I did a woodduck the other day and it seems like the bird skin kept tearing apart. I fleshed it and then put it in a deagreser (super solvent 4 ounces to a gallon) for 30min. Then washed it in clear water twice. Blowed dried and put together. Any ideals.
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Woodys do that, when sewing the tears up, start 1/4 pas the end of the tear, then use a gentle locking stitch and complete 1/4 past the tear. Better luck next time.
try soaking woodies and other thin skinned birds in salt water before going on the wheel toughens the skin and helps a lot with the tearing.
When you do those thin skinned birds make sure you borax them heavy around the edges. Let it sit for 25 min or so bofore you tumble. Use dentle floss to stitch and do a test stitch, you do not need to pull really tight. Assist the stitch by pulling skin together by hand. Woody's shrink up alot when they dry. I have heard you can use some tanning cream aroud the edges...never needed to but hey someone might jump in the that subject. Above advise on how to fix is right on..Good Luck....PR
I had a friend here the other day and he was mounting a pintail. He pull the bird out of the tumbler after only a couple minutes and it was torn almost in two sagitally. I emediatly checked the tumbler because the next bird in was an Eider I was mounting. I couldn't find anything that would do that. So, we backtracked and I found out he used Winks to get off some mineral stain. But, he didn't use any water. The skin was falling apart. I would have canned it, but he managed to get it mounted. My point is your super solvent could have had something to do with it.
Tony
I dont use solvents, but isnt 30 minutes a long time to put a thin skinned bird in anything including dawn dish soap that attacks proteins.
Wow 30 minutes? That must have been the greasiest wood duck every to warrant that much time in any degreaser.
Wood ducks can be a bitch no doupt, but they arent the fattest birds around either. You may just be able to say you have just learned by trial and error.
you might be right about the time. I got that time off this site. I did another woodduck with the same time and it came out allright but I think the time is to long. Thanks for the help I'll take more comments.