livbucks

I'm in the process of tanning a doe skin for my daughter and now that I have pickled it for three days I noticed that the hair will pull out fairly easily. It does not fall out but if you pull at all it will come right out. Is this normal. Will it tighten up later when I apply the tan? Thanks.

nctaxi

Don't pull on it, it should tighten up. There are many things that influence slippage, from improper ph to improper field care. Have you ever checked www.taxidermy.net ? Go there and click on forum, from there find the orange button labeled search, click on it and type in "causes of slippage" or something similar, get a drink and a sandwich and sit back and read all about it. I have your situation happen before, and it tightened up. Hope it helps.

M.Magis

That's not slippage. When you have slippage, you'll KNOW it.

livbucks

There was some hair floating in the water. Not an extreme amount mind you, but some. I hope it was pickled enough. It still had a wet skin smell to it. Is that normal? I am using saftee acid and Mckenzie tan. It is now sitting with the tan on it till tomorrow, then I will oil it. I don't know how anybody makes money at this. I have so many hours in this one skin I won't even tell you how many. Funny thing is, I am not turned off or discouraged one bit. Whatever happens, I will take it on the chin and learn from it. My wife is getting lonely already.
If it turns out to be no good, my only regret will be that I wanted it to turn out nice for my daughter.

M.Magis

Yes, I suppose it smells like wet skin, because it is.Some of those hairs could have simply been hairs that were cut during caping. Is this for a mount or a hanging? If for a mount,there's no need to oil after the McKenzie tan. It doesn't take too many capes under your belt to realize how useful a shaving maching would be. Everything gets faster the more you do, but I still spend more time thinning with a skife knife and scalpal than I do on any other part of the mounting process.

livbucks

The skin is for decoration. I bought the oil to try to soften it enough that is isn't like a sheet of plywood. The hair will pull out easily but it does not just fall out. I was looking in the archives on Tax.net and realized that I too had bought the salt with yellow "something" of soda in it. I hope it doesn't goof up the whole mess. Like I said....live and learn.

nctaxi

It could be many thing, including hair that was cut when you skinned it. I also use Saftee Acid and Mckenzies tan. Keep in mind that deer hair is hollow and real brittle. It won't take much abuse from children before the hair starts to break off. It's good that you have the attitude you do, taxidermy and working with fur will humble you until you get the hang of it. The salt you used isn't the best but it will work, the yellow stuff is iodine ( I believe), but salt is used to draw the moisture out. And for a rug type it will be softer if you oil it and break it. Did you get the kit with the video? Breaking it will be the biggest pain, at least to get it soft. I have people call me about doing deer rugs and when I tell them $125, they are shocked. I did a beaver once and the work that went into that one was enough to teach me that I will send them to a tannery from now on.

Alex The Hawk

Your pickle was too weak, You need pH testing paper and PH should be 3.
And you can never have too much salt, add as much salt as the water will absorbed.

What chemical did you use for the pickle ?

Bill Yox

Safety acid has to be checked and spiked after the first few hours, as the skin itself will change the level once its put into the pickle solution. Mix it as per Bruce's recipe, put the skin in, and then bring the pH back down below 2 the next day. How you handled the skin prior to pickle is where the best chance of slippage lies, besides the pH level. On a flat hide, a half hours worth of rough fleshing/beaming and then a few days of salt and draining is whats best.

livbucks

Safetee acid

The thing is like a wet noodle that won't dry out. If I grab a good size pinch of hair and pull, nothing happens. If I grab a single hair it will snap out fairly easily. Maybe I expect too much, I don't know.
I added acid the day after going into the pickle. Like I said, I bought the salt with "Yellow prussiate of soda" in it. I don't have a source right now for plain granulated salt with no other ingredients. I bought it at a feed store. The salt was used in the pickle stage as well as for salting the hide.
I mixed a 10 gallon batch, figuring there was alot of hide to acidify. I'm trying to get it to dry some so I can oil it, figuring the oil won't absorb into a wet noodle very well.
I got the skin from my butcher, I have no idea about itprior toitfalling into my hands
If I hit the lottery, first thing I'm buying is a fleshing machine!

Bill...are you saying that tanning it isn't necessary, just flesh and salt dry it ?