I have done several different animals, along with quite a few cats. I had one I was working on and for some odd reason, it was taking forever to dry. even in the house at 68. I combed her out and hair was coming off in clumps. What went wrong? I skinned it the day I got it, I salted it all the way to complete dry, and rehydrated before pickle, pickle for 2 days and tan with liqua tan. I do this for all animals and never had one slip after it was dry? I froze the hide after I put on the liqua tan, of course after the 24 hours I let the tan soak in. It was thawed in my fridge and was only in the fridge three days after it thawed before I got to it. Could this have done it? Please help. I dont know what happened, but I dont want to run into this again if i did something wrong. My pickle is safetee acid, by the formula supplied. PH was always at 1.5 and I checked it twice a day for the two days. If any more info is needed to help determine what I did wrong, just post and I can give you the info. Thanks for the help.
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I switched to Krowtann-2000 and have not had any problem with any animal since, that's right zero slippage with Krowtann-2000 and I am nearing the 200 mammal mark using it.
To think that it's the tan is way off base. Liqua-tan is a chemically made so that it's totally stable product.
Unlike other rub on tans where you have to shake or stir it up. Why? because what they use aren't stable. They need to be mixed every time to use there product. So that's one reson why it won't ever be Liqua-tan.
So let's look at other possibilities here:
You have a cat which is a meat eater and carries bacteria with them at all times.
Next how long was it in the clients hands before it came to you?
When you froze it how wet was the hide pior to you freezing it? Having the upper epedermis overly soaked and not releazing it will cause slippage like you had here. I had this happen a few times to myself and through talking with Knobloch' & Rittels found out that was my problem. So make sure before I freeze them I tumble them in my clothes dryer set on cool with about 10-15 towels in there. Since then I have never found or had such a problem.
Humidity is next. Yes your temperature was fine but how humid was it in your shop. High humidity will slow down the drying process on any any animal or fish that your working on. Placing a fan by it set on low will aid in drying it better for you when you have those humid shop days or you need to speed up the drying time.
Now you didn't metion about shaving the hide, I know that's not a problem but you didn't say any thing about degreasing or how you removed the membrane and fat from the cat. Not knowing this is also another problem you may have. If fat was left on the hide and I'm not saying you did this or not but pointing out all possiblities here so others can also learn from a mistake they may have done. So leaving fat on the skin can cause slippage.
As you can see by what I've explained so far no one person can say what really caused the probelm. You ahve to go back and retrace some of your steps and try find out what could have gone wrong here even if it wasn't your fault at all. It could have come from the way the client handled it.
But all in all here, my point is that trying or thinking it's the tan and then you have other folks say use this or that instead and I never had a problem is way off base. You can find out by reading in the archives that every tan out there has had a problem or two out there. So there reeally is no real true no fault perfect tan out there. It's up to those who are learning to tan by themselves to either learn by their mistakes or send them to a tannery and then blame them for any problems LOL.
It's not rocket science here, but you have to learn all the varibles that can happen to you while tanning on your own. It's fun and I love doing it but we're human and we make mistakes all the time. Hope this helps out and you find out what may caused your slippage.
Hello,
Thanks for the input. I agree that the tan was not the problem, I have done quite a few mounts with liqua tan and never had any problems, all worked out well. I did not shave the cat except to the small area on the neck that is a little thicker than the rest of the pelt. The area I shaved was good, no slipping. I used Knoblochs Kemal 4 for the degreasing prior to pickle. Fleshing was done the same way I do everything, fleshing knife, skife and fleshing tools. I am pretty particular about the fleshing procedure to remove all membrane and fat, but also not being to agressive to damage the hide. I dont know what went wron, but something sure did. I know I had to make a mistake somewhere. The cat was caught by a friend, he handles his fur very well and I am sure he put it in the freezer right away for he wanted to get it mounted. The only are that the cat slipped was on the rump area, but it slipped bad. It looks like it should be a member of the hair club society, maybe even the president. I believe the mount can be salvaged and made into a pedestal mount? I will see and try, what do I have to loose at this point in the situation. Thanks again for your professional input.
I have had a few problems like that also. I was told to much humidity in freezers cuases a problem when a hide starts to freeze which causes hair slippage. Don't know if this is true or not
Now that you stated where it's slipping it can be solved. In my personal opinion it's because of defecation on the rump. This it what it may have been. Pior to freezing solid it may have done this and got on the skin, bacteria set in and that will cause the slippage your stating here.