Do I have to salt, pickle and shave to use a cream tan from John Rinehart taxidermy supply? Can I just wash the hide, flesh the cape turning the ears, nose, eyes and lips and cream tan it? What dose this (cream tan) actually do to the hide? Archives did not offer much info. on this. Thanks Chad.
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Chad,
I've used JRTS(John Rinehart Tanning Solution) for years and don't think of it as a "cream" tan. It carries a little more zip than that.
You CAN pickle the hide, but I've found on fresh hides, it's not a necessary step. The instructions even state as much. You MUST however, flesh the hide, turn ears, split lips and eyelids and SALT. Salt is an absolutely necessary step so that the tanning solution can be drawn into the cell structure. This is a real tan and it's acid content is evident in it's pH of 4. It has the same pH of any tan (Remember it's the pickle step that has a pH of 2 and the tan is fixed at about 4) Let the solution set at least 6 hours on a thinned hide and you'll find that the hide has been tanned completely through. Also, there is no need to oil. The guru's will tell you that there's no way an oil can be applied during a tan and I'm not about to argue with them, but I know this tan is soft, supple, and the lanolin is washed away with the tanning solution in the final step. The hair is quite manageable and the cape has a sweet smell to it when mounted. Considering that I don't have to have an agitated tanning bath or stir with a boat paddle for a couple of days or constantly check pH and add soda or acid to stabilize it, I think this product is exceptional.
Do you salt the hide until it is hard? And how do you rehydrate the salted hide, What solution and for how long do you soak it?
I only salt overnight. Even if you follow directions on the tan, you only salt 2 nights and the hide is still flacid to some degree. I wash off the excess salt and shave the hide immediately, apply the tan for 6 hours and then freeze it. When I'm ready to mount, I thaw the cape, wash thoroughly with Knobloch's Pre -Soak, spin dry, towel dry the skin side and mount.
Lay the skin with the flesh side (the inside of the skin) uppermost. Ensure that all the legs are opened out (i.e. not still in "tubes" after removal from the carcass) or the tubed legs are turned, flesh side out, and scrape off any remaining fat or flesh. Remove as much of this material as you can as this will result in a better tannage and less work cleaning the leather later.
Cover the entire flesh surface with a good covering of salt. The covering of salt should be at least 3 mm deep all over the skin - ensure that it is spread out into all the creases and up to the edges. Fold the skin in half along the backbone, i.e. belly to belly, with the salted flesh side innermost. The salt will draw out a lot of fluid from the skin which needs to be able to drain away, so place the skin in a cool place under cover, preferably on a hardware cloth pallet, so that the fluids can drain away easily.
After a few days (or less with thin hides) the draining will cease. Check that there is still plenty of salt on the flesh side and add more if necessary. (The skin can be stored like this for several weeks, providing it is kept cool and dry.) I think you have the rest of the story.