Soft tanning a bobcat 4 rug

krowtann will work very well for bobcats

 

For all my rug work I use EZ-100 and the oil is knobloch's #1. This mixture gives me a very soft rug with little breaking.

 

All my soft tanning goes to the tannery. I've tried several different tans, including Krowtann, for soft taning and none of them were as nice as the tannery ones. Plus it's way too much work breaking the dang things.
I do have a Krowtanned deer back hide here that I keep around just for a longevity test that is not real bad. I've had it about 4 years, it's held it's softness well, but it's not as soft as the tannery hides. Also not quit as thin which may be part of the problem. But I've had other home "soft" tanned hides to get siffer over time.

 

your point is well made becky there is no way home tanning can produce the same as a tannery, the specialized equipment and skill level can not be replicated by part time tanning. home tanning will suffice for some, but if you compared 1000 items side by side from a tannery versus home tanning it would be overwhelminly obvious which was which. for instance, our flesher who has been with us for 18 years does approximately 400 pieces a week. born in Cambodia he had skinned by the time he was 17, more than most hunters trappers or taxidermist in the united states ever will in their lifetime. without large tumblers to break the skins properly, stakers , etc. its like saying "my son plays little league or i played baseball in highschool so therefore i understand what its like to play in the major leagues" yes they are playing the same game, but at drastically different levels. a good tannery will make a superior product; if not they wont stay in business. if it was cheaper to purchase do it your self products or pre-made formulas that gave the same results then the tannery's including ourselves would use them. we are always looking for superior formulas and whats most cost efficient with out sacrificing quality. with 30 years in business a staff of 7 and over 120 years of experience between us i think we have a pretty good grasp of what to do, but were still learning researching going to seminars....we had a chance to spend alot of time with Bruce Rittel at the new york show recently, and also enjoyed his visit to our factory; as a longterm friend of the family and a man we respect immensely we always are looking to learn from the best and share information about whats new and what works best. its safe to say he is the king of home tanning and makes a fantastic product. feel free to ask him, if there is any way a part time tanner can produce what a successful tannery can produce. i understand that for some people they truly believe in their hearts that they are comparable, or close enough, or i am saving money or whatever rationalization they have. if it were easy and more cost effective then they would open and run a successful tannery for decades. someday some one will comeout with the do it yourself taxidermy kit to mount your deer cape or bear or fox or what ever to skip the taxidermist, and people will say i can do it myself just as good as a taxidermist can, and that statement would be equally ignorant. taxidermist have a passion for their work, and a skill set that cant be replicated in a kit. the same is true of the successful tannery's.

 

That was a good post from the Sivko rep, and every word is true. You can tan a skin at home, but you dont know what your missing, until you have the right equiptment. Spending your time breaking skins, only equals lost profit. You can spend a couple of hours trying, but, the end product wont be as soft.

 

I brain tan my hides you might have to work it over a few times tho but it works well

 

there is no question tannery soft tan will be superior to 95% of home tans - for one skin i think, though, the experience of home soft tanning outweighs the benefits of sending it out

 

i agree send all my skins out ,i figure i can be working on something else making money rather than breaking my back thinking i am saving a buck. i used to tan at home ,but have sent everything out the last two yrs except my small mammal capes.

 

Equally ignorant????.Soft tanning does take some time to break but most( 90% )of my tanning are mounts ,I enjoy tanning my own skins and my customers enjoy my turn around, usually 3 months.???Oh.almost forgot the subject we're on,I use liqua-tan for most of my work but you will have to break the hide to make it soft.

 

Mike,you can stretch your skins on the corner of a table or tug the skin with your bare hands.Bob elzner-I don't know if I spelled that right-bought an old dryer put some aluminum plate over the holes caulked it and uses this for tumbling his hides to get them soft.He disabled the heating element too. ;D

 

Mike Welch if you try the dryer let us know how it turns out. Good luck.

 

put some short blocks of wood (2x4) in the dryer - the fall isnt enuf in a dryer to do much breaking without help