Has anyone used this in a tumbler before? It seems like it would work fine plus leave a nice smell. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks
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When your hides and your birds come out being red, you'll see why none of us would ever consider using cedar.
You want to stay away from all soft wood. Do not use any type of conifers to tumble. These trees are all the pines, and cedars. They contain a lot of pitch (SAP) inside of them, and this will leach out onto your furs or skins. If you ever have had the sap from a real Christmas tree on your hands, then you'll know what I'm talking about.
Coyote
Why even tumble . My old tumbler has been pushed back in the corner of my shop and hasn't been used for some time . I know that probably several will disagree with me on this but ,I use a large shop vac with the blower attachment and then a large dog groomers blow dryer on turkeys and other birds. On deer and bobcats ,I towel dry with old beach towels that I just use for this purpose and then mount. I have great results doing this . I do liquid tan the deer and bobcats before rinsing ,towel drying , and then mounting . This is just my way others probably will disagree with this method .
Dan,
It is fine that some might disagree. I am glad you posted that. I do things the same way and being that I am new at birds I thought I was doing it wrong. I am finding out more and more the key to success is doing the things that work for you. Thanks for adding your 2 pennies!
....Letting the tumble do "most" of the drying. But it certainly isn't wrong to not use a tumbler. I have always found it best to get my bird skins 80% dry in the tumbler while I get other things done. The bird is mounted and the drying is then finished with air. The 10-15 minutes that the bird spends in the tumbler is time saved. I would rather finish the drying by hand, I feel that it is also the beginning step in the grooming process.
As for the original question, there is a reason the the term "hardwood" sawdust is used.
Years ago i tried cedar, thought the smell and bug proffing would be good,but quit and can't remember why; but must have not worked as good as i wanted it to.
You probably had to buy the cedar sawdust! Thats why you quit....lol
Thanks JL, I knew there was a reason.
I kinda remembered pine was making the fur sticky and mahogany turned it bluish, but couldn't remember the cedar.
with no problems, but it was very very dry cedar. Loved the smell it gave off, but it is too hard to come up with for me. If I could get some more I wouldn't mind using it at all.