CHECKLIST

Deer (or Most Game Heads) :  Skinning—Finishing

SKINNING:
 

_____Put on latex gloves.

_____Cut the cape free of the body around the middle, well behind the front legs. 

_____Skin the animal (upside-down, if you've got a place to hang him), peeling the skin away from the body all the way
         down to the neck, turning it insidey-out as you go.

_____Peel past the neck, to behind the ears and jaw, and cut the deer's neck off.   You'll slice through the neck meat and
          then have to saw through the spinal cord. 

_____Bundle this skin/head/horn combination into a deep plastic container and slide it out of the way.

_____Have the customer fill out a "taxidermy reporting form" while he's waiting.  He only needs to fill out the part with
          his name and address and phone number and signature, but have him do it.  He can do it faster than you can while
          you're writing and trying to spell his name correctly, and he can do it while you're busy.

_____From his form, write his name on two tags.  Securely wrap both tags around his horns in a spot where they won't
          slide off accidentally.  Make a big enough deal about this that he can remember that you made a point to
          accurately label his horns with his name right there in front of you.

_____If you have access to a Poloroid or digital camera, take a picture of him with his horns and as much of the head as
          you can.  Take all the pictures in the same place every time in your shop.  Have something in the background you
          can use for reference and for scale.  If (and it's something we think about but that has actually never happened)
          your customer suspects that you've returned to him the wrong antlers, this precaution will dispel his fears.  It is
          also a very handy reference for yourself to double check if you're ever working late and working tired and doubt
          ing yourself that you've got the right antlers on the right  cape.

_____Write down his order.  Show him your examples and have him decide if he wants a right or left turn (the deer's
          right or left), sneak, semi-sneak, up-right, semi-upright, wall-pedestal, etc, and ear direction--forward, back, one
          of each.  Write this information down on the sheet he filled out and signed. 

_____Thank him.  Give him a hat.  Tell him when you expect to have his mount ready for him (the pick-up date is
           computed by a realistic assessment of your work load, your motivation level, with an extra 2 weeks added for
           unforeseen emergencies, and another 2 weeks added because life happens.)  No one has yet to complain about
           a taxidermist returning his work before the Promised Date. 

_____Sit down with your deer.  Using your calipers, measure the distance from the tip of the nose to the corner of the
          eye.  Write this down on the taxidermy reporting form.  Next, measure around his neck, 3 inches down from ears
          and under the jaw.  You are looking for an actual neck measurement.  Pull snugly, especially if the deer is very
          furry.  Record this measurement. These are the two measurements you will order your forms by.  (If you forget to
          measure right now, or if your deer doesn't have enough neck meat to get an accurate measurement right now, this
          measurement can be taken, or double-checked, after skinning by laying the hide open, hair down, and measuring
          across the flat skin 3 inches down from the ears.)

_____Begin skinning from the teeth.  Peel back the lips and slice across the gums right above the top teeth.  Continue
           back toward the corners of the mouth, cutting the skin free right above the teeth. 

_____When you have enough room to maneuver, pull the nose back, and cut through the nose cartilage, cutting the
           cartilage free to be with the cape.

_____Do the bottom jaw the same way, peeling the lips down and cutting right at the base of the bottom teeth, working
           your way toward the corners of the mouth.

_____When you've worked your way around the teeth and don't have room to work any further back into the corners of
          the mouth, it's time to leave the face area and to make the "Y" behind the horns.  The upper arms of the "Y" come
          down from the backs of the horns and connect to the long center seam going down the back.  (A "short Y" is, well,
          shorter.  You make a smaller initial incision and have less sewing to do later.  Some tanneries charge more to tan a
          "short Y" cape.  Some taxidermists find a "short Y" to be a labor-saving step, and some find it to be an
          unnecessarily complicated skinning/fleshing step that doesn't save enough time later to warrant the trouble.  Your call.)

_____Begin behind one horn, digging your knife under the burr to emerge in the skin with the blade up.  Cutting "up
          from under the hair" like this means fewer cut hairs and a cleaner seam later.  Cut from that one horn back toward the center.

