just wandering if most people split your eye lids before salting and tanning or after, i will be useing a commercial tannery this yr for the first time, i was told by a tannery its not a essential, that the skin is thin enough to tann in this area and i would be better to split after the tan. i always split the eyelids before when tanning myself, any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated. thanks
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you"ll find the hide much tougher after the tan
same with ears you'll be able to turn the ears better after the tan
the tannery might even turn them for you has a courtesy?
If you will split them before salting and pickling you find them easier to finish shaving after tanning.
Splitting them before will allow you do shave them down while raw and lets you thin them to about 1/32 of an inch. You can see the colors change in the skin are you go through the skin layers. you will see the adipose which is a fatty layer, then you find the layer which has a bluish color, this blue area can be carefully fleshed out or you can stop there.
By fleshing before tanning you can easily see the fatty pockets in the eyelash area too. I find it very hard to thin the eyelids and tear duct down after tanning. But should you choose that route you can use a dremal tool with a sanding drum to finish thinning it prior to mounting.
Ears are easier to turn before salting. Plus it allows complete penetraition of chemicals duriong all steps.
You will find for a beginner or if you dont have a good bit of experience that ears can be nearly inpossible to turn once tanned, you will also have a lot of hair slipping by not truning the ears prior to tanning.
I dont know of a tannery that will accept a dry salted cape that has not had the ears turned on.
I get emails weekly asking these same questions.
Most of us turn and split everthing prior to salting, you loose less hides that way.
The tanners will charge you for it. And they value their time very highly, too! And you might even get to learn how to "fix" slipped ears it you leave it to them, a great learning experience for every beginner.
I have found that it is better to split the eyes AFTER the tan if you send your capes to a tannery. When I have "Found" the lids by splitting them before the salt/tan, it seems the tannery always nicks through the eye and then I have a hole in the lid to repair, which never is fun.