Old furs

[Love for fur]

So I have a fur coat which has gone bad. Rotten skins. My furrier says its most likely a test coat, since the skins aren't prepared correctly. Well well, shame on me for buying on ebay. All skin workers I spoke with says they probably cannot do anything with it. Atm it's serving as an extra blanket in my bed.

But my question is: what would you do with furs like these? Can you do anything nice with it or just leave it until the entire thing rots away?

 

Regards

[AKcoyote]

I question if your furrier is telling you the whole truth. All furs will eventually dry out and and start to fall apart . It is the oils used in the tanning process that make the leather (skin) of pelts pliable and keep it from losing it's strength. Once those oils evaporate, the leather gets stiff and loses it's ability to hold together. Also the thinner the leather of pelts, the quicker they dry out.

 

Glazing of furs during the cleaning process will add a bit of lanolin to the fur, but that only slows the drying process. I am not aware of any method to re-soften the leather of pelts that have started to become stiff.

 

As to the question of what to do, I suggest very careful and delicate use until it becomes totally unusable.

 

You have unfortunately fallen victim to the biggest problem with buying furs off eBay - you have no way to properly judge the condition of the product. While there are honest eBay sellers (a few are members here), many sellers are clue-less as to how to evaluate the condition of what they are selling - and a few will intentionally lie.