What's all this business about stretching?

[Stormy]

OK maybe I've really messed up here. Reading all your posts, everyone mentions stretching. Why stretch? I thought the point of salting was just to take the moisture out until it was time to tan. Dunking it in a chemical solution would get it all wet again - eliminating any stretching previously done. Am I missing something here?

I am trying to get a batch salted & dried to send to a tannery. (see other post for my issues trying to dry!)

I previously dunked my other batches in a salt & alum mix straight from the freezer, no stretching. I let them cure and dry just hanging on a line. Nice and dry little things, got about 20 piled up for me waiting to "have time" to break them in. Hence, aiming for a tannery this time.

Reading all your posts however about the fragility of fryer hides has me wondering if I'm wasting my time, if it'll be too fragile for a tannery too. I'll use the fur even if its thin - not commercially oriented just don't want to waste the perfectly wonderful fuzzy bits.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

When you stretch the hides, you are breaking the connective tissue, which makes the hide supple.

 

[Stormy]

When you stretch the hides, you are breaking the connective tissue, which makes the hide supple.

so you are saying this is important even if the hide will be re-dunked into a solution. I better get those hides out of the oven...
what do you stretch them with?

do you stretch when drying from an alum/salt mixture, anyone?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I don't think it matters when you break the hide- it does need to be damp when you do it though.

 

[Lastfling]

I am trying to get a batch salted & dried to send to a tannery. (see other post for my issues trying to dry!)

If you're sending to a tannery all you need to do is salt, drain, resalt and let dry, box and ship to tannery. You do not need to stretch. The tannery will tumble and break the hide. Kind of expensive though isn't it?? Just curious. Those referring to stretching on here are doing the entire process themselves.

 

[Stormy]

I am trying to get a batch salted & dried to send to a tannery. (see other post for my issues trying to dry!)

If you're sending to a tannery all you need to do is salt, drain, resalt and let dry, box and ship to tannery. You do not need to stretch. The tannery will tumble and break the hide. Kind of expensive though isn't it?? Just curious. Those referring to stretching on here are doing the entire process themselves.

Is it expensive? I called the local taxidermist, he gave me the contact info to direct ship to the tannery. Said it wasn't worth his time to handle rabbit hides. I can't call them he said I have to just ship it in or else they'll ask for my taxidermy id # So I really have no idea what I'm getting into... but I do know I've been stacking up some home-cured for awhile and I don't sit down on the couch too much to do stretching.

 

[Lastfling]

You could call one you don't plan on using, or, a lot of them have a price list on the web. Here, I've done a little legwork for you! This is an example from one tannery:
1 rabbit - $12; 2-5 - $9.50; 6-20 - $8.75; 21-99 - $6.50; 100+ - 4.50. Those are per hide prices.

 

[Stormy]

You could call one you don't plan on using, or, a lot of them have a price list on the web. Here, I've done a little legwork for you! This is an example from one tannery:
1 rabbit - $12; 2-5 - $9.50; 6-20 - $8.75; 21-99 - $6.50; 100+ - 4.50. Those are per hide prices.

OMG that is pricey isn't it! unless I have 100+... which I will, eventually. And then it really adds up. And you are in N. Carolina - I can only imagine California prices may be double. I will call around, thank you for the suggestions - sometimes things just aren't obvious

I did try softening those alum-cured hides myself but its a lot of work!! where is the shortcuts??

 

[Lastfling]

Ha, there are no shortcuts -- Put them in a clothes dryer (NO HEAT) with a pair of tennis shoes to beat the crap out of them, Maybe??. :hmm: The tannery is not in NC, but somewhere in the upper Midwest, I believe. Good luck with whichever route you try. :happy:

 

[skysthelimit]

I also think the tannery will most likely rip 12 week old hides.

I stretch because the I'm doing the whole process myself. I don't really worry about actually "tanning" them, the pickle from the alum will make them last for many years past what I would actually need to use them.

After the second alum bath, the pull easily, work them out from the center out, being very careful at the edges. It should be wet still, slightly damp is when I begin, and as I let them dry, I stretch them a little each time, until they are fully dry and fully stretched. It's easy to tell because the leather turns white as you stretch.

 

[Spart]

Directed towards OP (Stormy)

You seem to be confusing the steps in the process of tanning. When using rabbits, salting has no actual progressive purpose in the tanning process. All salt is used for is to preserve a green hide in the case you don't have the ability to work on it after you skin the animal. Yes, it draws out the moisture, but drawing out the moisture serves no other purpose than to preserve the hide. When you are ready to tan your rabbit hide, you then wash off the salt (if you salted in the first place), take off any excess flesh and membrane on the skin-side, and then soak it in your tanning solution (in this case, salt+alum). After and only after the hide is soaked for the required amount of time are you to stretch the hide.

Stretching is the final step in the tanning process. You stretch your wet hide until it becomes fully dry. Once fully dry, the hide is officially finished. There is no stretching done prior to soaking.

 

[GBov]

Directed towards OP (Stormy)

You seem to be confusing the steps in the process of tanning. When using rabbits, salting has no actual progressive purpose in the tanning process. All salt is used for is to preserve a green hide in the case you don't have the ability to work on it after you skin the animal. Yes, it draws out the moisture, but drawing out the moisture serves no other purpose than to preserve the hide. When you are ready to tan your rabbit hide, you then wash off the salt (if you salted in the first place), take off any excess flesh and membrane on the skin-side, and then soak it in your tanning solution (in this case, salt+alum). After and only after the hide is soaked for the required amount of time are you to stretch the hide.

Stretching is the final step in the tanning process. You stretch your wet hide until it becomes fully dry. Once fully dry, the hide is officially finished. There is no stretching done prior to soaking.

Or you take your fresh, fleshed and well washed, hide and rub brains all over the skin side. Let dry until tacky and then stretch gently in all directions until totally dry, soft and flexible.

It does take a couple three hours though so we are going to try the dryer method in a few weeks and see how it goes.