can you dry a deer cape in a cloths dryer just before mounting?after i wet tan then i let it sweat overnight ,i mount it and it seems really wet so use a fan to help the drying .theres alot (436) in the archieves,mostly birds,i have seen the tumbles in catologs,but do they have heat?i guess i confused with the post below(please explain)
thanks again folks
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Many use a old clothes dryer. they seal the holes in the drum. The put several gallons of sawdust in.
I have not owned a tumble until about four years ago.
I use to let them drip dry about 30 minutes to one hour. Mount up, the next morning turn the head upside down. Place a fan on it. Then when I came home from work, turn the head up and place a fan blowing on the brisket. I feel its most important to dry the brisket first.
You can bag the head to slow its drying time.
To convert an old dryer to a tumbler. Be sure to remove the heating element or at the very least disconnect it. If you leave it connected and use it in the fluff/heat off setting. And someone inadvertently turns it on, the medium (Sawdust, corn cob grit) will catch fire in a second. As it will accumulate around the heating element. When tumbling the medium dries the hide by absorbing the moisture from the hair. You are looking to remove excess moisture, not a completely dry hide.
I have an old washing machine in my shop just for that purpose. I wash the hides before mounting and put them on the spin cycle. Then I turn the skin side out, wrap in a towel for about 30 minutes and then get them read to mount. The remaining moisture in the hair allows you to groom it better and certainly sew it up easier so the hair stays out of the stitching. The moist hide is quite compatible with either the water based or epoxy hide pastes and it dries about the same as if you went through all that trouble of tumbling them in sawdust. (I hate having to sweep sawdust from under my mounts.)
Like John said. I also let hang til stops dripping water. I lay couple large towels on table an lay cape (skin out) on towels and proceed to overlap couple more towels on top of cape and roll up and mead like dough. I get the skin side fairly dry this way. Then I turn hair side out, and put in a large trash bag with 4 towels. Then I tumble in wife's dryer NO HEAT. I learned the bag trick when one day wife says what the h*@# is all this hair doing in my dryer!Works for me. Ready to mount--deer that is...
i also like the dryer with no heat.i've done several pheasant and small mammals this way.i put them in an old pillow case with fine sawdust and a little borax,then put that inside a plastic garbage bag.fluff them up for 10-20 mins and they come out ready to mount.my wife nearly killed me-remember your single days?