How hot is too hot for hide breaking?

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GBov

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The title says it all really. lol

I bought a dryer to do double duty for drying clothes and breaking hides but, because I wasn't paying enough attention when I bought it, I didn't realize it didn't have a heatless drying cycle.

So its lowest setting is between 125 f to 145 f.

When does a hide stop breaking and start cooking?
 
Animal fat melts anywhere from 95 (chicken) to 130 degrees (beef) F. I think you'd be too close to cooking.

You could disconnect the heating element.
I could, but then again, my skill set doesn't work that way. lol

And it would break my mothers heart.
 
Don't make the Momma cry!

I usually just break over a chair back by hand, but I usually am breaking fewer than 10 hides at a time.
 
I can do a few hides by hand but I pay for it so much that the dryer is my preferred method.

And nope, she was so happy when I got the dryer - for doing hides with - that I just couldn't justify killing it. lol
 
Out of curiosity, how does breaking the hide work in the dryer? Is it literally as easy as it sounds? Put a tanned hide into the dryer and tumble at no heat for an hour and then it's supple? Do you oil it after that?
 
Out of curiosity, how does breaking the hide work in the dryer? Is it literally as easy as it sounds? Put a tanned hide into the dryer and tumble at no heat for an hour and then it's supple? Do you oil it after that?
I flesh and dry all my hides first so that when I'm ready I brew up a super strong solution of black tea and, when cool, paint the hide side with enough coats for it to soak in fully, stretching them between times to allow the fibers to drink it all up.

Then I let them dry a bit - being careful all the time to get as little tea solution on the fur as possible - and then put them in the dryer with wool balls. I have used wooden blocks but that is really noisy and old shoes work well but dont use any you might want to wear again, it wrecks them. Anything that can tumble about with the hides will work.

Let run on no heat for aaaages.

The nice thing is you can keep damping down the hides wiht more tea if they are drying too stiff and, a few times I rub lard across my hands and work it into the hides, not much or often but it makes them feel nicer. A good quality hand cream or body lotion works really well too but be sure its good stuff, I ruined a batch once with cheap lotion, they seriously never stopped stinking. 4 years on and the one I have left still stinks.

Some hides come out amazing and others I have to finish up by hand but the dryer does most of the work.

Even if all of them need extra work its like, an hour or two per hide instead of an all day thing so much easier on my hands.

I feel so bloody stupid to have bought a dryer and it doesnt have an air cycle but whey hey, moving in our future again so maybe once we are set up I will get another one.
 
I flesh and dry all my hides first so that when I'm ready I brew up a super strong solution of black tea and, when cool, paint the hide side with enough coats for it to soak in fully, stretching them between times to allow the fibers to drink it all up.

Then I let them dry a bit - being careful all the time to get as little tea solution on the fur as possible - and then put them in the dryer with wool balls. I have used wooden blocks but that is really noisy and old shoes work well but dont use any you might want to wear again, it wrecks them. Anything that can tumble about with the hides will work.

Let run on no heat for aaaages.

The nice thing is you can keep damping down the hides wiht more tea if they are drying too stiff and, a few times I rub lard across my hands and work it into the hides, not much or often but it makes them feel nicer. A good quality hand cream or body lotion works really well too but be sure its good stuff, I ruined a batch once with cheap lotion, they seriously never stopped stinking. 4 years on and the one I have left still stinks.

Some hides come out amazing and others I have to finish up by hand but the dryer does most of the work.

Even if all of them need extra work its like, an hour or two per hide instead of an all day thing so much easier on my hands.

I feel so bloody stupid to have bought a dryer and it doesnt have an air cycle but whey hey, moving in our future again so maybe once we are set up I will get another one.
So this might work.
Most dryers are on 2 breakers in your breaker box. One of which is for the heat. If you can figure out which one is the heat all you have to do is flip the breaker before using it for the hides.

I really hope this helps
 
R92, that would work in the States but I'm in the UK and the dryer is plugged into an extension cord.

I think I might unearth some of my very old NZ hides and just use them as a test run. They are nice enough but worth wasting on the experiment.