_____From the other side, repeat to make a cut to meet the first cut.  This is a "V".

_____To make the stem of the "Y", set your knife, blade up, and cut down the dark stripe on the deer's back.  Continue
          this cut down the length of the cape following the dark stripe.  (On an antelope, there will be a sort of mane.  Don't
          cut straight down the mane.  Cut to one side or the other so that when you sew it all back up later, the mane won't
          have a seam in it and will fluff up nice and even.)

_____Ok, back up the base of the "V".  Skin toward the antler bases pulling up as you go.  At the antler bases, you will
         want to slow down and dig deep.  You want all the skin from around and under the bases so you can put the whole
          thing back together later and have it fit right, and you want to not have any hair left under the burrs.  To do this,
          skin hard against the bone, slicing and peeling under the burrs.  This will call for a knife with a strong, thin, flexi
          ble tip.  But you'll be glad later that you were careful up here.  Free both antlers as much as you can.

_____Skin toward the ear butts.  We will cut off the ears well back from the ear butts, and against the skull.  The ears
          can  be skinned out later, and we don't want to cut too far forward into the ear. 

_____As the ears are loosed from the head, skin down the cheek approaching the back of the eye.  This is a crucial spot
          to skin correctly as any wrong cuts here hamper your efforts later resulting in insufficient eyelid skin or worse,
          obvious repairs.  Go slow, and use the finger.

_____Place your finger into the back of the eye pointing toward the back of the skull.  Fold the skin back over your
          hand, leaving your finger in place, and skin toward the eye, with your finger marking the spot of the eye.  Skin
          close to the skull, lifting the crucial area you are protecting with your finger up and out of the way with each
          cut.  You will eventually skin to a hole.  This is the eye.  That's OK.  You've preserved all the eyelid skin by
          having your finger taking up the slack and pulling it up out of the way of your knife.

_____Toward the front of the eye, the skin will dip back into the skull.  This depression is the pre-orbital gland (Pre-"in
           front of".  Orbital--"eye".)  Or tear duct.  Carefully skin this out.  In some game animals, you will have to dig
           deep to extract the skin.  In a whitetail, just go slowly and carefully and skin always toward the skull and you can
            lift it out. 

_____When the eyes are free, you will be able to skin down the nose toward the already-skinned mouth area.  Be so
          careful here.  The bridge of the nose is like a shin-bone.  The skin clings closely to the bone, making it an easy
          area to make a mis-cut and hard area to cover your mistake.  Take it slowly, skinning toward the skull, and work
          your way down toward the nose.

_____About half-way down the bridge to the nose, turn the head over and skin under the jaw toward the already-skinned
           lips.  Skin on out.  Flip the skin over the head and finish skinning out the bridge to the cut-nose-cartilage.

_____Set the head and horns off to the side.  Place cape hair down on desk.  On left-hand side, punch ID numbers,
          identifying the mount with a customer number.  Place a sanding sponge under the cape, and use a sharp,
          thin-bladed knife to punch.  (Do not use an ice pick.  The holes won't  show up enough later to ID.) 

_____This is enough done to freeze and finish later.  Fold the skin in toward the middle from the side.  Roll the back up
           toward the front.  Fold in the ears, and roll the front to meet the back in the middle. ( This 2-part rolling protects
           the ears but leaves the face and head far enough out that they will freeze quickly.)

_____Wrap closely in a plastic bag.  Pull one set of ID tags from horns and attach to bag.  Freeze immediately.

_____Saw horns from head, beginning in front to protect the back of the burrs.  With the face parallel to the table and
          someone holding the antlers firmly, slice straight down toward the table to the back of the eyes. 

_____Push bridge of nose away from antlers.  You should hear a crack.  This will open the skull enough to continue
          sawing from first cut back on out the back of the skull.

_____Shake brains out of skull plate.  Settle skull plate in salt.  Go on to the next deer.

_____FLESHING

_____After skinning, a cape or hide must be "fleshed".  The act of fleshing removes the fat and meat from the skin.  This is
           important, not because fat and meat are intrinsically bad, but because the fat and meat will prevent the salt from
           penetrating to the hide.  And if the salt doesn't penetrate into the skin, into every crevice and fold, hair loss will
           occur.  This is the dreaded "slippage". 

