HOW TO TAN RABBIT HIDES
(Page 6 of 8)
January/February 1983
By Kathy Kellogg
Sewing with rabbit fur is an enjoyable, and often profitable, handicraft. In fact, I've actually discovered that the sale and barter of my fur items more than pays the cost of raising the rabbits . . . so the meat I get is free!
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PREVENTING FAILURES
Although the procedure itself is simple enough, really successful pelt tanning is usually the result of ingenuity and perseverance. The secret is not so much the chemicals used as it is the elbow grease that you apply to make the hides soft and supple.
Keep in mind that each piece of leather is different. And even among hides that were all tanned in the same batch of solution, something will occasionally go wrong with one or more of the skins.
The problem I encounter most often is hairslip: bare patches that appear as the fur pulls or slips off the leather. This condition, which is also called taint, results from the growth of bacteria on the outer skin (decay) and usually occurs in folds and wrinkles, where the surface wasn't exposed to the tanning solution. It can be prevented if you stir the pelts around in the solution frequently and make sure that the liquid comes in contact with all parts of each hide. Take care, too, that the brine ingredients are dissolved and mixed well before adding the skins. Finally, don't store the pelts in the solution at temperatures over 80°. If hairslip does afflict a pelt or two, however, you can trim away the damaged sections when constructing garments or other articles.
ALTERNATIVE TANNING PROCESSES
The tanning technique I've described here is a simplified version of chemical tanning. (There are also vegetable and oil tanning methods, neither of which is well suited to preserving rabbit skins.) Most of the other chemical processes in use today would require additional equipment, extra labor, and complicated ingredients. In general, these systems involve the application of a paste or powder (common ingredients might include alum, acids, sodas, salts, animal brains and livers, oils, and vegetable tannins) to the fleshed skin. The substance must be reapplied several times over the course of a few days, with the residual material scraped off the hide before each new application.
Not only are such processes too timeconsuming to fit into the schedules of most busy homesteaders, but they also require the green hide to be fleshed before the application of the tanning agent . . . and the mere thought of spending hours scraping fat and tissue from a hide is enough to discourage most folks from even attempting to tan furs. The chemical method I've recommended, on the other hand, requires only a minimum of scraping, which can be accomplished within five to ten minutes.
NOW WHAT?
If you follow my instructions, you should be the proud possessor of a stack of soft, silky rabbit pelts . . . which you can either sell as is or fashion into beautiful garments and other items for sale or barter. (To learn the pros and cons of these options, take a look at the accompanying sidebars.)
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