Posted: 14 January 2010 at 7:19pm | IP Logged

Can this product "tan"?

http://krowtann.com/msds1-2.pdf

http://www.taxidermy.com/instructions/krowtann.html

Posted: 15 January 2010 at 5:30am | IP Logged

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 your container.

3. Leave the skin, flesh side out, in the tan for 3 to 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 skin protection (safety goggles and gloves) when handling skins in solution.

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 (baking soda) in 2 gallons of water. Submerge the skin with a water-filled milk jug. In five minutes add another 1 oz. of sodium bicarbonate. In 5 more minutes add another 1 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 to 1 oz. of sodium bicarbonate in 1 1/2 gallons of water. Add the sodium bicarbonate in 1/3 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 at this point, then re-neutralize the hide in a fresh batch of baking soda and water (step 5) for 5-10 minutes.

8. (optional) Shampoo your skin 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.

David I would imagine that the "Not established" if for the MSDS only and the manufacturers know exactly what goes into each batch..

Posted: 15 January 2010 at 9:36am | IP Logged

Have you try it? It is a good cocktail of materials, but if they are marketing it there must be a reason or a logic. It is used under different conditions as in a tannery. But you are the expert on that area? Tell us, if you have use it. If after the "treatment" the hide does not rot, you are OK, don't you think? How it works is a "horse of a different color", we do not know many of our industry real reactions of chemicals, much less a mixture like that.

Tell us please.

Regards

Zercas

Posted: 15 January 2010 at 8:34pm | IP Logged

Citric acid and alum make a great tannage, the most stable alum leather that I have ever seen, but it is a very delicate balance, too much citric and you get no tannage at all.  So this could be an interesting mix.  These two components alone must be stoichiometrically perfect, but dumping them together with bate enzymes and other complex compounds, looks iffy to me.

Of course the things called "tanning agent" and other vague names mean nothing.  There is no way to deduce what they are, let alone how much is in the mix.