_____To flesh:  Settle in for a long haul.  You will wonder if you are doing something wrong, if there is an easier way to
          flesh than what you are doing, one that doesn't take so long, because, surely, not all taxidermists spend this much time
           fleshing.   Put in a good movie, or turn on the radio, and get into the zone.  First, let's get the face and ears done.

 _____Lips:  When you skinned out the head, you were careful to leave extra flesh around the lips, from the mouth, all the
           way down to the teeth.  This area needs to be split.  Split the lips by cutting through the meat between the inner and
           outer lip skin, laying the skin open until the very end of the lips are reached and it cannot be split and rolled any
           more.  The inside skin has to be separated from the outside skin by slicing through the lumps on the inside enough
           that the outside skin lies nice and rolls out flat.  Remember back to when you mounted your first deer with a comer
           cially tanned cape.  Remember the excess hanging out of the eyes and lips and nose.  Remember how flat and thin it
           was.  It got that way because the person who fleshed it was careful to work those linings out, slicing through the back
           and rolling the skin out to extend it as thinly as possible.  By not having the skin in these areas doubled up against
           themselves like they are in real life, you are enabling wonderful salt to penetrate and you are preserving the natural
           beauty (and hair) of the deer.

 _____Nose:  With the deer face inside out, cut down through the cartilage through the center of the nose, staying on track
            between the nostrils.  The flesh and meat around the nostrils needs to be removed and scraped clean, being careful to
            not cut so deeply as to shorten the length of the nostril skin.  You will want enough skin left to make a secure nostril
            when you mount this back on a form.    Use your knife to score the flesh behind the nose pad, and the edge of your
           scissors to remove the meat.  (No where on the face do you want to cut so deeply that you cut through the hair follicle
            or whisker butts.  If you cut through these, the hair will fall out and/or the whiskers will fall out.) 

 _____Eyes:  Like the lips, the eyelids have to be split from the back and rolled out flat.  You don't want to lose hair around
           the eyes (the eyes are the mirror of the soul, you know) and you want a nice thin eyelid to shape around clay
           later.  Trim away extra meat from around the tear ducts and the fat from the base of the eyelashes (being careful,
           again, not to cut through the follicles and lose the eyelashes).

 _____Ears:  You'll need to turn the ears, getting the back of the ear loose from the cartilage inside the ear.  We will leave the
           cartilage inside the ear through the tanning process to give strength to the ear, but it will have to be separated from the
           back of the ear and turned inside out for this to work.  Skin between the butt of the ear and the back of the ear, cut
           between the ear and the muscles.  Skin and turn far enough that you can get your fingers or the ear turner far enough
           up in there to spread the ear  and cartilage (GENTLY!) apart.  Too much pressure at this point will pop a hole in the
           back of the ear.  Keep spreading, skinning, and turning until ears are inside out.  Work toward the edges of the ears
          (the "seam" between front and back of ear).  You will be able to feel when the edges are completely turned by rolling
          this seam between your fingers.  If you can feel the ridge yet, there is some more turning to do.  (Leaving unturned ear

          here will make the ears draw and curl inwards when the deer is mounted.  You'll know when you've mounted it that
          you should have turned it more Back When.)  When the ears are completely turned, clean off all flesh and meat and
          the ear butt.  There should be only a nice clean, inside-out ear with cartilage on the back of it.  Leave the ears this
          way for salting.  They won't be turned back around until the cape is tanned and you're getting ready to mount it.

_____For the rest of the cape, not so much finesse will be required.  The large, easy (relatively speaking) areas of your
          cape just need to be perfectly clean.  Good luck!   Any method you can come up with to separate the hide from the
          fat and flesh (and yes, that sticky membrane close to the skin) will work.  Some people use, believe in, and advocate
          strongly 'necker' knives and a fleshing beam.  Some use an ulu (Eskimo scraping tool, and face it, they've been doing this
          for a lot longer than any of us, and at a lot greater motivation--their survival).  Some use their skinning knife, and
          scissors.  Some use a shaving wheel, or a fleshing wheel.  Some use a pressure washer.  Whatever.  Whatever you can do
          to get the hide or cape clean is what you need to do.

