It appears that this has become a dead thread, but with lots of interest. With predator and trapping seasons coming up, would anyone be willing to start a new DIY thread for us to peruse?
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DIY hide tanning
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Tanning is easy BUT not as easy as these kits make it look..
The thread probably died because the hair slipped..
Sadly the mistake I see he made was following the directions...
Basifying(Neutralizing) after the pickle and before the tan can, will and has caused problems.. When you raise the PH of a pickled skin to above a 3.5 PH it becomes unstable and bacteria can attack again. Pickling is not tanning it is "stabilizing". Bacteria cannot attack a skin at a PH below 2.5. Pickling also breaks down the non tannable proteins within the skin.. The higher the PH goes above 3.5-4 the more danger the skin is in of being lost.
I do not know why the manufacturers(BASF)of Lutan wont change these instructions..
The proper way is to slowly add sodium bicarbonate or sodium formate TO THE Lutan tanning solution in 3-4 separate feeds 1 hour apart until a PH of 5 is achieved..(Fixating)
The type of tan that Lutan is a type that is attracted to acid. You want your skin acidic to begin with and then slowly raise your PH. Two things are happening in this process.
1. Your are "fixating" the TAN to the collagen in the skin. By slowly raising the outside PH of the skin the LUTAN is drawn into the more acidic corium of the skin which gives you a more thorough tan.
2.You are raising the PH of the skin to a more neutral, stable PH. 5 is the goal. Not doing this will cause "acid rot". Acid rot is exactly what it says, rot. The skin will fall apart like wet oatmeal at the first sign of moisture..
If anyone is interested Ill do a DIY tanning tutorial. It is not rocket science obviously because Ive successfully tanned leopards, lions and almost every animal in North America BUT if certain steps are not followed it WILL NOT work.Last edited by PondPopper; 11-29-2017, 10:17 PM.
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