I'm also tanning! Heck, lets all tan!

[OneAcreFarm]

The amount in the recipe will really do about 5-6.

No it will do all hers as they are all not adults... That recipe is for the adult skins.

I didnt have to use Ph test strips as my water is a soft water... I left the fist stage in for 3 days.. the older ones are harder to flesh..They younger ones are easy to tear. ... then back in the bucket with another cup of salt ect... Leave 7 to 8 days. Rinse.. I used my bare hands... It didnt bother me at all. It is really hard to get the salt out of them. Soak in soapy water ... Then drain and do it again. .. Then squeeze as much water out as you can. then hang them. In your temp it is going to take longer. My house is over 70 as i have wood. THen the next step is timming for stretching..

No, it won't...or at least it didn't with ours... we tried it with the same amount of fryer skins. It was taking FOREVER until we added a second dose of salt/alum.

 

[Secuono]

No arguing, y'all. I already doubled the alum earlier today. =D
I'll update any changes or lack there of, tomorrow.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

What i ment was the amount of the one recipe will hold all the pelts..The amount of time goes by the temp of the house no matter how much salt or alum is in there. Colder house will take longer.

__________ Fri Jan 11, 2013 3:12 pm __________

No arguing, y'all. I already doubled the alum earlier today. =D

and who say that we are. :|

 

[OneAcreFarm]

What i ment was the amount of the one recipe will hold all the pelts..The amount of time goes by the temp of the house no matter how much salt or alum is in there. Colder house will take longer.

We did ours inside and the house is kept at 70f...we use a 5 gallon bucket, the recipe from MEN and 10 fryer pelts. It worked for the initial pickle, then we fleshed and recharged the solution and returned them to the bucket. We checked at 7 days...using the method suggested by MEN to put a small piece in boiling water...nope. At 20 days, we were still not there...I did some searching and found where someone else posted a similar experience and said to again recharge the solution with salt/alum as the pH was likely not right for so many skins...they were done in 3 days. So, not saying that it WON'T EVER work. But that it didn't work for us. I tried it again with only 6 skins and that time it worked perfectly.

__________ Fri Jan 11, 2013 3:12 pm __________

No arguing, y'all. I already doubled the alum earlier today. =D

and who say that we are. :|

We are having a pleasant discussion...

 

[Secuono]

Haha, if you guys say so. Don't want to get into trouble because I allowed bickering on my thread. =p

I still haven't found my test kit...starting to wonder if I gave it away or threw it out....

__________ Fri Jan 11, 2013 7:10 pm __________

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-H ... spx?page=2<br /><br />__________ Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:37 pm __________<br /><br />So I decided to grab a skin and see what I could pull off, that slime layer is easier to hold, but not easy to get off. The youngest pelts seem to be ready, older need far more time/mix, idk, something. I pulled off a whole layer off one of the youngest pelts. I'm thinking that if I A) leave them all in longer or B) add more alum, the older pelts will also be fairly easy. Still gotta figure out the pH*.
Also, if you have finger nails, either trim them or be very wary of them, if you use them, you might get pinholes.
Young pelts seem to have random patches of thinner hide, easy to see on colored fur. I'm not sure if this shows me how rabbits get their thicker hides or something else, but I'm thinking it is how they grow. My medium and older rab hides don't have this patchwork, just the youngest. There looks to be nothing I can do about it, that film coat that you can peel all at once, with a good soaking, is over this thin and thicker skin. You can see the thin areas long before you peel or even soak.
Can anyone tell me, on a black or dark furred skinned rabbit, can you see these patches?? I'll be checking next time I have dinner buns.

* It's "pH" not "Ph" like I posted before, got them mixed up, my bad.

 

[skysthelimit]

Remember the thread where someone asked if a rabbit can have solid fur and have broken under the skin? Well the dark patches mean that the hide was not prime. In an older hide, or one where the fur is in a jr or senior prime (not molt) the skin will be pink on the underside. Younger, in between prime ages and molting pelts have black and white splotches.

 

[mystang89]

Remember the thread where someone asked if a rabbit can have solid fur and have broken under the skin? Well the dark patches mean that the hide was not prime. In an older hide, or one where the fur is in a jr or senior prime (not molt) the skin will be pink on the underside. Younger, in between prime ages and molting pelts have black and white splotches.

:? :? :? Who shot who where with what?
Sorry, that was all completely greek to me. I'm still so knew with rabbits I don't even understand all the lingo.