_____Just as soon as it is fleshed, get salt on it.  The reason you've been doing the fleshing is not for some time to take in an old
          James Bond movie.  Pause the VCR and get that baby salted.  All the fleshing in the world won't help if the salt isn't
          poured to it as fast as you can.

SALTING:  (OPTIONAL, DEPENDING ON TANNING METHOD USED)

_____If you are going to send capes/hides to tannery, they must be salted and dried.    If you are going to pressure-tan or

          Krowtann, salting is not required.  If you are Krow-tanning or pressure-tanning, you can immediately process your fleshed/
          turned/trimmed capes/hides.    To salt to send to tannery, follow guidelines below:

After you've skinned and fleshed (and split the lips, nose, and eyes and turned the ears) on a mammal or game head, you will salt it.  This salting step will "set the hair" and allow you to preserve the cape or fur long enough to get it tanned, whether you plan to tan in-house or plan to send it off to a commercial tannery.

We've used every size of grain of salt and we prefer the finest salt.  If you obtain salt from your local feed store, ask for a fine grade and if it is available, ask for a white, or bleached, salt.  Regular old, feed-store, throw-it-on-the-steps-to-melt-the-ice salt works fine, except that it is grey and dirty.  It really won't make a difference in the end product, it just makes sense to us to keep the fur or cape as clean as possible the whole way along.

We've used table salt.  We love the fine size of the grains.  (*Don't get salt with iodine.)  Some grocery stores carry table salt or salt for pickling in 5 lb bags.  Per pound, this is a more expensive way to purchase salt.  We go ahead and do it sometimes, because 5 pounds is great size, and it is convenient to carry from one end of the room to the other without making a sandy mess on the floor, and because salt, even at its most expensive, is not really very expensive.

 If you have a surface that you can incline to drain fluids, that is good.  A plastic screen, propped with one end higher than the other works great, as air can get under and around your cape or fur.  If you have a big box that a form came in, cut a slab out of the side of the box enough bigger than your cape or fur and prop one end up a few inches.  This will give you the incline to let the juices run off and will give you a little bit of absorbency so that your fur or cape is not sitting in its own juices.  If you have a plastic tub that is big enough that you can spread everything out nice and flat, use it.  Again, prop one end, if you can, and make sure there is a good cushion of salt under your cape or fur, so that you don't have the sitting-it-its-own-juice-thing going.

As far as actual salting, it's not hard at all.  It's just so important.

Make sure hide is inside-out if it is a tube-cut.  Make sure hair-side goes down (raw side up) if it is a cape or open-cut fur.

COVER EVERY RAW PLACE WITH SALT!  RUB IT IN!   Cover every raw place with salt again!  Rub it into every raw place.  Again!  Do not leave even the tiniest place unsalted, and then salt it again, again. 

After you are sure that you have laid back every wrinkle, every fold, and rubbed salt in several times, then place a layer of salt on your surface (unless you're using a screen), place your cape or fur (hair-side down) on top of the salt, and then pour salt to cover over cape or fur.  Line every overlap with a layer of salt.  Place a cushion of salt EVERY place that raw cape meets raw cape (lips, ears, etc.).  There are some places that will have to lay on top of each other.  Just be sure you have that cushion of salt in there (and everywhere) and you'll be fine.

Let this sit 24 hours. 

After 24 hours, shake salt out of cape or fur and repeat entire salting process. 

Let this sit another 24 hours.

After this 48-hour salting time, cape or fur should be salty and starting to "crisp up".  This is the time to fold it loosely into a box-sized shape so that it will fit into a box later to ship to a tannery.  If you don't fold it at this point, it will dry all salty and stretched out and you could use the cape for a shovel before you could ever think about folding it.  (Yes, we've done it the wrong way, and that's how we know...)

We don't like to box them right away.  Let them sit around folded and let them dry up before you put them into a box for shipping.  They'll be moist for awhile, and we don't want moist capes piled into a box in the dark corner.