Will let y'all know how it goes once I find TIME to do it too! lol
 
I flesh and dry all my hides first so that when I'm ready I brew up a super strong solution of black tea and, when cool, paint the hide side with enough coats for it to soak in fully, stretching them between times to allow the fibers to drink it all up.

Then I let them dry a bit - being careful all the time to get as little tea solution on the fur as possible - and then put them in the dryer with wool balls. I have used wooden blocks but that is really noisy and old shoes work well but dont use any you might want to wear again, it wrecks them. Anything that can tumble about with the hides will work.

Let run on no heat for aaaages.

The nice thing is you can keep damping down the hides wiht more tea if they are drying too stiff and, a few times I rub lard across my hands and work it into the hides, not much or often but it makes them feel nicer. A good quality hand cream or body lotion works really well too but be sure its good stuff, I ruined a batch once with cheap lotion, they seriously never stopped stinking. 4 years on and the one I have left still stinks.

Some hides come out amazing and others I have to finish up by hand but the dryer does most of the work.

Even if all of them need extra work its like, an hour or two per hide instead of an all day thing so much easier on my hands.

I feel so bloody stupid to have bought a dryer and it doesnt have an air cycle but whey hey, moving in our future again so maybe once we are set up I will get another one.
I have a question on this. How are you drying the hides in the first place? Are you salting them? Or are you drying them a different way first?
 
NO SALT eeeeewwwww please no salt! I hate salted hides, it makes the beautifully soft fur all harsh and awful!

All I do is flesh them really well, sharp scissors work the best for that job for me, and then I nail them to a bord hide side out and put it in front of a fan.

When I say nail I mean nail, not tacks. I use three inch nails so that I can pull the hide up to the nail heads so there is lots of space between the wood and the hide, that way the air can get in nicely.

Hides dry in less than a day, even in a humid climate.

Oh, I wanted to add that the wool balls were working but they take MUCH longer than wooden blocks, albeit quieter, so I finished the last batch by hand and now that I have a moth infestation, all my hides are hiding in the freezer.

I really hate moths!!!
 
This is great information!!!

I am very busy with things besides the rabbits and I HATE the idea of wasting the skins. So, I finally discovered a method for drying the skins (without salt) that really works nicely for me: put the fresh, case-skinned hides on hide stretchers and hang them in a shed (away from flies). They dry beautifully and you can leave them there until you want to work with them. I have some I dried this way last fall and they are in great condition still (I thought they would get gross in the hot humid summers we get here in New England, but they are fine).

By the way, the hide stretchers I have came from Bass Equipment company and look like giant safety pins. They are easy to use/hang and let a lot of air at the hides to prevent rot.

At a certain point over the winter, I scraped off the "dried" fat and rubbed the skins down with a rag. It produced a nice surface and still is not rancid or anything gross.

I am really busy so I haven't gone to the next tanning steps yet, but I decided there was time to figure out how to go from a dried skin as long as they were not going bad.

One thing I would like to try is making a pair of warm slippers, fur side in, by simply slitting the top and running a thong through holes.

In the mean time, a few of these dried skins have ended up becoming strips of very-well-loved dog chews.;-) (I could sell them as natural dog treats, too.)

Another idea: before I thought of the stretchers, I just laid a few case-skinned hides over a pallet that was being used as a fence. That was a couple of years ago in the fall. The flies got at them. Amazingly, the maggots ate all of the flesh/fat off and left the skin and fur in fine condition (didn't seem to smell or anything)! I haven't tried it yet, but I wondered if I could utilize the little creatures to do the fleshing for me....then simply go from clean/dry hides to the rest of the tanning process.... [I thought of the scene in The Gladiator where the maggots in a festering wound were encouraged to clean out the "bad stuff" in the wound and clean the edges....so that it healed up nicely without stitches.... I am not too interested in trying this medically (!!!) but if they can enjoy the flesh on the skins and help me, I bet I could put the skins where the worms could drop down to some hungry chickens when they are finished eating!]

Well, anyway, rather than wasting things because I have a lot going on in my life, I prefer to observe and experiment. ;-)

If anyone takes this idea and goes all the way through the tanning process, I would LOVE to hear the results!

God bless you!
 
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