A customer brought me an antelope(frozen solid) and after thawing the hide, I noticed alot of hair falling out. Way more than what could be called normal. I followed normal procedures, skinned head out, removed horns, but when I opened the cape to red meat flesh it I noticed a nice light green color on the hide. It had no major odor but is definately spoiling. Insted of trying to break every piece of membrane I just got the large meat areas and salted it. Just moving it around on the beam caused about a 3 x 3 area to slip plus other smaller areas. My question is do you think that after hard salting and pickling that the hide will be mountable and will the mount continue to lose hair over time. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. .D.B
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I've had problems with antelope, also, from a particular client. He finally admitted the place he had them caped would store them for up to a week before he finally headed back this way. Green is a good color for money, bad for hides. I've heard some people refer to "Stop Slip." I've also heard of putting a cape/hide such as that in denatured alcohol to tighten it up. But, I don't know if they will work on yours. Maybe someone out there has a workable idea. But it sure sounds to me like the cape was mis-handled before you got it, and a replacement should be at the client's expense.
Good luck! :)
Thanks For your reply, I have the hide in the pickle now gonna see if it's workable. I've informed my client and he's willing to purchase a new hide if need be, so that helps as well. Once again thank you. D.B