SLIPPING

I've spent the afternoon on the orange button frightening myself to death !

Now at the moment i've no evidence to say there is slippage because the cats in the freezer hard as rock but can you guys give me your thoughts on my procedure and tell me if its ok or where i should look to improve !
I had a lynx salted real good, hard as nails, I read up on the rehydrating methods and used the 1/4 salt in water etc so many of you advise, left her in there for approx 2 hours, let her drip and then damped her off in towels, folded her up, put in garbage bag and fridged her over night. Next day I started thinning out the face area and bits of fat on the body etc, I guess this took a couple of hours, (too slow ? how long have i got ? )then washed her down in a cool/luke warm water (should this just have been cold ?) four times or so in different water each time until clean, let drip then I wrapped in towels and left for about 20 minutes, after this i tanned using the Rhinehart wet tanning cream method foldeded up and fridged again overnight. Now due to time restrictions im unable to mount so ive put her to freeze, on mounting I will let thaw then wash down the fur side only and mount.
Good, bad, whats your thoughts ?

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Thaw and unfold as it does.

You may be fine, just make sure anytime you fold something up for the freezer, to not do so.

Fur is an insulator, both ways.

I always thaw and unfold the hides.

I also went to Krowtann and get the hide tanned the sooner the better the longer you can mess around with it.

you are good so far

Just thaw and mount, skip the next wash until compleatly dry. When fully dry after mounting, just shampoo and dry, then post a picture.

Keeping it dry

Your steps are fine. Just make sure you get the cat as dry as possible while you are working with it. I spend a good bit of time blowdrying. If have in the past had slippage due to the hair being too wet for too long...hope this helps.

Appreciated

Thanks guy's, your comments are both helpful and welcome, im open to advise so any more i'll listen !

Robert lets see

ive done quite a few deer this year with JRTS
George Roof is our resident expert on this stuff
and on his recommendation i tried it
im sure glad i did its great stuff and a real time saver
but if i may i would add a couple of steps and leave as Mr.T suggested the wash outup front
ive gotten some fairly dirty capes out fine with washing after the tann with protex pre soak as MR.Roof does
they come out great
now i added a step to the process with the addition of
stop-rot to everything i do up front
if you do this and have a half way decent cape
youll have all the time you need to flesh even if your slow
look it up in the archives and the site www.hidetanning.net
paul e

That will work

I would generally skip the refrigeration steps, especially right after tanning cream step. I let the tan penetrate at room temp a few hours then go right to the freezer (I use liqua tan, maybe Rinehart's has different instruction though). You could consider going into a pickle bath right after your rinsing step. Also you didn't mention if you used any kind of soap during the first wash.

Soap

Hi, yes i washed the hide in Dawn dish soap on all four washes, sorry for missing that out!, is the water ok warm/cool or will this promote bacteria growth ?
I have never been tought the pickling process, should i learn it ? is it better ? does it provide better results ?

pickle

For my pickle I use 10 gallons water, 10 pounds salt, and 1/2 fl.oz. saftee acid. I will use dawn soap and snuggle fabric sofener right before I get ready to put it on the form.

Hope this helps

to much information

Robert, forget the pickle for now, you are a using tanning cream. When using the cream, there is no pickle. Do you see pickle in the instructions? Pickles are for other tans. Nobody is reading your first post and just adding things to confuse you. When you wash up front, wash just enough to get clear water, do not over wash, remover as much water as you can, then get on with the project. Do a final wash after everything had dried completly. Everyone ment well to give advice, but they got off the track on you.

Cheers Mr T

I guess thats what can happen, nobody seems to have given me the thumbs down to my preperation so im happy for that, im sure if i was doing something silly some one would have pointed it out by now.

I really appreciate all the advise and accept distractions can occur which lead away from the initial question, but would like to say thanks once again for all your replies.

If anyone else does want to reply, read the first post only and say YES its ok, or NO take up knitting instead !

Cheers guys

robert you should be o.k. but i added a little more food for

unless its extremely bad dont wash up front
ive done pletty with not washing till after tanned
imo and experiance its worked out better with less problems
i dont salt dry

AFTER READING YOUR ORIGINAL POST (sorry i got off track)
i see you had to rehydrate

i use a brine soak with acid at a ph oh 5.5 to 6
now im not trying to confuse you
there is just more than one way to skin a cat lol
you should be o.k. though on what you did