Some of us were blessed to have known Terry Davis both personally and professionally for many years, while some of us only knew him for a matter of weeks. In May of 2008 he lost his battle with cancer. There are no words to adequately express the grief many of us felt for Terry & his family. For many months we read his “Cancer Blogs”. Through the good times and bad, Terry tried to smile and tried to help. He gave his life, his family, and this industry that he loved so much, everything he could, until he could give no more.
I hope that in some small way, by putting the tutorials that Terry had on his website, here on Taxidermy.net, he will continue to teach, inspire, and watch over all of us. His beloved wife, Maggie, has given her blessing to this project.
I haven’t changed a word of the tutorials. The methods described within are entirely Terry’s. I made the pictures taxi.net friendly, but other than that, this is the exact tutorial Terry had on his website. 
Enjoy, and God bless. L
(soft) Tanning small mammals with krowtann and lutanf - this is the way I do it - others do it differently and get the same results
Krowtann
1) skin animal
2) rough flesh - you do not need to take off anything except big chunks of flesh - skin will tan thru membrane, fat that is left on animal
3) throw in krowtann per instructions
4) you can leave skin in krowtann indefinitely (months at least) - you do not need to check ph or salt skin b4 tanning
5) neutralize
6) let hang for a couple hours to get rid of excess moisture or spin in washer
7) flesh thoroughly and remove everything - i always turn ears and bondo them b4 they dry up - if you dont fix ears they will dry all weird and unshapely - degrease if necessary
skin should be moderately dry b4 next step
9) oil with good quality tanning oil - i have used 3 or 4 and can’t tell the difference between them - let skin set overnite folded
10) wipe off any excess oil that may be puddled
11) hang up to dry where air will hit flesh side
12) legs will start to dry first - physically stretch the skin - this is called breaking - on small mammals this is easilly done by hand - some people will work the skin over an edge of table or tool made specifically for this task
13) keep checking skin at least once a day and break areas as they dry - as you stretch an area it will turn white - these areas are done - over a period of 4-6 days the entire skin will have dried out - as you work on skin it will get softer and softer - tumble to clean hair and get rid of any excess oil
14) krowtann is a miracle product but is not designed for soft tanning - it does a fine job however on mammals up to coyote size
Lutanf
1) skin animal
2) rough flesh and get most everything off of animal skin
3) salt overnite but do not let skin completely dry out
4) pickle with safety acid
5) neutralize
6) spin or hang hide to get water out
7) do final fleshing and degrease if necessary
put in lutanf no longer than 12 hours
9) rinse out hide quickly
10) go to other column and follow steps 8 to the end
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