Curing Opossum Skins
Dear Aunt Daisy, I have cured rabbit, opossum, deer skins, and even a penguin, which I later sewed up and stuffed, by this method: Nail the opossum skin on a board, and make a fairly wet mixture of baking soda and kerosene. There will probably be a little flesh and fat still on the skin, so apply the kerosene and baking soda to the skin and let it dry, This will take a day or’so. Then scrape the skin with an old knife until it is clean. Then apply another lot of baking soda and kerosene; when this lot is dry, scrape off and apply a third dose. When this third lot is done, your skin is ready. Scrape off as
before. and rub the skin. either over a round-edged board, or in the hands. I prefer the hands. In this way the skin, with a Jittlé working, becomes lovely and soft; also, by this method, the fur is not touched at all. This is the best method. It was passed on to be by a woman of 80, who had been curing skins all her life, and had done a lot of taxi-
dermy.
M.
P.
Wanganui.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19541001.2.44.2.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 793, 1 October 1954, Page 22
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201Curing Opossum Skins New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 793, 1 October 1954, Page 22
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