I am new at the taxidermy field. I am trying to learn some of the basics so I can do my own work for my wife and I. I recently am working on a deer cape. I fleshed, salted, brined, tanned, and just oiled the hide several days ago. I felt that the hide was not drying because I left the hair to wet. I then got what I thought was a bright idea, and turned the hair side of the cape back out.....BIG MISTAKE! Now I have some spots on the face where the hair seems to have just seperated from the hide. I also have seperation in the brown skin just under the eyes. What do I do now? Can I reattach the hair and if so now or wait until the skin is completely dry? If I can fix this how would I go about it? At this point I decided to let it be and not touch it. I really need some advice and thanks for your time.
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I mean that I completed all the steps and waited the proper times, but I just OILED the hide several days ago. Sorry about that.
no sure what you mean by BRINED it, no such thing in tanning, it may be you forgot to acid pickle it. Very important step. Also hides cannot take the repated thawing freezing cycles. Some where someone has miss informed many people, remember hair holds the heat in for hours and hours when freezing.
Hi JD,
As soon as you skin out the deer, salt it. Let hang for a few hours then flesh on beam with fleshing tool or in my case, I use a pressure washer. Make sure you get all membrane off and any meat left on cape. After that salt heavily and hang up to drain. Next day, shake off old salt and salt again. Do the same thing the next day. Let cape hang until dry. rehydrate cape in water with salt and a cap or two of lysol or other bacteriacide until cape is soft again. Usually takes from 4 to 10 hours.Once rehydrated, rinse in cool water. Mix up a acid pickle and submerge the cape in it for 48 hours. Make sure you keep your ph between 1.5 and 2. Stir the cape around in your pickle several times during this period. After pickled, drain for 2 hours, then shave hide thin and evenly with fleshing machine or skife knife. After you have shaved the hide, put back in pickle another 24 hours. Take out of pickle and rinse in cool water. Mix up 5 or 10 gallons of water with a few handfuls of baking soda. Soak the cape for about 30 minutes. Take cape out and rinse in cool water.Let cape hang for 30 minutes. Mix up Lutan F according to specs and submerge cape. You can use other tanning solutions, but this is what i have had the greatest success with.If using Lutan, make sure your ph is between 3.5 and 4. Leave in for 24 hours, stirring once during this period to make sure all skin gets contact with tan. Take out of tan, rinse, and hang or towel dry. Skin needs to be fairly dry {25% water content in cape}. Use oil of your choice. Mix tanning oil with water to thin and heat to about 90 degrees. Brush a coat of oil on the skin side on all areas of cape. Fold cape and let sit for a least 4 to six hours. Mount or freeze. This is the way I do mine and have never lost a cape in seven years. As for losing hair around the eyes, you need to make sure you clean and shave around the eyes good when you are turning the eyes, ears and lips after skinning out. If you think the cape might have sat around awhile before you got it, salt as you are skinning out. You can never use to much salt! Ok, I'm tired. I'm gonna close. Hope this helps.