I am in the process of salting a cape but have a few questions.This is my first cape and I want to send it to a tannery.
1. I used those ear openers to open the ears. I noticed on both ears, I busted though near the tip. I don't know if the ear was weak, or if I was too rough, but I did not even feel myself do it.
2. I have salted it twice, and I am now on my third salting. It is still "moist". So how stiff should the skin be before it is sent to a tannery?
3. Being my first cape, what if the eyes and lips were not split 100% properly? How would the tannery deal with that? I am on;y concerned with the ears right now.
Any advice on what would be a good way to approach this stuff would be appreciated. I am not very happy with the mistakes I made (i.e. the ears), but I really don't want to tan it myself. I also don't want the tannery to get pissed if I didn't get everything 100% correct.
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Since it is your first cape I am not surprized that you blew the ear with the ear opener, it is easy to do until you get the feel for it. And even then you need to pay attention to the process.
Totally dried, flint hard, capes are cheaper to ship because they weigh less, that is the major reason to get them dried down that far. If you are shipping 20 capes at a time it makes a big difference in cost.
Your other "problems" are not major ones and the tanner should not have any problem with them, you will have a little more prep work when you get it back.
as far as drying the cape goes put a fan in front of it for a day or so so that it dries basically rock hard...dont worry about the ears its going to create a little more work down the road but it happens to the best of em'....eyes nose etc... you can fine tune those when they get back to from the tannery...i like to utilize a dremmel with a small sanding drum to finish prep (if you will) thinning and such around the eyes nose generally entire face region...stick with it dont sweat the small stuff and good luck
RLTW
eric
If you know that the lips arent correct, that tells me you know enough about it to correct this. Split them the way you should, as it MIGHT be the difference between tanned and spoiled, or having the cape rejected by the tanner. We all have busted through ears now and then, and sometimes they are just weak. Good luck and let us know how you make out.