Does the Van Dykes strecher work ok compared to a McKenzie strecher or the innertube. Any feedback would be helpful. thanks
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no substitute for the correct size cape or proper thinning
but
on occasion i use it to help get the cape on the correct form
i dont like the other stretchers
i usually can get by with stretching by hand right before sliding onto form
p.s. since i switched to the WTDS,stoprot, leatherizing acid and jrts combo the capes fly on
now i shave thin and i dont pickle with this method
paul e
Here's a cape stretcher you can make for less than $10. Get yourself two two by fours about five foot long. Drill a hole on one end of the both of them and run a bolt through em. Viola. Drop your cape over it and pry apart the unbolted ends. Works like a charm. I think if you need to leave your skins on one of those car jack contraptions you'd be better off using a better tannery or learning how to utilize your fleshing machine to the max.
Dave
Glen Conley has given me a lot of grief over that idea of mine, but Glen probably does as much taxidermy work as I do lab work. If you let a hide set overnight before mounting, many times it dries just enough to ruin elasticity. An inner tube is also less than $10 but the big difference is that it applies pressure equally in ALL directions. The added advantage is that it has a safety valve. Once it expands as much as it can, it balloons out the ends. A 2x4 or a hide stretcher doesn't have any of that and is VERY LIKELY to tear your hide if you get carried away with it. Deer's necks are not perfectly cone shaped and to try and stretch it that way is asking for trouble.
Maybe it is me but I have mounted alot of Deer and never needed to use a stretcher. I use a short incision and and pull the cape over the maniquin and hardly ever have a problem. I think if you are using an inner tube or stretching device maybe you are trying to get more inches than you should, which could lead to other problems during the drying stage. That could be why I see alot of questions on this forum pertaining to hair not looking correct, hard to obtain neck definition or drumming. Just my thoughts!
Me too, but on occasion, as I related, I'll get lazy with a hide. The last time I used the innertube was a year ago. I had been invited to mount a deer at the Bass Pro Shops in Baltimore. I got everything ready the night before and test fit the hide to insure no surprises. When I got read to leave, just on a lark, I test fit the hide again and it had shrunk just enough with the SHORT "Y" incision not to clear the back of the head. I sprayed the hide down with warm water, inserted the innertube, blew it up to the max, stuck everything into a black plastic trash bag, and drove the 2 hours from here to there. Three hours later, I deflated the innertube, and the hide slid easily over the manikin allowing me to complete the seminar without making tacky excuses. EVERY hide I mount gets both arms up the tube and stretched before I test fit them. I'm not "trying to get more inches than you should". I love good form detail under the hide and stretching it won't cut that at all.
I do, however, see your point and I'm sure as we both are, that's JUST what some people try to do.
and I see your point too. I also stetch my capes by hand as you do and do not feel I am trying to over stretch them. My capes are shaved well and my hide paste helps the cape slip onto the form.
Over the past few years as I read some of the comments regarding stretchers I think that some of the newer taxidermists think they HAVE to srtetch the hell out of every cape. I do understand that done in moderation it will help but if over done, they will find themselves fighting the cape the whole way.Seam problems,brisket problems, you name it. Making there experience not fun.
& how exactly do you use it?
Buy them at Lowe's for about $8.
I insert my arms into the brisket end of the cape, let my hands stop right at the bottom of the Y incision, make two tight fists, cross my wrist like an X and push out at the elbows. Then I spin the cape and do it agian to get all the way around the cape. This is all I ever needed to do.
Last year I was using an inner tube to streatch a cape and it blew up in my face. Didn't hurt anything, but scared the crap out of me. I only use an inner tube on about half my mounts when I know they are going to be tight which is about 1/4 of the time.
I use 2 2x2 about 3 foot long with a small door hinge attatched at one end. Insert in cape and pry apart. Never had any trouble with the cape tearing or damaging. This works good for me. Cost no more than 10.00.