I have done taxidermy for about 10 years and always used dry preserve on my deer capes. I have had no problems but I am looking to improve my work and up the quality. I am doing more and more heads per year and I do not have the time to spend watching each one numerous times per day dry and shrink and readjust. I would like to learn how to tan the hides or learn what is needed to have them tanned. I don't understand the whole process. I do not have a auto flesher and do everything with a curriers or draw knife. If I send one to a tannery or pickle it, do I need to shave it and how would I do this without a flesher? Please forgive me, I do not understand the whole process and would like to learn. I have looked in the archives but haven't found exactly what I was looking for. there are so many different answers and so many different opinions that it seems overwhelming. I am basically looking for a step by step answer. This is what I already know from what I have gathered. I flesh the cape, turn the lips, eyes, ears and nose....it would now be ready to mount using dp, do I salt next or pickle? Do I let it dry rock hard? How do I rehydrate? What is required to prep the cape to mount. Please help. I am open to all suggestions. Thank you for your time. It is greatly appreciated.
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You need to know quite a bit. You have a good start on it though. After you flesh the cape and have turned everything that needs turning you MUST salt it twice. Give it a good salting and let it drain at an angle over night then the next day shake off the salt and do it again. After this it should be left to dry hard or if the cape is in good shape you could go to the pickle bath. I recommend you wait till it gets dried hard then rehydrate. Rehydrate it in cold water with about half a measure cup of salt per gallon of water this should take over night some times I noticed it can take longer. When the cape has rehydrated back soft and pliable then you are ready to pickle. Pickle, I use saftee acid follow the directions on the bottle make sure you maintain a PH of 1.5-2.0 you will need to get some PH strips for this. I use 1 and 1/2 cups of salt per gallon of water in the pickle. I make about 8 gls. for one cape. I then pickle for three days stiring the cape everyday checking PH every day . This sounds like a lot of work but really its not. I have some plastic totes I use for vats bought at wal-mart they work great. After the three days in the pickle you have to shave the skin a fleshing machine is a must have if your serious about the trade. Once you have the skin shaved thin then you place the cape back in the pickle for another day. Neutralizing after the cape has been pickled for another day you need to neutralize it. Take one tblsp. of baking soda to each gallon of water 5 gls will work. Let the cape drain really good before you place it in the neutralizing bath get as much water out of it as you can. I then place it in the neutralizing bath for 20-30 minutes no longer. Take the cape out and drain it and get as much water out as you can. I like to spin them in a wash machine for a few minutes this realy speeds things up. Liqua-tan is what I use to tan the cape. After the cape has been drained and is starting to get tacky the skin should feal tacky. I then rub in Liqua tan with my hand using a glove get it around the eyes really good this helps to stop shrinkage. Turn the cape skin to skin let it sweat over night the next day you can mount or freeze to mount later. Hope I have been able to help you. By the way all the info I just gave you is in the archives. This is the method I used when starting out I have had great results. There are several ways to doing tanning. I know have an auto tanner and will be using this method from now on out. Good luck have fun, Jack F
I am just curious, why the switch? Won't you still have to adjust and check on your mount even if you tan vs. DP? When I tan black bear capes, and then mount them, I still have to adjust the hide. How does tanning improve your work and up the quality? Please enlighten me!
Jack - thanks for the great tips!
If you are happy with DP why not try improving your hide adhesive?