i am swithcing back to dp for my deer - i have tanned the last couple of years with krowtann (great product by the way) - for the life of me i can see NO DIFFERENCE in mount - dp is faster - cheaper and the stretch is inherent in green skins
Return to Deer Taxidermy Category Menu
When you tan a hide using modern techniques, it takes salt in one step and can be tanned, but most then pickle it and then tan it. Now from what I know about Krowtann, you didn't do any of that.
I use DP. to what kind of hide paste do you use just want to get an idea what works best with DP, Thanks
I use my own form of dp. I have been still working from time to time with my good friend and 30 year veteran taxidermist. Larry and together we have come up finally with a really good product of our own. its a dry preserve and no it isnt just plain damn borax. I also use buckeye hide paste recomended for dp hides. No problems with anything thats been mounted useing it. so i believe thats all i'll continue to use. Ray
When did that fight ever stop? DPr's defend their powders, tanners defend their methods. Tanners make early stage or finished leathers, DPr's keep mildew offn' green hides.
I've done both over the years, still do both on some things, but not deer front ends down here. The high humidity here plays hell with DP hides. There ain't nothing like crystal frost on a deer's face early in the morning. Once a hide dries, doesn't make much difference how you do it UNLESS that mount is going to be in 90+ humidity for 300 days a year.
In areas with normal humidity, a DP hide will last almost as well as a tanned hide. I cut my teeth on DP hides, and have snorted plenty of it over the years, but it just don't work well here on the coast. Either process requires a lot of work on a cape or pelt before mounting, anyway. DP doesn't save a minute of preparation work if it is done correctly. Green hides are a easier to slap on a mannikin that is two sizes too big, but other than that, the actual labor is about the same....or it should be.
I've been stitching cuts and setting eyes for more than 50 years, and that argument was around when I began, and will be around when my grand children die.
And it shouldn't be a fight either. A discussion, maybe, a set to, never. Like I said, the work goes into a hide long before that pixie dust starts to fly, or a hide is neutralized. If anyone things that using DP saves effort, then their work ethics leave something to be desired.
makes a pretty good spill pick-er-upper.
DaveT
Going on a half century of doing this and STILL someone wants to reinvent the wheel. Northwest Schoool of Taxidermy called it "Calorax". I always thought it was a letter game with the words "talc" and "borax", but one thing for sure: IF it's DP, it has borax, it has talc, and it has alum. Maybe you could get rid of the talc, but the other two have passed the test of time. No matter what SECRET RECIPE you have, it's still DRY PRESERVATIVE and Buckeye Supreme nor any other good water based glue is going to hold it to a foam form PERMANENTLY without drumming. Maybe these guys could reinvent the PAPER MANNIKIN. That seemed to work pretty well.
Many if not most of us have powdered a few hides at one time or another. Nothing any old expert or new expert can say in here is going to be new, its all been said before, concerning DP. I know for ME, anyway, the DP skin would be very difficult to do the detail work I like, and its the FEEL of the skin Im talking about. The stability of a tanned skin just feels better to me. Now, I can say that nobody can tell me Im wrong on that one!