Another problem that I'm having while doing taxidermy is after mounting the specimen it begins to sweat. Then, the staples in the back of the mount begin to rust! Even the pins too! Whats the problem? Now, since I'm having problems with the John Rhinehart tan method I'm going to switch to the pressure tanning. Will I have the same problem with the hides?
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If you leave alot of salt in the skin it will actually sweat. The more humid it is, the more moisture it will attract. You must remove as much salt from the skin as possible. As a result you are noticing your staples are rusting from the salt and moisture. Good Luck!
Thank you for the answer to my problem! But is there anything I can do to the mount to make it stop sweating?
David,you really need to go into the archives and study before you go any farther.You are trying to freeze salted capes,and now this.You are going to lose a lot of hides,if you don't get educated first!
Just like Salt is used to draw moisture from the flesh and accelerate its drying - excess Salt left in the flesh can also draw moisture from the atmosphere and cause "weeping" after the skin has dried! Especially if your shop is very humid to begin with.
It can also cause other problems like "salt spew". See the post here below this one about "craters" forming on the flesh side of the skin.
It sounds like you should do more rinsing and its time to shop around for a de-humidifier!
David, I read a couple of you posts here and it seems the root of your problem lies in not getting the salt out of the capes enough prior to mounting. Sounds like you have others still in the freezer salted. Mounts like the corsican you describe probably will continue to change- a tough lesson but valuable. If it were me I would take a couple of capes and start anew with them. Thaw, rehydrate if necessary in salt water or soak and rinse out excess salt, pickle 3 days neutralize and tan. After this if the hair has not slipped the capes should be fine and mount up well. There is of course some chance that there is unseen damage due to the salt/freeze thing or bacteria that my be there from before but my guess is they will be ok.As for the tanning method you choose--good results are gotten by use of any accepted method though we all settle on a favorite. An error early on in the process can foul up any tanning procedure and should not be the reason to abandon a particular tan. I have nothing against a pressure tanner other than the cost of the equipment but I would caution anyone against jumping from one process to another until they have mastered the basics of what should be a simple process. A couple of carefully prepared "test" capes is a good investment in learning to tan and will save you lots of money and time in the future. Good luck sorting this out, David, and remember to enjoy, Aaron H.
Howdy David,
You had some good, knowledgeable people respond to your post. I wish I had that level of expertise to help me out when I started. I would recommend E-mailing Bruce Rittel. I know him personally and, he is a great help. Good Luck!