Old Tiger Skin

[shooter50]

I have an old Tiger Skin, shot and skinned in 1961. The skin is in good shape, but becoming brittle. Could the experts help me with some treatment which could add a few years to the trophy. Taxidermy as an art form is now over in India, so no local help is available.

 

[buck wild]

I have an old Tiger Skin, shot and skinned in 1961. The skin is in good shape, but becoming brittle. Could the experts help me with some treatment which could add a few years to the trophy. Taxidermy as an art form is now over in India, so no local help is available.

View attachment 381134

I see you received no response. The skin is likely becoming brittle because the tanning oils have finally dried out of the skin. I see this is a rug and I'm assuming it is sewed to the backing which will cause issues with the potential fix, which is reapplying a tanning oil to the back of the hide. The oil needs to soak in from the non-hair side and should soften up the skin. If it begins significantly cracking, then there is another approach to save the hide which would be to glue a liner to the skin to keep it from cracking further. Potentially the current backing has been glued, which again would be problemic in removing it all to re-oil. With a skin this old and rare, I'd likely recommend you keep it as is.

 

[Ike85123]

I use a product called cowboy magic to clean my mounts. It is for horse manes, but works great on mounts. It lets the hair retain moisture. It has no water and keeps the fur conditioned, and doesnt attract dust. Also ,keep the skin out of the light of the sun if possible. And move it, if you have a vent close to it. A heater vent or fireplace will dry it out quick.

 

[buck wild]

Cowboy Magic is good but it mainly addresses the hair and not the leather itself. You’d have to REALLY soak the hide with it to see a benefit to the leather.
OP Cowboy Magic is an animal grooming spray that creates a sheen on the hair and is advertised to reduce dust as noted above. Think of it as an animal Armorall

 

[John Wasmuth]

Buck wild is right. The tanning oils need to be returned to the inside of the skin. The liner would have to be removed. The oil applied and worked into the skin to soften the hide. It would have to dry slowly and then the liner replaced. More times than not old specimens are ruined by improper restoration techniques.

 

[R.M.C.]

Wish I could help. It's a beautiful rug!!

 

[buck wild]

Buck wild is right. .......... More times than not old specimens are ruined by improper restoration techniques.

I do like how you think John . And I also agree that done improperly it could be made worse.