Would it hurt a cape to be salted for about a day and then put in the freezer or would the salt keep the cape from totally freezing which would allow bacteria to still grow? I had some capes in the freezer that I didn't totally dry out like I usually do because I was trying the new McKenzie brush on tan and it said to only salt for 4 to 6 hours then pickle...Well now the hair after coming out of the pickle (saftee acid and salt) is slipping very bad and I threw 6 capes away. Awesome huh? Could that have been my problem? Cuz my ph was perfect the whole time.
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Should have let the salt dry the hides all the way. I have only been taxidermy on WT 2 seasons now, but I have been told that the salt drying will lock the hair folicles in...
Salting and freezing a wet cape doesn't mix. You probably can salt then pickle after a few hours but its always best to salt, then resalt after a day and let it dry hard to set the hair and disable any bacteria. Then you can rehydrate with a relaxer and a bactricide, put it in the pickle and continue with the shaving and tanning process. Live and learn.
Some reading you may find of interest can be found by utilization of the search function afforded by this website, and entering the search phrase below.
Salting and its effect on cellular material
Mr. Roof, you may wish to revisit that thread, as it has been added to since it's original posting.
Thats some reading! Thanx Glen. Jeff F.
Salt the skins dry unless you are tanning right away. Did you re-hydrate the skins in the pickle or did you relax in something else? Where are they slipping? Can it be traced back to one common area of the skins? Below is a quick run down of what I have found out through research.
Skins need to be salted dry, unless you put them in the pickle right away i.e. the next day or two and tan. There are bacteria already on the animal when it is alive. Some animals for one reason or another (sick, live in an area where they get scratched up, old, left in the hunters truck to long) are more susceptible to slippage. These bacteria like to eat the thin network of branching fibers that run parallel with the hair forming the hair follicle. This causes the hair to fall out or slip. To stop it you must stop the bacteria. One of the best ways is to salt the cape well and dry it before tanning. Once the water content of the skin is below 17% or so the bacteria are made dormant. They are not all killed. Once re-hydration occurs even after salting if the PH is too high in your pickle the spores and some of the bacteria can start to work again. Freezing the skin can also slow the bacteria process but even in the freezer the bacteria can work for a few days depending on if the skin was rolled up and on the temp of the freezer. If you salt a skin dry and want to store it the best place would be in a cool place with mothballs and where no animals can get to them. In the freezer is good once the salted skin is dry, because the cold and no oxygen means that oxidation of the skin will be slowed. If a skin especially from a fatty animal (beaver, bear, boar, coyotes) are not salted well and stored in the open the fat will oxidize and make soft tanning harder to do. These are often called oil burned skins. It happens a lot with African skins because of the salt some of them use. It also happens with certain North American skins like I stated above. My best advice would be to look up any and all variations on salting skins in the search here and the internet and print the info for your own reference. Good luck
Paul