Don't add anything to the water. If the head is old and hasn't been maintained then trying to put it on another drum could end up ripping the head. If you want to keep the head on the current drum and get a little extra life out of it then try using a natural leather conditioner or shea butter and gently rub a little bit into the head. If you do this every six months or so with new heads it will help to keep the natural oils in the head and preserve the bounce and warm tone that make calfskin the wonderful thing it is. If you need new calf skin heads contact me, I can do any size you need.

Another great thing about calf heads is that most of the time you end up with a split it is also easily repairable. Remove the head, damp it down around the split, set it on a flat surface with a flat, heavy object on top of it to flatten everything out. Leave it alone and let it dry flat, under the weight. Cut an appropriate sized patch out of a wrecked calf head, half an inch extra all around. Grab a box of gelatin from the grocery store! (I use Knox, in the orange box!) This is basically hide glue, as disgusting as that is. Mix up your glue, coat one side of the patch, apply it on the inside of the head and set the weight back on it to let it dry once again. Split fixed and if the tear was clean, you won't even be able to see the repair. I used this method to restore original heads on an old '47 Radio King kit. It's not my everyday player kit, but it gets a pretty good beating on a regular basis. 5 years in and the repairs are as good as the day I put them on. If you take care of your calf heads they will last almost forever.