I currently have a badger in the pickle and am finding it difficult to remove all the fat without putting any holes in the paper thin skin. What i'm wondering is, can the fat be left on until after i liqua tan it and then be shaved off with a skive knife. It seems to me like it might be a whole lot easier to remove once the hide is already tanned and fairly dry. Or does anyone have any helpful tips that could help me out. Thanks for the help
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lee
i will tell you that you need to degrease a badger. all the fat needs to be off. degrease in mineral spirits or whatever you prefer.
the skin after you have shaved it once, super solvent works very well. While the belly skin is relatively thin, the back skin is not. You should be able to shave the back considerably without making holes. You are going to have to skife knife a whole heck of a lot if you don't have a rotary knife.
Chris
Turkey Creek Tanning & Taxidermy
I've got some kemal-4 that i was going to use for degreasing and i have a fleshing machine as well, but how much will the kemal-4 do as far as removing the grease? How crucial is it that all the grease be removed?
I have found if I use Rittels ultra soft it puffs up the skin & fat enough to shave with out making animals look like swiss cheese. lol
try it awesome product makes shaving so much easier. Good luck.
The Kemal 4 will work great, just use 1 oz per gallon of water and let soak for 2 to 3 hours. This will remove all the grease and fat, if you do not remove the grease and fat from skins what will happen is, this will slow down and restrict the penetration of any further chemicals affect on the skin. Plus once the skin has been tanned the remaining grease and fat in the fibers of the skin will make it turn stiff and at times present odors. Our most concentrated product that was mentioned is the Super Solve deg it will work great on everything but does a great job on bears and pigs.
Mark