I have been doing a deerhead a week. I have been thinning the deer cape to about the same thinnes as small game mammals, Coyotes, fox, bobcats.
The problem is I keep ripping the capes when putting them on the forms!
What is the proper thickness?
I pickle the cape at 2.0pH, neut. to 5.5pH, tan. Oil
I ckeck the pH often in all steps.
I have used several types of tans and keep having the same problems.
Am I just thinning to thin or being to hard on the cape?
I am tired of sewing, sewing, sewing.
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you answered you're own question. Try not to thin the edges where you need to sew.
I was sewing the short 7 cut today and the cape ripped down the front. so off it came, wash the Epo-Grip two part off and sew it up. remount.
if they are indeed as thin as a fox and you manhandle (womanhandle?) they will rip because of the leverage you have on a deeer form
!
I've mounted deer from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, that actually didn't need to be thinned at all. I mounted one for an NTA Seminar some years back that I could hold up to light and see through it without shaving. If you shave them to fox thickness, you actually cut past the epidermal layer with the hair follicles imbedded in it and your hide literally becomes Swiss cheese.
I buy the right size form, only thin about 50 % of the mid neck, IF it needs it, mostly never shave them, never had a rip, and never struggle to zip em up.
to go by color. I shave till the cape starts to turn a bluish tint. No need to re-shave or "double shave". I like to do this because I can get it back to it's original size, and not an inch more. Joe
with George. I live in South Texas and very rarely do I shave the capes very thin. Only if needed in the neck area, around the antler burrs, and sometimes in the forehead area. The only time I shave till I see the blue tint Joe is talking about is for flat hides. Exotic deer such as Axis are a whole different ballgame when it comes to shaving.
Too thin, and you will see a cream color appear while shaving if a northern deer, and actually see blue hair roots on southern and summer deer. Sometimes the hair will come thru on the skin side and form what appears to be stubble. It might stay in, but just barely. After that will be a false-cut. A area so thin that the hair will completely fall out where it is too thin. If neither one of these is happening, I cant see how it could be too thin. I shave deer all the time to close to 1/16 inch thick, and couldnt tear one after shaving if I tried, and I am 6'3 and 280lbs. Usually the edges will be the first thing to give way, because they wont hold a stitch.
have you been using an enzyme, or enzymes, at any stage of your tanning process?
They could stack BS that high. Sorry OS, couldn't pass that one up. LOL