When it is good and dry, it is ready to ship to a tannery.  Never ship a moist, salted cape.  Tanneries have unbelievable back-logs of work, and there is every chance that your box will arrive at the tannery, and be put, unopened, in a receiving room until they have time to check it in and process it.  This is why you never ship a moist cape.  It will have lots of time to get ruined before you see it again, and it is no one's fault.  Tanneries have to run this way, and you have to ship them dry capes if you're going to play the game. 

TANNING:

 _____Three Options Follow:  Tannery, pressure tanner, or Krow-Tann. 

_____Tannery:  Send your fleshed and salted capes and hides to a Tannery.  This is our best advice when you are starting
           out.  Give yourself time to get the taxidermy part of this business down pat.  Give yourself time to learn the
           rhythms of the seasons and the cash-flow aspect and work through your mounting technique, developing your own
           style that will allow you to produce work in a practical time-frame and still give your customer a work of art.  You
           can make more customers happy and make more money spending your time on taxidermy work instead of
           tanning.  Tanning by commercial tanneries is not very expensive (deer capes generally run $23-$40), and for the
           amount of time you'll have wrapped up in struggling through the tanning process, you could have been putting
           together someone's mount, and you could have ended your day with a lot more progress toward a finished piece
           that a customer will come in and pay you for. 

           Commercial tanneries do this for a living.  They have a lot more of the kinks worked out than we will ever hope
            to.  We do run into problems with tanneries, delayed capes, lost or damaged capes, etc, but when your tannery
           delivers you an on-schedule shipment of capes or hides, their product is so consistent that that variable (wondering
           about the condition of the cape) is eliminated from our life, and things mount smoothly and ...consistently...  Any
           time you can get an assembly line going, and tanneries help with this because the batches they send back are going
           to have similar rehydrating characteristics and similar stretch and thinness, and you can count on all your capes
           mounting in a similar manner and reacting in a similar manner, you can gain speed and quality. 

_____Pressure Tanner:  That having been said, (and we did have to say it), there is a time and a place for in-shop tanning. 
          We use an auto-tanner for deer capes.  We like the auto-tanner, because it is the easiest, surest way to get a consis
          tent tan in inconsistent weather and in a busy shop where we don't have the room or the leisure for open vats to
          soak tans until they're done. 

          The auto-tanner will give you a wet tan that is very suitable for deer capes.  Because of the nature of the tan, the
          cape will dry "hard".  The auto-tanner will not produce, on it's own, the leather-backed fur that you can drape over
          the back of the couch for a throw.  The auto-tanner will produce, in timely fashion, a cape very suitable for
          immediate mounting or freezing, and that is what most of our shop work is.  For rugs or for throws, a commercial
          tannery will always be your best bet for a supple hair-on leather with nice drape.  You can make a reasonable
          facsimile of this in your own shop, but it will be at the expense of a great deal of time and effort, which, we've
          already established, might be better spent getting something mounted, and getting paid.  If a customer wants a rug
          or a throw, flesh the piece, salt it, send it, call the customer when it gets back, and get paid.  We don't encourage
          you to spend weeks on that one piece coming up with an ingenious method for doing what the tannery already does
          so well.  (Unless you are bored out of your mind, and have way too much money, and you don't ever have to think
          about what you're going to pay the electric bill with.)

_____To Pressure-Tan:  We have the 16 gallon size.  We like to tan 3 deer capes at a time.  (The auto-tanner
          manufacturer suggests that 5 capes would work, but we feel that the handling time for 5 capes is too long to have
          them all in limbo.)  To tan, we put in our freshly fleshed capes (no salting necessary if they go directly from
         "fleshed" to "auto-tanner"), and 1 gallon of water, 1 pound of Arrowhead Tanning Crystals, and 1 capful of
          Basacryl for each cape.  (For 3 capes, we use 3 gallons of water, 3 pounds of Arrowhead Tanning Crystals, and 3
          capfuls of Basacryl.)  (I know that seems easy to figure, but I didn't want there to be any misunderstanding about
          the ratios.)

           Close everything up.  Tighten everything down.  Pressurize tank to 50 psi, and process for 2 hours.

