I have some turkeys in my freezer that are ready to mount. Last year, I used gas as a degreaser and it worked great but I could hardly handle the smell as it dried. I would like to use something different this year and wanted to know if anyone has used Rittle's Super Solvent as a degreaser with turkeys and if so, did you like the results? Thanks in advance.
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The Stop Rot method. No gas or coleman fuel is involved and it produces excellent result's with beautifull sheen on the feathers and with no gas smell.
Dawn soap works better than any gasoline and is not flammable. Even better is Bloodout/Degreaser from Epo-Grip or Eliminator from Van Dykes. Is your shop and family so unimportant that you'd risk blowing them up or burning them badly just for the sake of a dumb turkey?
George, I'm sorry I must not have made myself clear. I'm not going to use gas this year. I have some Super Solvent and was wondering if folks liked that for turkeys, that's all.
Bruce calls it a "solvent". I just offered you a choice of "degreasers". Sorry.
When I was in school a guy degreased with Purple Power and fried the feathers. I don't know what happened but the feathers were ruined, the general consensus was too high a ph. Just a little warning. Hope it helps
When we tested Bloodout/Degreaser, I managed to fry a snow goose as well as subjecting another to "flash burn" which turned feathers yellow. We diluted it to directions and only allowed it to stay there for 20 minutes or less before rinsing thoroughly. That stopped all the problems associated with higher pH soaps.
I fleshed the skin clean of all visible fat and membrane, even between the quills and through all of the tracts. Then I washed the skin 2 times and surface-tanned it. Then I let it dry for a day or 2. The "invisible" grease came right out of the skin on to the leather side. As the skin dried, it shrank and squeezed the greae out. I washed the skin 3 more times and then proceeded to mount. The soaps I used to wash the bird were Dawn and Tide. The fleshing, drying and re-wetting, then rinsing has more effect on cleanliness then the amount of soap you use. I can confirm that all the grease was removed from the skin. It is now the most grease-free bird skin I have.