Hi all,
I'm using Van Dykes pickling crystals and my pickle has stayed at an even 1.5. I neutralize in a seperate bath of 5 gallons water and 5 Tbsp baking soda. My McKenzie tan instructions say go 30 minutes in the neutralizing bath but when testing the towel tap dried cape it only goes up to 3.0 ph in that time. I had one cape in for 2 hours and got it to 4.0 and stopped at that and another in for 4 hours and still it went only to 4.5 then I had that one slipping. But I must say that cape was abused by the hunter prior to my getting it. He had it out all day in the field in 80 degree temps! Still I wonder if my neutralizing time aided in it's doom? Question... Do I leave stubborn capes in longer or just go the 30 minutes and take it out regardless? Or am I doing something wrong altogether? I checked the archives and didn't find a complete enough answer. Thanks for any help you all can give.
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First you need to neutralize at 1 ounce of baking soda per gallon of water. If you left a cape in a neutalizing bath for four hours you more than likley will have slippage. If you need any questions answered email me.
use 1 oz of baking soda to every gallon of water and Never Ever leave it past 20 minutes.
all of them
if you did follow directions on the whole process
i would not go more than 30 min.
i usually dont watch the p.h. when im neutralizing
that might be wrong
but i follow the directions all of them
if you did
what is the skin telling you
after you neutralize and stretch it all around how close did you
get to the measurements you were aiming at
there are times a cape will be hard to neutralize but not that hard
ive never gone past 30 min.on a cape
i have rubbed a fine mix of baking soda and water on a few stubborn
capes and fabric softner once or twice
but 99.999 times if you follow directions
all of them 30 min. and some elbow grease will get that cape back to size
hope that helps Mark
paul e