            At the end of 2 hours, take the capes out, and drape them over the bicycle racks you have hanging over your
            sinks.  (Do not drain your auto-tanner.  Keep the soup leftover from the first stage in the auto tanner.  Do not
            drain your auto-tanner.)  Let the capes drip until you get to them to shave them.

                
            To shave the capes, sit behind the shaving wheel, with the back of it to your chest, and your arms reaching around
            it.   Grasp the cape in two hands and pull it from left to right against the spinning blade.  Never operate your blade
            without the guards in place.  Stop every so often to sharpen your blade (which means to adjust the angle that the
            blade is rolled over).  You shouldn't have to lean into the shaving part.  If everything's adjusted right, touching the
             the cape to the blade will cut it, and moving it from left to right will zing it off in a strip.  We prefer to not shave
            the faces with the wheel, but we do thin the faces with a skinning knife at the desk.  You're shooting for 1/16 to
            1/8 of an inch left on the cape, and whatever depth it is, it should be uniform all over the cape.  (If it is thick up
            on the neck seam, it will be hard to sew later.  If it is too thin, the thread will cut it when you pull it through.  Just
            a few more things to worry about while you're learning how to do this.) 

            When all capes are shaved, place the capes back into the auto-tanner, in the same soup you pulled them out of,
             adding 1/2 cup of tanning oil per cape.  (1 1/2 cups for 3 capes.)  Process for another 2 hours at 50 psi. 

             After the 2 hours, pull them out and place them in heavy bags, labeled with customer number and name, and
             freeze them, or mount immediately.

_____To KrowTann:  Ozark Woods (2536 Prairieview Road South, Harrison, AR  72601,  1-800-467-0369) is
          distributing the new KrowTann.  We are coming up to speed on it, having tried it several times, in the buckets and
          in the pressure tanner, and preliminary results are absolutely outstanding.  It is fairly fool-proof to achieve a
          gorgeous, supple white tan, that stretches to at least your initial measurements, making a satisfyingly large mount
          to be able to return to your customers.  KrowTann’s instructions are included on the following page. 

_____To Tan The Traditional Way:  Consult a good book.  We recommend Breakthrough Mammal Taxidermy Manual,
           written by Ken Edwards.  Breakthrough Magazine also ran an extensive article section on Tanning in Issues # 49-
           56.  These two recommendations cover techniques, chemicals, equipment, etc.  You will learn enough to be com
           pletely intimidated.  And after all that reading, you're going to just have to haul off and try some of the ideas,
           working with the solutions and chemicals until you find a combination that works consistently.

KROW-TANN 2000

ALWAYS USE EYE AND HAND PROTECTION.

USE IN WELL-VENTILATED AREA.

Keep away from children.

Contains acid and other corrosive agents.

Note:  ALWAYS SHAKE UP KROW-TANN 2000 BEFORE USING.

FOR MAXIMUM RESULTS-FOLLOW DIRECTIONS.

ALL MEASUREMENTS ARE VOLUME MEASUREMENTS.

BELOW ARE SUGGESTED AMOUNTS TO USE FOR DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS:

DIRECTIONS FOR USE-USE ONLY IN A PLASTIC CONTAINER

Always wear eye and hand protection.  Use in well-ventilated area.

 1.  Rough flesh the skin, turning the lips, nose, ears, and eyes.  Degrease oily skins before going on to Step 2.

 2.  Mix up the prescribed amount of tan in a plastic container and submerge the skin and weigh it down with a water-filled milk jug.    Put a lid on the container.

 3.  Leave the skin, flesh side out, in the tan for 3-4 days.  Each day lift the skin out of the tan, and return it to the tan in a new position         to ensure that the tan is reaching all parts of the skin.  Always use eye and hand protection.

 4.  Pull the skin out of the tan and wash the skin in clear water for a few minutes.

 5.  In a separate bucket put 1 oz of sodium bicarbonate in 2 gallons of water.  Submerge the skin with a water-filled milk jug.  In five minutes add another oz of sodium bicarbonate.  In 5 more minutes add another oz to the solution for a total of 3 oz. and leave the skin in this mixture for 20 minutes.  This amount is what is needed for a deer cape.  For a bobcat use a total of 1  1/2 oz of sodium bicarbonate in 1 1/2 gallons of water.  For red fox use a total of 1/2-1 oz of sodium bicarbonate in 1 1/2 gallons of water.  Add the sodium bicarbonate in 1/2 increments every 5 minutes.  Larger skins will require more and smaller skins will require less.

