I just finished a whitetail mount, and the hair is falling out. What did I do wrong? The customer left the head set in a shed for 9 days before he brought it to me. First I caped it. Second I fleshed and salted for 3 days. Third I final fleshed and liqua taned. then I froze it. Fourth I got it out sewed the hole and mounted it and I got hair slippage.Where did I go wrong?
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salted for three days? could the body fluids drain off? or did they pool?
The industry standard if salt for 24, change salt!
Air should be able to circulate under the cape, especially one that was about to go bad.went from salted to final fleshing?
Where your pickle, you know your acid pickle pH of less than 3?
Looks to me thats where you went wrong.
No drain rack or at lest a slanted board, Drain rack can be anything rust proof, even a rack made of 1x2's spaced apart for air circulation.
No 2nd salting.
No pickle.
Where are your directions?
What did you reference to?
My salting table is on an incline. I shook wet salt off after 24 hours, added new salt. Cape did not have real good air the hole way through. I went by the whitetale Breakthrough Manual. Thank You.
How much hair is coming out? I understand it's normal for a few strands here and there to come out. If it's large globs then you've got problems I guess.
Maybe all is not lost yet however. I had a cape that was not cared for well and stunk to high heaven. I salted, fleshed, etc. and then used a tan cream. It was still slipping but the slippage was fortunately a portion of the cape not needed on the form. So all went well then about two days into the drying of the completed mount I noticed a few hairs coming out in one section when I groomed. It was a slipping spot but was not real visible yet. So I took some Preservz-It and dabbed it on the area and let dry at least 48 hours. I was fairly liberal with the Prezervz-It. Then I took a clean cloth and plain water and gently wiped away residue and let dry completely. The slippage has stopped 100 percent. Now it was a small spot (about the size of a quarter) and it had not left a hole in the hair. BUt it was slipping and it was stopped.
If you haven't got visible holes yet and it's not a huge area try that. You have nothing to lose. Just don't keep messing with the hair until you've treated the area and it's completely dry.
I tell my customers I want the cape as soon as possible. Seems simple does't it. Does it happen? No! A good thing to do is when you recieve the cape, ask questions. When did you harvest it? Did you drag it? How far did you drag it? Did you hang it in the sun? And so forth. Inspect it. If you notice anything off the bat, point it out to the customer. Basically, cover your butt. Some people think they can bring in trash and you can turn it into a treasure. Wrong! It starts with them. Good Luck!