I'am in the process of building a tumbler for drying my deer capes for mounting but wasn't sure at what stage of tanning is the best time to dry.Should I dry between tanning and oiling or after oiling? Can someone give me the lowdown on tumbling my skins? Thank for all the help. Dan
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what works for me. After tanning, I spin my capes in a commercial washer to get the excess water out, then hang them up over beams (hair side up) and let them dry until the skin is at the "damp to the touch but not slippery"stage...just don't let the skin dry so much that it begins to get hard. Keeping fans going in the room helps dry evenly.
Take capes down, lay flat and stretch with your hands, or use a curry comb (on the skin side) to stretch the skin out. (If you have capes full of burs or tangles, this is a good time to groom the hair.) Oil evenly. At this stage many people fold the capes (skin side together) and leave them overnite. Usually I just hang them right after I oil them. Hang them skin side up. In my experience, if the skin is stretched out good before oiling, and the oil is warm, it soaks in as well as if you fold the capes up for a while.
Once again, fans or space heaters will help the capes dry evenly. For me, after drying capes for a day or two, the skin is mostly dry to the touch...then I flip the capes over to let the hair dry more. I tumble the capes when they feel mostly dry to the touch, but still pliable. Then I tumble in an 8 foot tumbler with 25 lbs or so of sawdust. I've tried using lots more sawdust, and didn't see an improvement...25 lbs works for me. Experiment with how long you need to tumble. My tumbler goes quite slow, and I don't tumble as long with delicate antelope and deer as I do with elk and tougher hides. Then I tumble the sawdust out of the capes in a smaller tumbler that is full of holes to let the sawdust out.
I rehang the capes and dry them completely, then repeat the tumbling with clean sawdust. If you're doing hides, you can add a handfull of talc to give the skin that nice waxy texture.
After all that, I groom the capes and use the compressor to blow out the remaining dust. (I have a large back room that I can do that in; it wouldn't be recommended near your showroom!)
I'm sure lots of tanners do it differently, but after several years of trial and error, this is what works best for me.
If you do not own an extractor (Centrifuge) then there are 3 different stages where you use your Sawdust (for a 4' X 6' always use 100 Lbs.) Drum.
Use sawdust from your previous load for this stage. After tanning and rinsing your skins - allow them to drain - then tumble them in sawdust for a quick 5 minutes. Then Cage Drum them for 15 minutes and oil. This eliminates a lot of excess moisture in the fur or hair.
After oiling, fold the skins and set them aside for 3-4 hours or overnight. Then hang them to dry. When they are 95% dry - this is a good time to tumble them to remove oil splash and the natural oils in the fur or hair that all skins have. Again - use the same sawdust as you did before oiling.
Use Odorless Mineral Spirits - add 1.5 Qts. of it to your sawdust and mix it. Then place the skins in and tumble them for 40-45 minutes. Then Cage them for 30 minutes. Now throw away this used sawdust.
Now Stake or Buff your skins clean.
Fill your Drum with another 100 Lbs. of clean sawdust. This sawdust will be used afterwards for the next load before oiling and to degrease the next load.
Place your skins in and tumble them for 2 hours. This is your Final Tumble. When done - Cage them for 1 hour or blow off - and they should be ready for your customers!
I made a mistake and tanned an otter and a coon without degreasing. Is it too late or is there sonme old recipe out there. I,ll try about anything. Thanks, Don