I am going to use a tanning cream. I fleshed the deer cape. I salted until hard. I rehydrated the cape with a 1lb. salt to one gallon water mixture. I rinsed the cape in clean water and thats when I noticed hair slippage. I freaked out and refrooze the cape. I can repair the area where the slippage occured. I just don't want anymore. What did I do wrong? What can I do now?
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From your description - I have my doubts you personally may have done anything wrong. However - I would question the Hunter to find out if it laid around wet for too long before you got to skinning it. It doesnt take long for Bacteria to grow!
I do use 2 Lbs. (instead of 1 Lb.) of Salt to each gallon of Water when I use a Brine - but another question would be - did you relax it above 55 degrees? Or was it colder? Colder can definitely cause problems for you! The dissolved Salt falls out of the solution.
The water temperature may have been below 55 degrees at first, but I dought it. Room temp. was 70 degrees, though I don't know that the water would warm up. Do you think I should rinse the cape in fresh water after I rehydrate it or just leave it as is after the brim solution? I recieved the head three days after the day it was shot. It was supposedly in the processors cooler until I got it. That might have been long enough to allow for bacterial damage. Thank you for the info. on the importance of the temperature, I was not aware of that and I will be sure to check it in the future.
After using a Brine solution to relax - I normally dont rinse it - I just drain it before putting it in the pickle. However I dont see that it should cause a problem if you did. It's only Salt.
If I used a Commercial Relaxer like our Ultra-Soft or similiar - then I would definitely rinse before I placed it into the pickle. you dont want any unwanted carry-over in the pickle.