I have a large animal skin drum that badly needs to be reconditioned.

[sabrinamari]

Can anyone help with that? How do I go about doing it? Do I oil it? What do I do? It's animal skin head is tight and looks dry and looks unhappy.

Comments

tight, dry, unhappy skin?

[elphaba-of-oz.livejournal.com]

Oil of Olay!


plththttttt!

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

For regular maintenance on a skin head, shea butter is popular. If it's dangerously tight at the moment, and you don't think shea butter alone will loosen it up, you can actually rub in a little bit of water, and let that soak in, and then with the shea butter or whatever -- or perhaps less drastically, put it in an environment where it can slowly absorb a bit of moisture, like the bathroom after a shower. But I'm no expert, so I looked up other people's opinions, and found the following:

Pulled from a bodhran site:

The best way to temporarily loosen the head is a little bit of water, rubbed evenly into the skin. If your drum is always too tight, you may want to apply a little oil or moisturizer to the skin. This treatment will permanently loosen the skin, so don't be hasty. If you live in a place (as I do) where the humidity varies a lot from one season to another, then you should consider waiting at least a full year before treating your drum. If you do decide that your head needs this treatment, you can use a variety of moisturizers. Some people, including Jackie Moran of the Drovers, suggest using a good hand-cream or baby oil, on the theory that skin is skin; one correspondant got good results with an aloe-based lotion. Buck Musical Instruments sells something they call head oil, which I think is mostly neat's foot oil. Tommy Hayes suggests almond oil. Robert Padron posted to rec.music.celtic that he uses mink oil; he said "Wipe it on, let it soak for an hour or two, wipe it off." What's best for you probably depends on the climate where you live, the climate where the drum was made, and the thickness and quality of the skin on your drum.

On the other hand, another site says:

As for moistening the heads when they dry out, instead of using water, try rubbing shea butter gently into the heads of your bohdran, or any other hand drum that you have with an animal skin head. Natural shea butter has been used to lengthen the life of drum heads in Africa for a very long time.

From a djembe site:

A word to the wise: a good goatskin should require little to no maintenance and definitely does not require oiling or moisturizing. If your hands dry up and crack, be careful not to use typical hand lotions on them just prior to drumming, as you will add lotion to your head inadvertently -- standard supermarket lotions ... are full of chemicals and can spoil the head of your drum if transferred from your hands while playing. Shea butter (aka Karité or Doni) is the only thing I recommend to djembe drummers for hand conditioning.

In other words, no particular conclusion, except shea butter is good. :-)

[sligoe.livejournal.com]

I also found a site that recommends a tiny amount of lanolin lotion rubbed onto your hands and then gently smoothed onto the drum head. The body of the drum, if wooden and dry, can take a light rubbing with a good furniture oil, but be careful not to get it on the drum head itself.

All of the sites warn against extremes in temperature and humidity, and recommend wrapping a towel around the head to make sure that excess moisture doesn't collect on the head.

Hope this helps!

[andronikos.livejournal.com]

shea butter is a really good idea. Rub it in a little at a time. Basicaly when you are done you want the drum head to be healthy (ie. semi moisturized) but you do not want it to be oily when you are done.

[wild-place-king.livejournal.com]

Dear Heart,

Please, stop trying to help Ken.

Blessings,
B.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I nearly lost my drink through my nose.

Re: tight, dry, unhappy skin?

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

laughing!!!! Will it work for me, too?

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

This is extremely helpful. I think I can tackle the task tonight with the information you've provided.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Remarkably, I do have both lanolin and shea butter---I think. Hmmm, perhaps I should be keeping it in a towel all the time?

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure that I have a tin of pure shea butter at home. I think I'll start by putting on a very small amount, as you suggest, and examining the drum at regular intervals so that I don't overdo it.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

This stopped me dead in my tracks when I first read it. I didn't understand what you meant at all---but now I see that it's a joke (smiling). I guess I must be guilty as charged---I never would have missed the joke if I hadn't actually been guilty of continuing to "try and help Ken," even if only in my mind's ravings.

Wow. Grow up and move on, Sabrina!

[wild-place-king.livejournal.com]

Sabri,

You don't need to chastise yourself - I guess I caught you off-guard. I wanted to lighten your day. Apparently I lightened some of your friends' day too.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

:::Stares perkily at camera:::

Now my sinuses are squeaky clean. Thank you, wild_place_king!

:::Grins cheezily:::

[sligoe.livejournal.com]

It happens, it happens. DOn't worry so---it's a habit that will require lots of re-training, like biting your fingernails! LOL

Hugs, sweetie!

[wild-place-king.livejournal.com]

My pleasure, Milady!

[seedmoon.livejournal.com]

It may be that I'm just a little punchy after a long day of work but I couldn't help but chuckle at all the silly, prepubescent humor that this thread brought to my mind.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

yeah, this was funny!

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

And interestingly, I'm actually retraining myself to stop biting my nails right now. Cause I'm not changing too many other deeply ingrained habits, you see. ; )