?
A good supply of clean salt is right up there with a rifle you can shoot well and a broken in pair of boots.

frankly, i can't see hauling 2-300 lbs of salt to Africa- and that is the amount you would need to salt 4 or 5 large capes the recommended 2 times!!!

In India sea salt from the open salt pans was most commonly used on skins. Sea salt has NaCl plus other slats like magnesium, potassium, manganese etc. It looks like rock salt but is just crystalline and easily ground or dissolved. It is extremely hygroscopic and quickly spreads into all the nooks & corners of a skin.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
frankly, i can't see hauling 2-300 lbs of salt to Africa- and that is the amount you would need to salt 4 or 5 large capes the recommended 2 times!!!

I wonder how many camps have less than "2-300 lbs" of salt on hand. And you can bet that what they have gets used more than twice....

My taxidermist is outstanding, particularly with African animals. He told me he has received capes and skins from Africa that have no "stretch" to them after they've been tanned (he does his own tanning), which makes them much harder to mount and much harder to make into a good-looking mount. He suspects that this is because, as Nganga said above, some outfitters are using "pan salt" scraped from the salt pans.

The PH sometimes doesn't have much control over this if he's using a remote camp, unless he brings his own salt with him. If he doesn't bring his own salt, he's relying on whatever they happen to have in camp, and he should make sure that the salt in camp is clean, fresh, fairly fine-grained and up to snuff. Fine salt can be forced into every nook and crevass, which is very important.

It would be a tragedy to go on a high-priced hunt for lion or leopard, and have your skins diminished because the camp only had old, dirty or too-course salt. I'm not implying that every PH should carry his own salt with him, but on an expensive hunt for expensive animals, it wouldn't be a bad idea, or he should at least make sure what they have in camp is good salt. A lion or leopard skin with no "stretch" to it is probably not going to make a very good looking mount.

From what I've heard from my taxidermist and others: "pan salt" = bad, and fresh, clean, fine salt (ie. table salt) = good.

If I were going after lion or leopard, I wouldn't necessarily bring my own salt from the states, but I sure wouldn't be embarrassed to go shopping for fresh fine salt in Africa before I started my hunt, or pay my PH to do it before I got there. As Grafton said, "A good supply of clean salt is right up there with a rifle you can shoot well and a broken-in pair of boots." I couldn't agree more.

personally every camp i have ever been in on safari had a dozen or more unopened bags of salt in the skinning shed. it is just one of those things a PH brings into camp at the start of the season and restocks toward the end if necessary. the skins were always laid flat after a proper fleshing, then literally buried in a layer of salt 3-4 inches deep with care taken to work the salt into any creases , ears, lips, etc. next day the salt is scraped off and a new layer applied. i have always enjoyed watching the process, knowing my hides were properly taken care off. any PH worth his salt( pun intended)will always see that the job is done this way and if he doesn't, you are hunting with the wrong guy.

Doesn't SCI require a special type of salt to be used for the trophies of the Inner Circles?

Yes, Saeed, they do, but it is kept "TOP SECRET" and unavailable to us commoners, hoping their mounts will come out better looking than ours.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Doesn't SCI require a special type of salt to be used for the trophies of the Inner Circles?

I think "inner circle" SCI guys actually get this high dollar salt for free (I have heard that it is actually just Westley Richards salt but with a new SCI logo on the bag). That certainly explains why SCI doesn't spend more on conservation...they are spending all their membership dues, convention ticket money, and trophy entry fees on salt for the high rollers.

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Doesn't SCI require a special type of salt to be used for the trophies of the Inner Circles?

I think "inner circle" SCI guys actually get this high dollar salt for free (I have heard that it is actually just Westley Richards salt but with a new SCI logo on the bag). That certainly explains why SCI doesn't spend more on conservation...they are spending all their membership dues, convention ticket money, and trophy entry fees on salt for the high rollers.

It's time for a forensic audit of my SCI membership fees. We all have a right to know just what percentage of that fee is devoted to secret salt.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
personally every camp i have ever been in on safari had a dozen or more unopened bags of salt in the skinning shed. it is just one of those things a PH brings into camp at the start of the season and restocks toward the end if necessary. the skins were always laid flat after a proper fleshing, then literally buried in a layer of salt 3-4 inches deep with care taken to work the salt into any creases , ears, lips, etc. next day the salt is scraped off and a new layer applied. i have always enjoyed watching the process, knowing my hides were properly taken care off. any PH worth his salt( pun intended)will always see that the job is done this way and if he doesn't, you are hunting with the wrong guy.

We normally send in half a truckload at the start of the season for several camps and may on occasion have to send in additional quantities to cater for the life-size mounts that may have been unexpectedly requested by clients.
To the best of my knowledge never had complaints on quality of salt used.

I use a fine A grade salt that is not much bigger grained than table salt.I only use salt once then it goes to the skulls bin then it heads out to a waterhole.
We haven't had any problems.If you are shooting in a hot climate or you have a gut shot animal that has taken time to recover then we get plastic barrels and put the hides in a strong Salt brine solution with disinfectant thrown in to kill the bacteria.This normally for a couple of hours before putting under the salt as usual.Again we mix this daily.
the key is clean salt with little to no bacteria - this starts the decaying process and the hair is the first to be affected.
MOST IMPORTANTLY get the guts out quickly!!

Thanks to:
Molepodole, grafton,Andrew mclaren, leopards valley safaris, and others.

Thanks for you good information. I really thank you for it.

If you run buff hunts send info to me.

Thanks once again for your positive reply.

Cam.