Sometimes I am asked to do ranch mink mounts. And after I have processed them for the form, the skins have stretched far too much from original measurements; So much so that it is often not possible to proceed.
I skin minks as any other mammals and I scrape the fat off with a spoon while on a fleshing beam. I degrease, de-scent, and tan Lutan-F method. I drum after tanning to get a nice shinny fur.
What am I doing wrong? that these mink skins stretch so much. The ranchers claim they breed these large minks to stretch and this might be my problem, but can I reduce stretch in the ways I scrape them, tan, or drum them?
I have checked the archives with no luck. Has someone encountered this problem and found a solution? Please help, and thank you for your imput. Gordon
It's like this if you have to much stretch with your tan try an Alum tan. Alum will cause it to shrink and will not give you the stretch your getting now.
Your not doing any thing wrong it's totally normal for this to happen. That's way it's called taxidermy-taxing the skin. so don't fret your doing it right.
Now the other way is to use ( not a favorite of mine ) denatured alcohol 12-24 hr soak and then use DP. This will also stop all the stretch your getting.
Frank,
Thanks for the reply, I will experiment with all you suggestions. My first negative instinct on the alum tan would be that the legs and neck are going to shrink overly. But I will try and see what will happen. Do you mean an old time strait alum tan or some other tan like chrome or such?
Also, can you or someone else explain what Denatured Alcohol does chemically to a hair on/fur on skin?
John C. just posted that it will halt the slip on a deer mount brisket, I believe someone suggested before that it was a good fish skin preservative, and now your suggestion for my mink problem. What does D. alcohol do to skins? Thank you, Gordon.
It's only a preservative and does help dry and set the quicker, that's why it used (one reason) to help stop slip. Also I don't recomened it. I'm not a fan of DP although it works well for others and many have no problems. It's just a personal thing.
As for the alum tan, it's to old standard one. Yes it will shrink up but it seams to be the best solution I can come up with all that stretch your having.