Your post below was not finished? There are a few of us that actually get into this stuff. Dont pay attention to the smart asses. Learning never stops, as far as I am concerned. Thinking you know it all, is a serious character flaw. Also, whats your opinion on the long term effects of over basification? Been doing a little testing of my own, on a few scraps of skin, and the results were just what I thought they would be.
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I am one of the few that read every word of that bantering (with the exception of my own with EJ) and found it very interesting. I am interested also in over basification. I have heard that the hair will slip every time. I had a WT skin a few years back that slipped horribly after tanning, it slipped so bad I was able to make a buckskin out of it, the whole hide slipped. I was told that over neutralizing would cause this.
I too am doing some testing. Hell, I am always doing some testing. Hell, Glen seems to be testing something all the time too! How do we ever get any work done? Don't worry, Glen will have us all scratching our heads here soon enough! Have a good one! Joe
Glen can certainly keep us amazed, but you have to keep one single rule in mind at all times. YOU ARE A TAXIDERMIST. You get paid for results and not processes. Glen is a microbiologists and his tests ARE his job. I'm waiting for him to show up and give me a hand in caping out some of the mayonnaise deer I have lying on the floor. (You know the ones: ammonia smell and that light green slime between the flesh and the skin when you're caping. And don't DARE stick a knife into that pus pocket. For some reason, Stop Rot won't dissolve that crap.) LMAO
care to give me a pH value as to what you are calling over basification? Depending on what kind of number you give me, I might use that same scrap piece you just saw the photos of and see what I can do with it.
I didn't bother to check the pH back then. I asked Bruce Rittel what happened to the skin. His first question was how long did I neutralize it. I left it in the neutralizing bath for 30 to 45 minutes. The more I question things the more I learn it seems. I would be interested to see what OS, Bruce, Mark Daniels, or David Patton has to say about this too.
Once you left the pickle around 2 and went to the tan around 4, you were OK. You would have had to go pretty high on the pH scale to cause hair loss with a good hide.
Check out this process:
http://www.tft.csiro.au/leather/manufacture.html#tan
Keep in mind John that basification is simply moving up the pH scale. As with any of your tanning processes, "over" or "under" doing anything is not going to give you optimum results.
Hope this helps!
David
David. Very informative.