Hello,
I'm about to enter into a new area of taxidermy and need to understand the proceedure to coyote tanning proceedure. I've got the skin ready to come out of the pickle and ready to tan with liqua-tan..... What I'm not understanding is that of how to mount head for a shell mount and also keeping the skin soft and pliable for a rug?
Just need a little advice.....
Thank you, Lance!
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Hi Lance,
As your hide dries with the liquatan on it you will need to work the hide over a stake or the edge of a table to soften it. You'll know when it is dry enough to start working it when you pull a piece of skin and it turns white.You'll feel the difference.After the hide is completly dry you'll need to rewet the head and sweat it to mount it.Hope this helps.
Linda ,
I've got a couple more questions for ya. How do I go about 'rewetting' the head and then sweat it ? I've done some tanning and made a few rugs before but never mounted a half head rug before. Please bear with me as I learn this.
Thanks Again, Lance!
I mix up some salt water and some fabris softner and place this in a sray bottle. Spray the head with this, wrap it in a plastic bag and place it in a frigde overnight. The next morning it should be ready for you to mount.
Now when I do rugs I rehydrate the whole skin, mount the head and place the hide on my rug stretcher. This way you ge the hide back to the right measurements.
Also I would use a good tanning oil on your rug. Mark (Knobloch's)has some good oils out there. This will aid in kepping the hide softer for rugs.
Frank is right if you want to streach the rug at the same time.I usually prefer to finish the heads out before I streach the rug .I tend to be messy with my finishing,so usually I finish the heads and then wet down the rest of the hide and streach and rug.Either way works.