 

[skysthelimit]

Remember the thread where someone asked if a rabbit can have solid fur and have broken under the skin? Well the dark patches mean that the hide was not prime. In an older hide, or one where the fur is in a jr or senior prime (not molt) the skin will be pink on the underside. Younger, in between prime ages and molting pelts have black and white splotches.

:? :? :? Who shot who where with what?
Sorry, that was all completely greek to me. I'm still so knew with rabbits I don't even understand all the lingo.

Sorry about that. Someone had a hide that was pink and black from a not broken rabbit. Wonder what was going on. I read somewhere, then noticed on my own pelts, that some had black splotches and pink splotched on the flesh side of the pelt. These were not broken rabbits.

This happens because the pelt is not prime (not old enough and/or in top condition). Prime for many rabbits is a jr prime at 4-6 mos and a senior prime 6-9 mos ( a little older for Silver Fox and bigger breeds). The fur is at it's best, and the hide is thickening.

 

[Secuono]

The rabbits in molt where some fur did not come out, usually matted, the skin was green tinted.
Cali buck had old fur on both sides of his tail and a bit on chest, flesh side of his hide was tinted green. Same with a young rabbit who hadn't molted in the same areas, green hide. And that was freshly butchered and processed.

 

[mystang89]

This happens because the pelt is not prime (not old enough and/or in top condition). Prime for many rabbits is a jr prime at 4-6 mos and a senior prime 6-9 mos ( a little older for Silver Fox and bigger breeds). The fur is at it's best, and the hide is thickening.

Thanks Sky. I'm sorry, I just didn't understand what prime was or the difference between young prime and senior prime. That's pretty cool to know that since I'll be killing at all cycles of the year and will know what to expect from newer or older rabbits.

 

[Secuono]

Mmk, peeled all but 3 adult pelts. Adult ones are tougher to peel, young ones like to peel apart and cause a mess, lol.
I didn't need any scraping tool, it peels off in nearly one big piece.

Young blue pelts ready for second bath.

Freshly being peeled, adult white pelt.

Comparison of peeled and not, white adults.

Closeup of layers. The peel can come off with the streaky 'meat' or end up leaving sections behind. The left behind strands are annoying to get off, takes forever.
You can see the bottom half came off together, then in the center, the strings decided to stay behind.

 

[skysthelimit]

Looking good.

 

[Secuono]

My thumbs are killing me...<br /><br />__________ Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:16 pm __________<br /><br />Found out the picking, peeling and breaking is not 'tanning.' It's only part of it, at least, for alum, battery acid, etc.
You need to smoke the hides to actually tan them. Or use tanning oil, which won't work long term if the hide gets wet, the oil will come out of the hide and need to be dried, broken and oiled all over again.

 

[skysthelimit]

I have never had any instructions that says to smoke the hide. The pickling that the alum does will be enough to preserve the hide to use the fur.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Wow, looking good, CnB!

I need to pull some pelts out of the freezer and start them. I am going to try the battery acid method.

 

[Secuono]

=D

I'm going to try to smoke them at some point, but probably not anytime soon, too cold for me to sit outside watching a fire.

 

[mystang89]

My thumbs are killing me...

__________ Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:16 pm __________

Found out the picking, peeling and breaking is not 'tanning.' It's only part of it, at least, for alum, battery acid, etc.
You need to smoke the hides to actually tan them. Or use tanning oil, which won't work long term if the hide gets wet, the oil will come out of the hide and need to be dried, broken and oiled all over again.

I had heard that too when I was looking at different ways of tanning which is another reason why I chose how I do it.

You're pictures come out so much clearer than mine. Looks good.

 

[ZRabbits]

Good Job! Can't wait to see the finish project. Don't know much about tanning, but from what I seen and watched, you are definitely going in the right direction. Love the fact that "all the rabbit" is used.

How long does it take from beginning to end (final product)? Just curious.

Karen

 

[Lastfling]

There is also a tanning process that fits in between the pickling and the tanning oil. I've always used "Safety Acid" (a product) for the pickle, a brush on Tan such as "Mckenzies", but there are others, and a Tanning Oil after the tanning process. You should be able to wash a tanned hide if necessary after the intial tanning to clean the residual oils from the fur.

 

[skysthelimit]

Good Job! Can't wait to see the finish project. Don't know much about tanning, but from what I seen and watched, you are definitely going in the right direction. Love the fact that "all the rabbit" is used.

How long does it take from beginning to end (final product)? Just curious.

Karen

Depends on temperature. For me usually 2-3 weeks.