How well do small mammals hold up by tanning them with dried preservatives?
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FIRST, you are not tanning anything with dry preservative. Besides being its name, that's only what it does. It preserves them, it doesn't tan them.
Dry preservative is a mixture of powdered borax, talc, alum, and sometimes moth crystals and other "spices" to meet a manufacturers whim. The talc is a drying agent, the alum is an astringent, and the borax (and moth crystals) are insect repellants.
I've used DP for years on small game and never had any problems. I have two squirrels in my den right now that are over 25 years old and still look as bad as the day I did them. My very squirrel was done in 1958 using Calorax (that magic powder from the fabled Nortwest School of Taxidermy) and it lasted in my mothers den until the house burned down in 1996. Today, all birds are done with some sort of DP as well, and though I don't like doing deer with it any longer, I know that DP hides tend to last as long or longer than a tanned hide. Now since you didn't ask preferences or specifics, I'll leave the decision up to you on the comparisons.
And now you're "John". Having an identity crisis today are we? (TCP/IP #'s are the same)
As much as I hate too I agree with George. I have mounts over tweenty five years old (deer and small game) that are as solid as a rock. They look like crap though, but they looked like crap then too. Boy, thirty years can turn you into a hell of a taxidermist.
In our shop, we refer to processing a hide/cape with DP as a "green tan"-meaning that the animal hide has not been through the process of being sent to a tannery. -Susan
P.S.-
The DP method has been used with all of our mounts, from squirrels to elk. We've had NO complaints in the past 22 years that
I know of. As general policy, we encourage our customers to inform us of any changes that they notice in their mounts or displays/bases. -Susan