Just pulled a cape out of Krowtann after 4 days of soaking with a lid on. Followed the instructions to a T. One cup krowtann, 8 cups salt and 2.5 gallons of water. Rinsed in clean water, neutralized, and washed again. The entire hair on the cape is slipping as if I'm making buck skin. Totally ruined. I don't understand. When I rough fleshed the cape it was in A+ perfect shape with zero freezer burn.
The thing that really irritates me is that I've used Krowtann once before with beautiful results.
Anyone have a clue what went wrong?
STEVE
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Steve I use krowtann all the time that never happened to me if you used I think 6 oz krowtann and 64 oz salt and move the hide daily there shouldnt be a prob. so I think the hide was junk 2 start with or you might of measured wrong I dont know just trying to help man thats to bad Im sorry
Slippage shouldn't be an issue using Krowtann but over neutralizing the skin will cause the hair to fall out in clumps. Did you use sodium bicarbonate or regular baking soda? I use baking soda and do not double the amount (which is the same way I did when I started using Krowtann years ago before the directions called for doubling the amount if you use baking soda for the neutralization process)
and I have never had any trouble. I would say if your hide was ok before as you stated that your problem was in the neutralization.
Hope this helps you figure it out.
Have a good one
Around here, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, 100%. Not sure what you are saying in the post above. Maybe you were refering to baking powder which is different from sodium bicarbonate?
I neutralized the skin for exactly 15 minutes in 6 oz (or 3/4 cup) baking soda in two gallons of water. The baking soda box say's its 100% sodium bicarbonate. Here are things I know as a fact.
1. The skin was not bad to begin with. I caped it fresh off the deer and it was frozen immediately.
2. I followed the instuctions exactly.
After some time thinking about it, I think I've come up with the reason the hide slipped. The cape was a late winter cape and heavy.
I could not get the hide to submerse 100% in the tanning solution even though I had a gallon milk jug with water on top of it. The dang hide kept floating to the surface. Therefore, I think the tanning solution didn't absord into the skin and the heat from the garage caused the cape to spoil. That's all I can think.
STEVE
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You mentioned not being able to get the cape submerged with the milk jug of water on it. I take a piece of regular plywood and cut it to the exact size of the inside of the tub I'm using and put it over the cape and submerge it and the cape with the jug. You can also put a towel over the cape while in the tan. The towel will wick the solution up into it and stay wet the entire time it is over the cape.
Some here say you should never do either of these methods but I have closely monitored my ph while tanning and have never seen either cause any change in ph.
you figured it out on your own. Lack of submersion, Too much baking soda(in my opinion), and heat. Glen offered good food for thought, on the neutralization step, but I think it was all because of the floating. Raw unsalted skin, not totally submersed, had very little hope from the get-go. Combine that with heat, and as George would say, you screwed the pooch. A one step pickle-tan product is probablly not very forgiving to mistakes. A pickled skin would allow more room for error. Ill bet you have better luck next time though.
Steve, I am sure it was the 6oz of baking soda. I use 3 oz of baking soda added one ounce at a time, 5 minutes apart, then let soak for 20 minutes which is the way my original directions that I got years ago said to do it. This same thing happened awhile back and the person with the problem said they used 6oz because thats what the directions called for so I dug through my paper work until I found a newer set of krowtann instuctions and it did say 6oz if you used baking soda in place of sodium bicarbonate, well to me sodium bicarbonate is baking soda and I had tanned several deer capes and some real "iffy" coyotes with Krowtann that called for 6 oz in the directions but I used 3oz as usual, and everything turned out great with good stretch, no slip no thick rubber like hide(acid swell) so I e-mailed Ozark Woods and asked if they had changed Krowtann and explained that I had always used 3 0z of baking soda and my hides didn't show any symtoms of being under neutralized and Brian told me (copied from e-mail)
(First off Krowtann has not changed and as for the use of bakeing soda we arent sure as to the exact why but the two are different in that they are different grades and a lot of the calls we recieve with people not getting a soft hide but a little stiffer than what they should be are all useing bakeing soda but when useing sodium bicarbonate or doubling the bakeing soda the hides came out softer like they should.If you want to stick with the 3 oz amount feel free to do so a lot of people are.) so I still use 3 and have no problems. I could be all wet here but I think it might be the ph of the water people use that affects the neutralizing stage..My water from my well is very hard (alkine) and has a very high ph and my hides neutralize fine with 3 oz of arm & hammer baking soda while as Brian said some people needed to double the amount of baking soda to get a softer hide. I would almost bet that those people's water is more acidic lower ph. where mine is more alkine allowing me to neutralize using less while some with more acidic water might need more. Before you give up on Krowtann or try again the same way, try using 3 oz and see how it feels..you can tell if you have an under neutralized hide by the way it feels. I bet less baking soda would do the trick.
Hope this helps and sorry to write a book.