I mixed up a 20 gallon formic(90%)acid pickle, one ounce per gallon. No problem. I am running 5 whitetail capes through it. I am about to do the second shaving. I made the pickle about 10-12 days ago. So far I have used the original 20 ounces of acid, added another approximate 20 ounces, had to order another gallon, and have used approximately 40 ounces of my new gallon, for a total of 80 ounces used thus far. I will probably have to add more acid today to maintain a 2.0 PH. I was under the impression that formic acid pickeling was inexpensive. I paid $33.00 for the acid, a $20.00 hazard charge, and $7.00 shipping. Let's see, 63% of $60.00 =$37.80. Divided by 5 =$7.56 per cape. OUCH! I am using county water and have not added more water and I did add 20 pounds of salt to solution. Is it normal to use this much formic acid for 5 capes?
Return to Tanning Category Menu
Sounds to me like you are using way too much acid. I only use 10cc
per 4 gal . You can actually pickle without acid. Just use salt and Pretan 110.I know 2 guys in my area that do 2-3 hundred heads a year, and never use acid unless the cape is close to slipping.
Sounds like you have hard water, or used borax on your capes.
....but have been using Bruce's Safety Acid ever since I tried it. I mix a 30 gallon pickle, and very rarely do I have to add more to keep it right, and I maintain a PH between 1 and 1.5 no problems. You may have other issues like previously mentioned regarding your waters chemistry, but I don't know. Marc R
Hi Bill, Kenneth Wheeler here. Maybe it is the water because I didn't use any borax on the skin. I have used safety acid and tok very little to maintain PH, but I don't think itplumps quite as well. Bill, you use formic don't you?
Whats the container made out of?
30 gallon plastic garbage can.
I dont think Ive ever had to even top off formic, no less go through that much. Even safety acid, which you do have to top off, is only once, then its good. Boy Id get a hold of Bruce Rittel and explore that one. I honestly dont know. I know it doesnt sound correct, though. Let us know!
Something is wrong! Normally a 90% Formic Acid pickle requires 20 fluid ounces to bring the PH down to 2.2-2.5 for a 20 gallon pickle. Since Formic Acid has a habit of "bottoming" - adding more acid will simply not make it go further down. You could add 1 Gallon more of it and it wont go lower than 2.2 PH.
Check your PH papers! They could be contaminated and not reading properly. Or do you use a PH Meter? If so, recalibrate it. If no Borax is involved - then it has to be "how" you measure the PH.
for more info or ideas - e-mail me. Rittel@mindspring.com