I know there are many ways and formulas to go from the salting process to the tanning process. WASCO tells one way, Van Dykes another, Knoblochs another, etc...... I would like to know from you guys and gals with experience how to go from the salting process to the pickling and tanning process to achieve the least amount of hair slippage and get a top quality hide. What is your procedure and what do you use. E-mail me if you wish. This is a great forum, THANKS to all of you who reply and answer all of our questions.
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Here are my steps that work great for me.
flesh the fresh hide on my Eager Beaver
Salt for 24 hrs then shake off and resalt for another 24 then hang to dry rock hard.
Rehydrate in a pound of salt to a gallon of water w\ultra soft added to it. It may take 4-12 hrs to rehydrate. Squeeze the water out and place it in a pickle.
Pickle used is Saftee-acid at a PH of 1.5 for three days.
Take out and shave thin.
Repickle for 24 hrs.
Neturlize in water with some sodium bicabonate for 15 min.
Take out drain and tan with either Liqua-tan or EZ-100
Oil then freeze till ready to mount.
to get tanning oil out of hair and to dry and fluff up hair and give it a good smell. I use the same process but tumble capes then freeze them.
word for word it is exactly how it is supposed to be done, period. (IN MY OPINION)
way as Frank. I don't let my capes dry rock hard before i place in the pickle bath...
after removing from freezer, i thaw and wash the cape in a bucket of water with a little bit of fabric softner. takes about 5 min. and it gets the extra oils out of the hair. wait until the wife is gone and put in washer on spin cycle to remove most of the water in the hair. remove and your ready to mount.
Flesh and salt.
Box up the dry hides, capes, etc.
Call UPS, ship to Carolina Fur.
Wait 5-7 months. I spend this time mounting fish, birds antler mounts and the really late stuff from last year(like the deer head that was in the freezer until March, when the guy's wife told hime to "do something with it").
No mess, no fuss and UPS delivers the tanned hides right to my door.
the same formula as Old Fart except I send to Golden State Tannery in CA and get them back in 2-3 weeks.