 6.  Wash the skin in Liquid Tide and rinse well in clear water.  Then let it drip dry for 2 hours with the hair out.

 7.  Do your final fleshing at this time.  Afterwards, if the skin is not soft and stretchy, then re-neutralize the hide in a fresh batch of baking soda and water (Step 5) for 5 to 10 minutes.

 8.  (optional) Shampoo your furbearers at this time with Krow-Soap.

 9.  The skin is now ready to mount or can be frozen to mount at a later date.

10. Slowly add baking soda to the tanning mixture to neutralize it before disposing of it.

TROUBLESHOOTING

 1.  The skin is not soft and stretchy:  You have either not neutralized the skin long enough, or have not fleshed the skin thin enough, or your skin has become too dry and needs to be re-hydrated with clear water.

 2.  The hair is slipping:  You probably had a bad skin to start with, did not follow Step #3, or you over-neutralized the skin.  Using Krowtann 2000, slipping should not be a problem.

 3.  Hair in my fox’s tail is slipping:  Either split the tail out all the way or I prefer to insert a cotton string all the way through the tail skin to act as a wick.

 4.  There is not enough stretch:  Apply Krow-Oil to the skin and let it set skin to skin for 1-2 hours.  Then either mount or freeze the skin to mount at a later date.  This will give you incredible stretch.

If the directions are followed correctly, your skin should feel like a wet dish towel and have good stretch.  However, due to this product being used in conditions beyond our control, we make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied.  We suggest that you try Krowtann 2000 on a scrap skin first.

MOUNTING:

_____Rehydrate Cape:  Soak dry-tanned cape in cold water for 30 minutes.  Roll with head inside.  Bag it.  Refrigerate     overnight.

_____Measure:  Stretch face as "big" as possible.  (Not long.  Not wide.  Big.)  Measure eye to nose.  This is "A"
                 measurement.  Stretch neck as wide as  possible.  Measure 3" below ear butts.  This is "B" measurement for                  McKenzie and Van Dykes.

_____Cape is ready to freeze or mount.  To freeze, bag and tag and freeze.  To mount, pull ear cartilage, do repair work, then bag and tag and refrigerate until form comes in.

_____Order Form:  Order form 1" smaller than "B" measurement in at least a Medium Swell.  You may back off the eye- to-nose by as much as 1/2", if you need it to get the right swell. (If possible, order within 1/4" of eye-to-nose.)  Note to Self:  There is a good probability of being able to order form exact measurements of cape if you're using Krow-Tann.  Fiddle around with it until you're getting consistent, stretchy, beautiful results just to be sure.   With practice tanning and experience ordering (and shaving) forms, you might not have to back off the cape measurements.

_____Pull Ear Cartilage:  Most ears will have approximately 1/4" of unturned ear.  Turn to the very edge and peel cartilage.

_____Thin Nose and Lips:  Thin nostril skin and trim excess skin in nose, leaving 3/8" skin, measured from hair line. 
(Don't cut too short.)  Thin lips and trim to 1/4" to 3/8"

_____Turn Eyes:  Turn eyes to lashes and pre-orbital gland.

_____Sew Holes:  Sew bullet holes and fleshing holes.  Use football cut.

_____Fit Ear-liners:  When fitting ear-liners, make all adjustments on bottom edge of liner. 

_____Ruff Ear-liners:  Use stout ruffer to  texture liner for better hold with hide paste.

_____Clay Ear-Butts:  Determine amount of clay to use on each ear butt by the size of ball that will fit within trimmed ear-liner.  Match that size with second ball of clay for second ear butt, before shaping first ear butt.

