Well I was SO pleased with myself the last few times that I butchered.
Instead if putting the hides on stretcher bars and hanging to dry,
I just tossed them into a 5 gallon bucket filled with this solution
- 1 plastic 5 gallon bucket
- 2 lbs. rock salt (or any cheap salt)
- 8 oz. battery acid (from auto-supply store)
- stick or wooden spoon for stirring
- a scrubbed brick or rock
the recipe that I have says that you can leave them up to a year.
It's only been a month or two since I started the process.
Today I thought I would try to scrape some and see what I had.
I used tongs to remove the hides, one at a time, from the bucket.
The SMELL was pretty rank
I used a hose to rinse the solution off of each hide as I pulled it out
I had several buckets and at least 3 dozen hides. I began to notice
that there was A LOT of loose fur floating in the bucket and when
I tested each hide, many of them just "let go" of the fur. It came off in clumps.
I figure that those hides are a total loss and won't be worth working.
I'm not sure what made the difference and why some hides seemed to hold up
and others didn't.
I'd appreciate any experienced tanners giving me some tips.
After rinsing well, I hung the "loosers" in the clothes line to let them dry out a bit.
I thought that they would at least make dog treats. My husband is concerned that the
chemicals will poison the dogs. I figured that enough water had diluted the acid.
I was able to handle the hides after rinsing without my skin feeling anything
but I would appreciate input on this too.
Instead if putting the hides on stretcher bars and hanging to dry,
I just tossed them into a 5 gallon bucket filled with this solution
- 1 plastic 5 gallon bucket
- 2 lbs. rock salt (or any cheap salt)
- 8 oz. battery acid (from auto-supply store)
- stick or wooden spoon for stirring
- a scrubbed brick or rock
the recipe that I have says that you can leave them up to a year.
It's only been a month or two since I started the process.
Today I thought I would try to scrape some and see what I had.
I used tongs to remove the hides, one at a time, from the bucket.
The SMELL was pretty rank
I used a hose to rinse the solution off of each hide as I pulled it out
I had several buckets and at least 3 dozen hides. I began to notice
that there was A LOT of loose fur floating in the bucket and when
I tested each hide, many of them just "let go" of the fur. It came off in clumps.
I figure that those hides are a total loss and won't be worth working.
I'm not sure what made the difference and why some hides seemed to hold up
and others didn't.
I'd appreciate any experienced tanners giving me some tips.
After rinsing well, I hung the "loosers" in the clothes line to let them dry out a bit.
I thought that they would at least make dog treats. My husband is concerned that the
chemicals will poison the dogs. I figured that enough water had diluted the acid.
I was able to handle the hides after rinsing without my skin feeling anything
but I would appreciate input on this too.