I am starting to wonder if I should just stick with deer and ducks. Once again, I am having more trouble with bears. I got this bear last year and tanned it in the auto tanner. It came out fine. I oiled it and stuck it in the freezer until this past Friday when I got this cockamamie idea to do a shoulder mount. I have been getting into some major trouble with my boss over the past few months because of the oiling job that I did on our animals when they came out of the auto tanner. Instead of painting on the hot oil with a paintbrush, I had been dumping the oil directly on the flesh side of the hide and slathering it on with my hand. Well, my boss has been angry with how I oiled all these capes. All of the animals that I did the slather job on are tremendously sticky and feel greasy. I have been secretly giggling at him all this time as he washed and toiled over these greasy mounts. Now he is snickering at me. This is my bear and it is the single most sticky bear I have ever touched. It is as if I poured honey on it. The only difference is I think the honey would come out quicker. I mounted the bear Friday night. I even took it outside and washed it with palmolive after it was mounted because I KNEW that I had over oiled it. I blew it off with the air hose and went home. The next morning I could just look at the hair and tell something was really wrong. To the touch the hair felt tacky and had a dull sheen. I took it out side, poured tannery degreaser on it, lathered it up, rinsed and repeated this step again. It still felt sticky! As a last resort I tried acetone. I poured an entire gallon on the bear. I could see the milky color of the oil start coming out. I washed it for the third time with the tannery degreaser. I blew it off with the air hose and went to lunch. When I came back it looked as if I had triumphed! But wait! I felt behind the ears and there it was.... that greasy feel! I was so frustrated that I left the bear sitting on the bench. I haven't touched it since Saturday morning. I have run out of ideas to get this oil crap off. My boss finds it to be a great payback, and yes, I learned my lesson. But now I need to learn another lesson, how to fix this mess. I sincerely hope that someone out there knows how to fix this. Any help is greatly appriciated! At this point I am willing to try anything.
Thanks, -Jeanette
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I never have that problem with the bears they do for me.
i always tumble mine with a little mineral spirits in the sawdust after i oil it. has always worked fine for me. you might try puting mineral spirits on a rag and wiping the oily spots. just an idea
good luck
lee
How did you tumble it? How did you degrease it? I know why your boss is mad! I personally prefer a commercially dressed bear, regardless of the tanning method used in-studio. Only MY opinion, though...
I've always said that no shop tan comes anyplace close to a professional tannery and I've never had that kind of mess since I started that practice. I've used several tanneries and none of them come out like that. Jeanette, PLEASE get rid of that acetone and don't go for the turpentine or kerosene either. Those are flammable liquids that don't do anything to degrease. They are SOLVENTS and only dissolve the grease while leaving their own residue. Acetone kills. If you can smell it, it's already burned your lungs and if it evaporates on your skin, it's on it's way to your liver. Acetone is just bad with a capitol "B". If you need to degrease anything, you have to use a high pH soap. That cuts grease
I'd apologize to the boss, then maybe he would quit putting more oil on it while your gone.
Jeanette, I use a Auto-tanner also, bear, everything when I started use the A-T I put oil in the tanner and it made some sticky messes. To clean these up I used mineral spiritsm it took a couple-three times but the oils will clean out. Just keep at it.
Wilson may have a point.
Thank you all for getting me through this disaster. I tried the mineral spirits this morning and it only took 2 applications. I'm happy, bear is happy, and boss is happy that I learned a good lesson. I really do appriciate all of you taking the time to read and answer my post.
Thank you!
-Jeanette
Did anyone else hear anything about how it was degreased PRIOR to tanning? Dont forget that with bears and small game, folks!
I had one unexpectedly - oily cape recently and i didnt know why,(and it seems im lucky i didnt have more).
Now i know WHY and that I may have even added to the problem by using turps and acetone!
Though the acetone seemed to fix the problem - and the air hose.
Glad to hear the bear worked out too.