tanning= headache lol

[mcloven]

ok so im sooo behind this season that i have no choice but to tan the rest of my capes myself. ive done about 10 so far and the problem i keep running into is my skins are not relaxing enough in the rehydrateing process. should i use kemal-4 and how do i use it??

[Bruce Rittel]

Are you talking about rehydrating tanned capes to prep and mount - that came from a commercial Tannery - or are you talking about the capes you are wanting to tan yourself, and you're having trouble getting them to rehydrate before going into the pickle? When I read your post I thought it was about the capes you are tanning - but I wasnt positive!

[mcloven]

these are salted capes that i am trying to tan myself. sorry for the lack of info

[bill@hogheaven]

Kemal4 or something similar will help the process. Bruce has one I cant remember the name of. Directions should be on bottle.

[Bruce Rittel]

For air drieds (or salt drieds) it's always best to use a commercial agent. I prefer our Rittels Ultra-Soft Relaxer - 1 fl. oz. to each 1 gallon of water used. You can purchase it from TASCO. Their toll free number is (866) 296-2782. Most air drieds will relax fully within 8-10 hours. I recommend adding nothing else to the soak - it will only slow down the relaxing process. This is not a soap product - it's a surfactant - it makes water "wetter"!

PS - This is a copy and paste from the post "air drieds"! If you are attempting to get a good "relax" from WT Deer capes - it also works great on them too! However, they may relax sooner. Use it the same way as above!

[mcloven]

thanks bruce... will your product de-grease as well? i am also looking for something to relax and de-grease hogs in also.. if there are any tricks about hogs that you know i would love to hear them..

[Bruce Rittel]

On Boars or Hogs - I'd recommend using Dan's TASCO's Super Solvent. Once pickled (3 days), remove, drain for 30 minutes, then you mix 2 fl. ozs. too each 1 gl. of water and soak them 30 minutes to get a good degrease. Afterwards, I rinse them and put them back into the pickle.