Hi.
Ive been working on a clients cape (who i really wanted to impress).
He has alot of hunting connections and can influence alot of people. I have felt 'under pressure' to do the best job i could and accepted that ok.
However the cape i was given ( a deer), to work on was hanging in a shed, tanned and dried. The cape wasnt really soft but not hard either except for the ear butts, eye & gland areas.
I have rehydrated, sweated then frozen the cape as i normally do.
Then i thawed & sweated to check its progress, stretch and get measurements.
The cape is nice, soft & stretchy except for the areas already mentioned. They were still hard.
i tried freezing and sweating again with a salt water soaked hand towel placed hard against those areas but to no avail.
Is it time to chuck in the towel? I am noticing a red/brownish colour begining to appear on the flesh side of the cape.
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Inject those areas with warm water mixed with some salt and downy fabric softner. It may take a few times but this should rehydrated those hard areas.
And no it's not time to chuck it but I can see your in the learning process. It's not unusual to geet capes like these but what scares me is how long it's been hung. Getting a dry tanned hide and not knowing how long it's bben there would always pose a problem in getting dry rot and losing it's elasticity. Lucky but it seems from what you stated you have good stretch so all is not lost. Take your time and you should be able to pull it off.
Next time this happens never guarantee a cape like that. Tell your clients that they should always freeze their tanned hide till there ready to mount it. Also state get a wet tan for better results.
Thanks frank, I havnt done that before & i will give that a go.
Yes, i dont do alot of rehydrated capes.
No, i didnt guarentee the cape but the client has let an awful lot of people know he gave one of 'his' capes to me to mount.
I just spoke with him and went through the whole process with him and let him know i would keep working on it BUT he 'might' need to get another cape. He seemed pretty understanding.
......clients are as long as you are honest and up front with them.....once in blue moon .....you,ll get one that,s not ....GL....TD
get a regular relaxing liquid (relaxr) and do it right instead of trying different ways you think are right - i have never found aything yet that wouldn't relax
Excuse me, but i (and apparently many other people here),thought salt water WAS the right way for rehydrating a tanned cape.