Was mounting up a WT Tues. night and got to thinking. "This can be dangerous or so my wife says. Well I'm sweatin like a, oh I won't go there, I'm sweatin and cussing the june bugs flying around my lights not to mention the 1 inch razor blade cut on my left palm I inflicted onto myself 15 minutes earlier, wife said I needed stitches but duct tape can fix anything. So heres the deal, I'm curious about this. If you do 100,50,300 WT a year what percent of those hides do you loose because they slipped on you? This of course is a question directed between the DP crew and the Gotta TAN crew. See I removed this cape from freezer, It was rough fleshed and washed. I removed it around 2am and put it on the floor of shop. The temp in there was around 90+ humidity was about the same, Welcome to TEXAS. Around 9pm I fleshed it on machine,washed it,hung it so I could drink a malty beverage then gave er a few good pops like a whip and went to town with the powder. So heres the deal, I have no slippage no smell, mount is 3/4 dry and looks fine. Why then do I read about so much slippage occuring for the multi course pickle crew? I'm planning on tanning a boatload of hides after the season. Not the capes the Hides and this slippage question got me thinking I may not want to put these off til the summer because of the heat. So what is your percentage? thanks
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and have not lost any capes due to slipping since.Prior to that I had trouble with about 1/2 doz a year,I wouldnt loose them but the hair just never seemed to set properly,Since I switched to commercial tanning no problems.Thats been my experiance.
Powder guys who wash, freeze, thaw, etc, are going to run into trouble sooner or later, just the same as guys who tan and use the same extra steps. Capes need to be attended to right away. Freezing until later, refrigerating until the next day for the hobbyist, thats taking chances regardless of what method you choose to process the cape. Washing before different procedures is a common mistake that allows spoilage to take place. Freezing, thawing, and more importantly the time inbetween is another opportunity. I would never use a powdered cape again for the obvious reason. I have much better control and feel for a tanned cape then I do any raw, powdered, stabilized, spraytanned, etc cape. Its not a knock against any of them, its a preference. Others might bash them, I dont care. I know what works best. In closing, when those hides come in, knock off the meat and fat, tag them and salt them. It wont matter what the temperature is. How about us northerners that deal with capes freezing solid as the water pulls off them while salting? Best of luck!
Not a slam here. You seem to come up with some very indepth questions in your posted queries lately...putting a lot of time and thought into their creation. Are you really a taxidermist or just toyingky testinmg the mettle of the icons in these forums?...LOL.
~ ETCC
I have thought out alot of these questions. I do alot of mounts for myself, family, friends and the like. I wouldn't waste my time or yours unless I truely wanted to find an answer. My overall feelings about the tan/dp questions all started with my age old thought of why buy the cow if the milk is free, Meaning dp is fast,simple and provides results that are satisfactory. After reading this forum I realized I was a powder jockey that stuffs heads. But on the other hand the tan guys all seem to scream about hair slipping,no stretch, etc. I can't see how a rub on tan would be much different then dp.
So in conclusion if tanning is better lets see some real results over a long period of time that proves it? Auto companies scream airbags are safe, yet they have a warning sticker that says it can kill you, your kid, your dog etc if you are not in the proper position when it deploys. Im not sure about you but Im not sure what position i'll be in when the sucker explodes. And if feefee the poodle is looking through the windshield with front paws on dash I guess hes going out the back window upon deployment.