Hi folks:
I heard about this forum from one our chat room members. A quick bio: I'm a professional hunter (of sorts) and spend a lot of time in the field testing ideas and studying various things. I'm very involved in educating sportsmen about the how-to-mistakes I've made and lessons I've learned regarding many topics. Which led me here.
I have limited education in your field and I'm extremely fascinated by the science involved with field care and hide conditions.
Please educate me on the subject of "what I can relate to my audience that would make your job easier as a taxidermist." I want to know everything you care to share with me. I am willing to pay consulting fees if threads get too lengthy.
I'm specifically interested in developing a new product that would (#1) reduce gear weights for Alaska hunters and (#2) satisfy the requirements of adequate hide care in the field.
So far, what I think I know is:
Remove the moisture by providing salt, which also lends protection from bacteria and may slightly effect the pH. The jury is still out on whether salt does this. My tests have shown no great influence of salt on water pH levels (at least with a drug-store pH color scale). I'm experimenting with sodium bicarbonate, but a friend suggested this might interfere with tanning solutions and processes.
There has to be a way to reducing gear weights for hunters who currently pack in up to 50 lbs of salt for proper cape care. What am I missing here? What knowledge can I borrow? I'm not used to dead ends. Thanks in advance for your opinions.
Larry
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Cabela's has what is called T.T.C Hide Cure. T.T.C. Hide Cure is five times more potent than salt, begins to set hair immediately and removes moisture from hide virtually overnight even in humid and damp conditions. It eliminates hair slippage by killing the bacteria that causes it. The ($9.99) 2.5-pound bottle cures the hide of any deer to caribou-sized animal, while the ($12.99) 4.6-pound bottle treats elk- and moose-sized hides.
This is their explanation of the product on the website. If someone has used this product please let me know what your opinion is of it. Go to Cabela's website and type in "Hide Cure" in the search.
Hope this helps.
Salt has zilch to do with pH. It's intended use is to remove water from the cell structures thus eliminating the medium bacteria depend on to survive. A dry hide can't mold.
Where did the sodium bicarbonate come from. It is on the opposite end of the acids used in tanning and is used to neutralize the acids when tanning is complete. I think you are confusing it with sodium SULFATE which is a salt substitue.
I've heard of several products like T.T.C. mentioned above. They all sound great, but salt is still cheaper. Cabela's doesn't mention if the product interferes with tanning either.
Call McKenzie and order a packet of their Field Care Guides. They only a few cents apiece and make great give-aways for shops or hunter education classes.
and not only that, it is in the form of a very economical product.
STOP-ROT was developed as a preventive for skin decompositions.
If you utilize the orange search button, and enter stop-rot, and stop rot as search phrases, you will get a couple of accounts of personal experiences of the Forums Contributors.
While there, you might also use the search function, and enter "Salting and its effect on cellular material", by Dr. Yoshan Moodley. That thread might help to give you a little better understanding of skin. It was added to at a later date by Woody Cotterill, Principal Curator, Department of Mammals, Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo.
Once you have that mentally digested, you will find some more light reading by going to www.whitetailsystems.com, and following out ALL the links provided that pertain to STOP-ROT use.
The Dark Ages is past history.
Thanks again, folks. Quickly, I wanted to make some stuff clearer:
1. My background is in human science, so I'm really familiar with how salt affects water. When I was deployed to Desert Storm during the early 1990's, our Unit surgeon ordered a lot of bulk drugs and compounds to shave weight for our desert journey.
Long story short, I learned only a little about certain compounds, but I remember opening one medical chest to discover half of the sodium bicarb, and a few other sodium bases destroyed. These cases were lined with leather to soften the ride overseas. The result fascinated me because after opening the case, I discovered the leather had become so dry it looked like a scab!
These powder compounds weighed close to nothing, but the result was similar to what we want for our hides, only not so dry. I did not account for the interference with pH for the purposes of tanning. I appreciate your advice a great deal.
What is the optimal surface pH for the tanning process, anyway?
Larry
Ideally, half way in between. We pickle, however at 1.0 to 3.0 (I like ONE, it's an easy number to remember).