_____Glue in Ear:  Use Buck-Eye Hide Paste.

_____Cape is ready to mount.

_____Level Form on Stand:  Measure from the corner of each eye socket to floor to level form on stand.  Lock it down.

_____Set Antlers on Form:  Cut skull so that bottom of burr is no more than 1 1/2" from back of eye socket. 
(Measurement can be less than this, depending on variables of antler size and shape, etc, but don't set them any further back than that.)  Drill 3 holes, (2 in front, 1 in back) and screw skull plate to form with 2 1/2" screws.  Screw loosely.  Level antlers.  Step back.  Adjust.  Shim with popsicle sticks to raise a side or the back.

_____Profile of Deer:  Check angle of main beam by drawing an imaginary line up main beam from burr and lining it up with deer's chin.  "Sneak" or "head-up" mount will need to set antlers flatter.  Line up with a point behind the chin.

_____Paper Mache:  Mache over skull plate and form.  Use fast-setting McKenzie mache. It dries faster and harder than others.  Let mache dry completely before test-fitting cape.

_____Prep Form:  Cut out nasal passages.  Cut out lips with lip saw.  Cut out pre-orbital with lip saw.

_____Test Fit Cape:  Slip face of cape on form, and pin back edges of cape to back of form on the plywood.  (Drooping in between is OK for now.)  Pull ear butts into place.  Pin.  From behind form, pull cape straight up, pinning each side where it meets on the back of the neck.  Rasp (if you have to) until enough slack so that both sides of cape can meet in back and be held with one T-pin.

_____Set Eyes in Clay:  Pupils horizontal.  Build up eye lids. 

_____Set Clay on Nose Pad.

_____Smooth Hide Paste on Form:  Don’t put it in nostrils or on mache on skull or down seam line in back.

_____Sew:  Use waxed cape thread, doubled.  Use 2 arm lengths doubled for “Y”.  Use 5 arm lengths doubled for       other side of “Y’, knot it off, and continue sewing down back seam.

_____Staple Back.

_____Cut Off Excess.

_____Line Everything Up:  Make sure brisket is centered and throat patch is lined up.

_____Tuck Lips:  Tuck top lip, centering nose pad.  Work the lips from front top lip to back of mouth, making the turn and coming back down the bottom lip toward the front.  Roll a piece of clay to insert in front bottom lip, and tuck it in.  Let the black show on the front bottom lip for a distance as wide as the nose pad.

_____Tuck Nose:  Stuff with paper towels. 

_____Rough In Eyes:  Finish opening the shape of the eye.  Line up brad nails in the pre-orbital gland.  Tuck the 1/4” of skin between clay and glass around the eye.  Make sure eyelashes point down slightly.  Crease eye lid.

_____Rough In Ears.

_____Beat In Back Seam With Hammer.

_____Gel.

_____T-Pin Hardware Cloth To Back Seam.

_____Adjust Ears:  Smooth clay into the form.  Brad nail the edges of the clay on the ear butt to the form to hold until dry. 

_____Super-Glue Hide To Burrs.

_____Card Arm Pits.  Use hardware cloth and t-pins.

_____Brad Nail Muscles.

_____Super-Glue Lips In Front.

_____Let Deer Dry.

FINISHING:

_____Pull Cards.

_____Brush Deer.

_____Clean Eyes.

_____Epoxy Eyes:  Flesh Magic Sculpt.  Cover brad nails in pre-orbital gland.  Fill cracks in eyes.  Put in
                  nictating membrane.

_____Epoxy Nose:  Flesh Magic Sculpt in nasal cavity.

_____Let Epoxy Dry.

 _____Eye-Protect Eyes.

_____Airbrush Eyes:  Use deer brown (2 parts rich brown/1 part dark brown) for eyes, and  to touch up ears or bald spots.

_____Airbrush Ears:  Use bass belly white and natural flesh.

_____Airbrush Nictating Membrane And Nose Pad:  Use jet black.

_____Pull Off Eye-Protect.

_____Clean Eyes.

_____Put In Moisture:  Gloss Mod-Podge around eye on nictating membrane, up nose, on nose pad, in bottom lip.  Build texture on nose pad using small brush or syringe.  Place water droplets on whiskers.

_____Dry.

_____Clean eyes with alcohol.