Is there anyone who have experience in using glycerin as a tanning method. I am an absolute beginner, but learned how to use glycerin as a preservative. It works perfectly. Once you have tanned your animal with glycerin, the skin will be soft and shining, even if you start with mounting a year later! You don't have to keep it in the freezer or refrigerator. I only work with small animals, for bird mounting it is not suitable.
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Glycerin is not a tanning agent. It has uses for storage of protein specimens and stabilization in slide preparation, but not in tanning. It is used in soaps, which is strange because glycerin is a by-product of fat hydrolization which produces soaps. Glycerin must be mixed into soap after it is separated out by process.
All animal and vegetable fat contain from 7 to 13 percent glycerin in the natural state. Glycerin has many properties, one of which precludes using it as a tanning agent. That property is it being hygroscopic, meaning it sucks up water like a sponge. A pure sample of glycerine left un-capped in the open air in average humidity, will turn from 100% glycerin to an 80-20 glycerin/water mix in short order.
Tanning is a process which removes glycerides and other natural fluids from skin tissues to set up the collagen to receive other chemicals which turn the hide into leather. Now that is a simple outline of a complex process, but it is the base process.
While glycerin may absorb some of the moisture from a green hide, or may be used to permeate a dried one, it is not chemically capable of producing leather as it is known.
What you have discovered is nothing new by a long shot. All your glycerin does is keep the hide from drying out. In fact, in time the material will leach from the skin and oil the fur staining it in the process.
Hello Whatever,
Thank you you for your kind explanation about glycerin. I used the words "tanning method", which is not correct as you said so. Forgive me, I live in Holland (Europe)my English is not perfect. I have used glycerin before mounting an anmimal. But first of all, after skinning, I use alcohol (85%), I put the skin in a bath for about 10-12 hours. Then I make a bath from glycerin and put the skin inthere for about 10 hours. After that I remove the glycerin from the skin with cornmeal, with my hands untill it is completely dry. The skin looks white after that. The last remains can be removed with a vacuumcleaner. The fur will be soft (and stays that way) and shining.