How We Tan Sheepskins into Beautiful Rugs

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[1] OBTAIN THE HIDE . . . no problem if you have your own sheep. Otherwise, check with someone in your area who does slaughtering. The commercial houses don't buy any sheepskins from our local man, and he'd been throwing them out . . . so we've asked him to save them for us.         .

Remember that sheepskins must be cooled before they're salted (how many hours this cooling takes depends on the weather). If someone is saving hides for you, ask him to spread them flesh side up and not to stack them. Then, pick up the skins as soon as possible and get them treated.

[2] SALT. First cut off any large pieces of meat and fat and trim ragged areas from the edges of the hide. Then apply a good half inch of plain granulated salt on every square inch of the pelt’s flesh side. Watch for folds . . . the skin can putrefy at those points and the smell will be terrible. And don't try to .W1 costs by skimping on the preservative I There's no need to do so anyway . . . we paid $1.95 for 100 pounds of fine salt at the grocery.

[3] SCRAPE OR FLESH. After four days brush the off and with a knife (or bare fingers, if necessary) pull away the thin adhering layers of meat and fat. Be careful not to tear the hide by getting too rough with your blade. A railing, sawhorse, or stall divider in the barn can serve as a fleshing beam on which to spread the skin while you work.

An hour of effort should get the worst of the scraping behind you. As the flesh pulls free you'll also be removing much of the muscular inner skin, which must eventually come off altogether to reveal the fine, already leather-like area beneath. You can attack this residue periodically while the hide is in the tanning solution.

[4] TAN. As I've already .mentioned, the tanning solution we used consisted of 1 pint of salt and 2 ounces of oxalic to each gallon of water. It's possible to do as we did the first time and brush the chemical onto the flesh side of the skins. Keep the surface dampened by applying the mixture twice a day, and between applications stack the hides two-by-two with their back sides together (or fold a single pelt in half, flesh side in). This process should take four days.

Now that I've had a little experience, though, I think it’s preferable to just immerse the entire hide in the liquid. Then you can work from time to time at getting off that darned thin muscular layer without having to repaint each pelt with the solution every time (since you'll 'be submerging it again anyhow). The skins will be ready after 48 to 72 hours soaking.

If you go this route, of course, You'll have to find container — such as a large canning crock or wooden barrel that won't be eaten up by the acid solution. The drum liners which bag companies supply for the shipping of chemicals could, however, be used to adapt a plastic or metal vessel for your purpose.

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