curing hides with sulfuric acid

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eco2pia

eco2pia

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Well, I have 5 hides in a mix of salt and battery acid as per these instructions: http://www.ssrsi.org/Onsite/bunny.htm

Years ago I heard of this method and was afraid of the battery acid, but I am more comfortable now that I know a little more. I have less concern about disposal of the spent solution, now that I understand that baking soda can fully neutralize it--hey, I was really young! :oops:

Hopefully it will be as easy and effective as the instructions suggest. I found the acid cheaply at an autoparts store, and the salt at Costco.

I will keep you posted!
 
Yes...please do keep us posted, I am very interested in the whole process. I think I would like to try it myself, the only thing stopping right now is time.
 
Oh, WOW! Tha sounds SOOOOO easy! Thanks for posting this... I may start the soaking for my bunny quilt! I'm doing patchwork squares, and the thought of doing 200 hides was starting to look undo-able :)
 
wow! I think that is the method I will use. And if I don't have the time to deal with them after the second soaking, I can leave them in the solution for up to a year ( not that I would leave them THAT long). But how much baking soda do I use to neutralize the solution when I am finished with it?
 
my guess would be "until it stops fizzing"...I would expect a few cups. It is cheap. I took them out and checked at one week and they were close, but not quite there--I put it down to my house being so cold. I should check them again today...
 
ok thank you! I would love another update when your project is finished. And maybe pros/cons and what you might do differently, etc. Thanks :D
 
Ok, I spent 2 hours scraping the flesh from 5 pelts. It was tedious but not hard...the fryer pelts did want to tear, and I have some gnarly rips, but for a first attempt I am not too bothered. I think it reminded me of peeling labels from jars--you would get a good run going and get half the hide clear, and then spend forever on some really tough spot...

Also the tears can be minimized by working with your hands really close to where you are peeling---don't take the hide in one hand and the flesh in the other and just yard them apart, peel it back and shift your grip, then a little more, and shift...The belly has 3 nipples on each side, when you get to them you have to CUT the flesh loose right there or it will tear. Most of my tears were over the butt near the tail. So be ready and slow down.

I think the white will come back to clean, but I am still worried about the red--it is faded, and I don't have any idea why. It looks dull, and I am sad...hopefully some one can tell me why, probably something to do with the salt/sulfuric acid pickle.<br /><br />__________ Tue May 03, 2011 6:21 pm __________<br /><br />Well, I took out the hides and have been drying them for about 36 hours.

I have to say, this part is easy. I hung them over some broom handles in my shower to drip and every so often (once they were just "damp"--took 12+ hrs) I stretched them and rubbed them over a back of a chair.

At first they looked like drowned rats and didn't smell much better, but now that they are almost done I can say I am really happy with the results. They look very nice, and once they are totally dry, I will post pics. The fur is just as silky as it was on the rabbit. My only disappointment is that the red pelts faded to sandy brown, pretty, but not nearly as nice as the original live version. I suspect that is just the way it is with red...women who dye their hair know what I mean. It is not a chemically sturdy color.

All in all, it is like making bread, a lot of waiting time and a few minutes of "work".
 
Oops, I am a lazy bum...it is sunny today, I will take a few pics, try to get them up tonight.<br /><br />__________ Mon Jun 27, 2011 10:57 pm __________<br /><br />OK, I finally took pics!!

Here is one showing 3 of the different colors...
h1.gif

Here is one showing the one I like the best up close so you can see the fur texture.
h2.gif

Here is one showing the tearing on the underside--this one was fairly typical, these were 12 week old fryers.
h3.gif

And this one shows the fading on the red hides--next to my matching dog. I couldn't quite bring myself to set a live rabbit on the hide to get the contrast, but the dog is a pretty close substitute. You can see that the warm tones have faded, it isn't just the camera.
h4.gif

Final tip--rinse the salt solution out really, really, really well! My hides still have some salt residue and I don't really want to wet them down and start over. I really should have soaked them in several changes of fresh water and spent some time with a hand-held sprayer rinsing the fur. The salt didn't get obvious until they were really dry.
 
Wow! Thanks so much for the pics and update and good tips! I look forward to trying this method, and your posts have helped a lot. How many would you suggest doing at once, so that the work isn't overwelming?
 
I was using a 5 gallon bucket and I wouldn't recommend more than 8-10 hides in it at a time, but I did 5.

The biggest issue is finding a place to hang them to dry. I didn't want them outside due to living in town--I figured it was a little too conspicuous and "in you face" for the neighbors, so I was hanging them in my shower, which was annoying, because it is our only shower, and more than 5 would have been a challenging fit. Scraping more than 5 might be tedious, too, but less than 5 seems like it would be a waste of solution.
 
That's incredible, Eco2pia! The pictures are great! I especially appreciate the bit about the red. ILoveBunnies has a broken red pelt she wants to cure for a friend of hers, so I will let her know it will turn brown if we use this method. :( It's one of five the kids want to cure, and it's the only red one. It's a shame, but you are right about red's instability!

Thank you for updating us on how it turned out!! :D
 
**If ANYONE figures out how to make the reds STAY red, please, PLEASE, let me know!!**

Since eventually that is all I will have, I really want to know how to do it. I know it can be done, I have seen red hides. I am looking....
 
What did you use to flesh the hide? Just a regular utility knife or a special fleshing tool? How did you stretch the hides?
 
No stretching on a board or anything with this method, you can just pull them with your hands as they dry. I used the dull edge of a cheap paring knife, it was a comfortable shape. Mostly I was able to peel the flesh off once I got an edge up.
 
VERY nice thread :) I'm so stoked to try my hand at it (I tend to forget about all those pelts sitting in the freezer )

This slays me!
eco2pia":t570mz8y said:
The biggest issue is finding a place to hang them to dry. I didn't want them outside due to living in town--I figured it was a little too conspicuous and "in you face" for the neighbors, ....
Click to expand...

We live in town (12,000 ppl, next to the state capitol), and our neighbors REGULARLY hang deer in the backyard :lol: And the 4H kids in the next block were giving butchering lessons to the kids in school last fall! ya know..while I don't like living IN a town much...I really like this town. It's...well, it's a good town.
 

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