I've been tanning skins for about 5 years,but don't consider myself anything but a beginner,partly due to mixed results.I have primarily done brain tan,but also have experimented with chrome,bark tan,and a few other tan kits out there.
I am wondering about retanning some skins that havent come out well,some in chrome,some in EZ 100 tan,and some in Basyn tan DLE.All the poor results are primarily that they dried stiff.I have several in chrome that i would like to recover,and tried,with no luck.I couldn't get them to rehydrate.I have tried rehydrating the EZ tanned ones,or a small portion of one,and just restretched it,and it worked.I don't have the Basyn tanned skins here to try,but did have some small pieces that I rehydrated and reoiled with mixed reults.I am tanning for usage other than taxidermy,and got tans that seemed fit for my purposes.I would appreciate help finding some solutions.
this is not to say that all my results have been bad though.
One other thing-with my chrome, I have used a kit I got from a trapping place-Professionals tanning kit--my skins have tended to crack around the edges,regardless of how they were oiled.
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you shaving the skins thin enough? Are you tumbling the skins in a sawdust drum? What kind of oil are you using?
And you can forget about tanning over it. Ain't happening.
No matter what type of tan you use the skin must be broken by hand or tumbling to get a soft skin. They will all dry hard if left as is reguardless how much oil you use.
on how i tan
I HAVE broken them by hand,all of them.Having started with braintan,it seems natural anyway.At the time I tanned MOST of the chrome,I didn't have a way to thin the hides,but I did come out with some good thick skins (elk) anyway.I STILL don't have a machine to do anything with,I got my hands on a blade that works pretty well,but that was only recently,and believe me it isn't perfect,We'll see how BAD,after the buffalo is done!
I am an amatuer,pure and simple.I am low tech,low budget.Right now,I have an old dryer that I got to tumble skins with.Will it work?I just enjoy doing this,and am hopeful always of getting skins supple to do neat things with.