when and how to shave natural skins???

[captaindobbe]

Hi all,
i just mounted natural cow skins on my LP patato that a friend brought me back from Cuba.
one is shaved already, but unfortunately, one still has the hairs on it.
i mounted the skins already ( no problem with that ) , but have no precise idea when and how exactly i should shave the skin... when the skin is still wet, half dry, completely dry? knife, cutter knife, razor?
anyone has a technique to shave the side hairs as well ( not the one on top of the head, but on the oblique sides above the rim....)
cheers to all,
david.
My Webpage


PS: i read a lot about the annoying ringing sounds and overtones of fiber congas in some other topics.
I can tell you that mounting thick natural cow skins ( or mule if you can fnd it, even horse but even more rare ) is THE solution... it supresses most of these annoying sounds and keep the advantages of fiber congas. you might have to adapt stronger lugs though. I put galaxy lugs on my patato drums ( they are a bit thicker ), and i can tell you my patato sound great!!!

[Sonorito]

As I renember from former times; the hairs shall not be shaved off. They have to be scraped off by a rather dull instrument. This means that the skin have to be so wet, or rather soaked, that it lets the hairs go almost voluntarily off. You should be able to do it by hand.

If in a hurry (as in slaughteries); increase the temperature (but not to or above the boiling point - as in slaughteries) in the water when you are removing the hairs.

Sonorito

[slapadrum]

I don't know about conga head but with djembe there are several guys in the states making stave built drums.The method they use is to take a bic disposable razor and break the plastic bar off of it that is next to the blade to prevent clogging.This makes it easy to shave I have not done this personally you might check out the yahoo messge board djembe-l if you want more info.I hope I have been some help some of the guys on that board build drums for living so they have done it a bunch.
Good luck!
chris

[conga KID]

hey guys i wonder if waxing the the skins with hair wax would work? not sure if this actually takes skin off aswell tho

[akdom]

keep the skin wet. use a basic blade (the one with 2 sides) slightly bend it between your thumb, index and major fingers. Give it an angle around 45 degrees and shave the skin in the same sens as the hair implantation, never againsd. You'll be freeking out at first but cow skins are robust. You'll get used to it very fast and you'll be able to shave your skin using wide motions.

Good luck

Big B