STOP-ROT on mammal skins
STOP-ROT extends the work time of a fresh hide by slowing down or stopping decompositions. Once the STOP-ROT has been properly applied, the skin will air dry before it will rot. That gives you all the time you need to flesh, turn ears and split lips. STOP-ROT is non-volatile, and, "It just doesn't get any easier to use."
It was developed as an aid in preventing hair and epidermal slip. A lot of skins and capes that would normally be trashed can be saved with STOP-ROT. Not only has it been stopping epidermal and hair slips, it has also been improving efficiency of acids in the acid/saline solution (pickle). It keeps the slimy membrane from "sliming-up", making it easier to shave off, and allows faster and deeper penetration of acids.
Apply as soon as possible after the animal has been skinned. If it is a frozen skin or cape, apply as quickly as possibly after the thawing process and even during the thawing if possible. STOP-ROT helps soften and rehydrate freezer burned skin.
Apply STOP-ROT with a paintbrush to a cape that has had chunks of meat and fat removed. Three to five ounces will be sufficient for whitetail size capes. Application on other mammals will be proportionate, depending on size. Brush on, DO NOT apply with a mister.
Cover flesh side thoroughly and liberally; it is not necessary to have it pooling on the skin. STOP-ROT can also be brushed on the hair side of un-turned ears for easier opening of freezer burned or overly dry ears. It can also be injected under the ear skin with a hypodermic needle, which will speed up the softening process.
STOP-ROT makes fleshing and turning much simpler, faster and efficient. You can now remove muscle tissue from the nose pad, lips and eyebrows. Just dab a small amount of STOP-ROT on the areas from which muscle tissue is to be removed and let sit for a while before fleshing.
STOP-ROT will "float-up" coagulated blood from around bullet holes allowing easy clean up with the wipe of a paper towel.
If salt drying is desired, STOP-ROT will speed up the salt drying process after the cape has been fleshed.
STOP-ROT was developed for use with the Whitetail Designer System, but is compatible with other pickling and tanning compounds, as well as with dry preservatives.
Once the cape has been in the acid pickle solution a sufficient length of time, it can be removed and shaved without having to be returned to the pickle before proceeding with neutralization and finishing.
STOP-ROT on birds
STOP-ROT helps to produce a really clean bird with a lot of sheen.
Wild turkey feet and legs decompose quickly, so put the STOP-ROT to them as soon as possible. Put them in a pan with a little STOP-ROT, and then brush it on thoroughly over the feet and legs. The feet and legs are left in the STOP-ROT for thirty minutes to an hour.
If the bird isn't going to be mounted right away, inject the feet and legs with STOP-ROT before freezing. This helps to keep them from freezer burning and makes it easier to inject filler later.
If the bird is fresh, you can flesh and wire wheel the skin before using the STOP-ROT, but you will probably be better off to go ahead and use it right up front. When these guys bring you birds that have been in the back of a pick up just a little too long, and the skins are turning green, you better get the STOP-ROT on right away.
You just brush it on the flesh side and let it work for at least fifteen to twenty minutes. It is now ready to wash. The skin/feathers are then washed in a warm bath of Dawn dish liquid and water. Really dirty birds will get a second wash.
It is then rinsed, drained and spun out in a washing machine. It then gets ten to fifteen minutes in the tumbler with corncob grit. If any additional drying of the feathers is needed, that is done with a blow dryer on low heat.
Treat the base of the tail with STOP-ROT and proceed as normal.
It is then ready to mount. The skin can also be treated with dry preservative if desired.
STOP-ROT on fish
Skin the fish. Use a little Borax inside the head to firm up the meat so it will be easier to scrape out. Then rinse out the Borax, and apply STOP-ROT with a paintbrush all over the inside of the head. Brush the STOP-ROT on the flesh side of the skin and the fins. Let the skin sit for about a half hour and then rinse it off with water.
Hang it up long enough to drain off the water and it's ready to mount.
After mounting, brush on another real thin coat of STOP-ROT on the head and underneath the throat, basically any of the "thick" places.
If you use the real gills, leave them attached. You will want to use a brush and be sure to get all the mucous off the gill, and then put STOP-ROT on them.
Once the fish is mounted, put a small fan on it for two or three days to help dry. Once dry, it's ready to finish.
MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON STOP-ROT USE
Experimentation is good, as long as experimentation is done within the parameters of established instructions. Crossing chemicals, such as "bactericides", can cause neutralization of one or the other, or both products, so don't even try that one. Let the STOP-ROT do it's job, a job which is diverse. With that being said, people are still coming up with more practical applications of STOP-ROT in taxidermy!
The name is STOP-ROT, but you can also read that as prevent rot. If you're not using STOP-ROT up front on green capes and hides as a pretreatment, you're missing a good ride, especially anything going into the freezer. STOP-ROT does a terrific job on slowing down freezer burn.
With warmer and more humid weather coming up, STOP-ROT use will be coming into it's own. Brush STOP-ROT on the flesh side of a cape, or skin, as it thaws, once you can get to the ears, eyelids, lips, and nose, brush it on the hair side of those parts also.
Once you put the STOP-ROT on, as directed, and keep the flesh side exposed to the air, then you should find that the skin will air dry before it rots. It takes a good number of hours to air dry, that should buy a person all the time they need to flesh, split, and turn. This is a huge asset to those just starting out and are slow from inexperience, and doing all the work by hand.
When STOP-ROT is painted on the slimy membrane (hypodermis) of a deer cape there is an instant reaction that can been seen, and felt by hand. Give it a little time to air dry, and it can be shaved off a lot easier by hand, and will come off really well with a fleshing machine.
Many STOP-ROT users will have noticed a gooey, gluey, sticky fluid that will drip off a green skin that has been STOP-ROT treated. They also will have noticed that a skin will have a look to it like as if the skin had already been partially pickled. There's nothing wrong with the person's eye balls, the STOP-ROT is bonding with a lot of these soluble fluids found in the skin, which in turn is allowing them to drain away from between the collagen fibres, thus producing that leather fibre look.
The STOP-ROT has actually done a similar job that would normally be done by an acid, the difference being, bonding, and flushing, versus being burned up, or dissolved by an acid in a pickle. With the solubile proteins out of the way, the acid has less work to do in the pickle.
Here are some of the application advantages that are noteworthy for those using milder acids, and paint on tans.
Once a cape or skin has been treated, and prepped, and it has been STOP-ROT treated for at least an hour, you can put it into a saltwater solution of one gallon of water to one pound of salt. For a deer cape, three gallons is enough. The salt water solution will clean up the hair side, and draw from the skin. Play this part by eye, swirl the cape to clean as needed, a few minutes to half an hour in this solution is all that is needed, it's going to depend on how dirty, and bloody the cape is as to how long it will take. Drain the cape.
Salt the cape. Personal preference is to salt, and roll the cape up with the head parts in, a cape treated like this is going to drain and dry pretty quick, and I would just as soon not have to rehydrate it before going into the pickle. It will not take very many hours for it to drain to the point of drying. The proteins that were there that would normally "hold water", they're gone. Once the fluids run clear, it is ready to go in the pickle. That simple.
A lifesize bison bull will salt dry in half the time if STOP-ROT has been used on it first. Keep that thought in mind.
Here's another part of the quo that you should see will have changed. The pH of your acid pickle should stabilize quicker. If your pH did stabilize quicker than you are used to, and the cape has the uniform white look, after three days in the pickle, then you are probably ready to finish the cape up without having to return it to the pickle.
STOP-ROT has also been carried in the field in lieu of salt. It has been used on successful bear, and elk hunts with the above guidelines being followed.
