I have a question and did a lot of reading in the archives and I am worried. I harvested an antelope and have the hide fleshed and ready to mount. I put it in a pickle solution (did not salt dry) right after the fleshing. The solution is the "vinegar" pickle. It has been in there for 24 hrs. I was told to take it out and flesh it again (thin) and put in a bag to sweat for another 24 hrs. After that I nuetralize and then apply liqua tan and freeze. My question is: When is the antelope most likely to slip. It is fine now but I am worried about once I take it out of the pickle and nuetralize. I have done taxidermy for 10 years but this is my first goat. Most people have included salting until hard in their process and I was specifically instructed not to by a world renound taxidermist. What do you think?
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I would have salted down the hide, this helps set the hair, and really begins to prepare the hide for tanning,I haven't never used a vinegar pickle before so I can't tell you what reaction you'll have with the hide. I also never heard of sweating a hide for 24 hrs. then neutralize. But then again I don't use Liqua-Tan either.
Though it's recomened to salt dry a hide, I will say that i have thrown hides right in the pickle. I have never used the vingar method and stick to more modern methods. Make sure your Ph is kept at 2.5 or lower. If it gets higher than this your hide can slip.
Now I would pickle the hide for three days no matter what. Then take out the hide reflesh and repickle for 24 hrs more. Then hang for about 30 min. and to each gallon of water add a tablelspoon of sodium bicarbonate and soak the hide for no more than 20 min. After that rinse the hide well, hang for another 30 or so minutes and apply the Liqua-tan. Fold the cape up and let it sit this way for 24 hours. Then you can oil it if you wish, place it in the freezer till your ready to mount it, dry it and then rehydrate at a later time or mount it that day.
The most important thing is to KEEP THE PH AT 2.5 OR LOWER!
Why would you shave an antelope? Now I'm ASSUMING you're talking pronghorn here and if I'm wrong, I apologize and you should disregard what I'm about to say, BUT a pronghorn has a paper thin hide anyway. It "slips" when it's alive, much less in the pickle. For years no one ever tanned that hide commercially because of the hair problems.