Preparation and sequence of the technological process of dressing skins at home. Dressing and Processing Sheepskins: A Complete Guide Fat Emulsion Recipe

With the dipping method, the water is again heated to a temperature of 30-35C, adding acetic acid and table salt to it. Proportions of ingredients: 15 g of acid and 40 g of salt per 1 liter of water. It is important to note that the components are added only after the water has been heated to the right temperature so that they can properly dissolve in it. After preparation, the skin itself fits into it for about 5-6 hours.

Namaz method

The spreading method involves an increase in the concentration of the mixture for processing, approximately 2 times. But, in this case, the skin is not put into the water, but is treated with the prepared mixture. Mezdra can be treated with a soft brush or cotton swabs. The spreading operation is repeated approximately every 3 hours. After the mezdra is processed for the second time, it must be checked for readiness. This is done as follows: the skin is folded in half, and then leveled, if the white stripe holds well and does not pass for a long time, the material is ready for further use. This verification method is relevant for both pickling methods.

The final cleaning of the skin from the remnants of acetic acid is carried out by soaking the material in a soda solution. Proportions: 1.5 g of soda per 1 liter of water. The skin should be put in the prepared mixture for about 30-40 minutes.

After drying, the skins are stacked on top of each other for the so-called "bedding", during which they ripen. The ripening period is 24-48 hours.

The second way of dressing the skin

If dressing of rabbit skins is produced in the case of dry, and previously cleaned of muscles, raw materials, then it must first be soaked in a specially prepared saline solution. Proportions: 30g per 1 liter of warm (+25C) water.

If the material does not soak during the day, it must be periodically kneaded until it is similar in structure to fresh, just removed skin. If this is not done, it can simply rot. After the skin softens, it is necessary to wash it in a diluted powder. The powder should be used one that does not contain bleach.

After washing, the raw material is put back into the brine. After half an hour, soda ash is added to it (1 g per liter of water). When the soda is completely split in water, formalin will need to be added. The additive is carried out twice, each with an interval of half an hour, at the rate of 2 g per liter. Gradually mixing the contents of the vessel in which the soaking takes place, the skin is kept for about 6 hours. Then it is necessary to add sulfuric acid to the water with a proportion: 5 ml per 1 liter. In the resulting mixture, the processed material is kept for another 8-9 hours. It is recommended to stir the contents at least once an hour.

After the specified time, ammonia is added to the vessel - 4 mp per 1 liter. At the same time, everything is stirred for another 1 hour. This completes the main production step. To give the material a marketable appearance, it must be treated with another solution: add 50 g of laundry soap and 500 g of spindle oil to boiling water, mix it all up and add another 20 g of ammonia to the resulting mixture. The resulting component must be processed previously processed raw materials and hung to dry with the hair up. In the event that you are not satisfied with the level of softness and elasticity, the mezra can be further kneaded.

The third way of dressing the skin

If you have fresh raw materials that have just been removed from the animal, dressing the skins at home is performed as follows.

First you need to remove all remnants of muscle and fat mass from the mezra. After that, fine salt is poured onto the mezra, rolled up with fur outside and left in this state for 48 hours. Then it is unfolded and those layers of muscle and fat that remain after the initial treatment are removed. After these procedures, it is necessary to prepare a solution: add 70 g of table salt per 1 liter of water and wait until it dissolves. As it should, after stirring the rest of the salt, add 10-15 mp of sulfuric acid. We put the skins in this mixture and leave them there for 10 hours. After, the material is taken out and hung out on a horizontal bar so that all the liquid can drain from it. A couple of hours at normal humidity levels is enough.

Then you can start fattening. It is carried out as follows: 50 g of fish oil, 10 ml of ammonia 25% and 25 mA of oleic acid are added to 1 liter of water. The mixture is prepared in two different containers. The first is necessary for a mixture of fat and acid, ammonia is added to the second. Then, at a water temperature of 30C, the contents of both containers are mixed in one vessel.

This ingredient lubricates the inner surface of the skins. Then they are laid out on a horizontal surface, and left in this position for 6 hours. After 6 hours of lying, the skins are stretched on specially prepared rules and dried.

The fourth way of dressing the skin

Before being implemented dressing of rabbit skins, you need to prepare a solution: 50-60g per liter of water. If possible, you can add a little ammonia. The skins are placed in it for a day until they are completely softened. If the raw material is very old and overdried, it must be constantly kneaded, or even better, treated with a concentrated saline solution.

Then comes the skinning stage, after which the prepared and processed skins are tanned. It is necessary to prepare a solution of the following content: 100 g of aluminum alum and 50 g of table salt are added to 1 liter of water. Then the skin is stretched on the board and moistened from the side of the mezra with this mixture. The process is repeated for 4 days, at least 2 times a day. After 4 days, the raw material is dried and removed from the board.

How to make skins?

If you do not take care of the trophy from the hunt in time, you will soon have to throw it away. That is why it is so important to know how to properly dress animal skins. This process includes quite a few steps, but you will be able to save your trophy, and it's worth the time spent. Moreover, you can make good money on dressing skins, since not every hunter undertakes this work.

How to make animal skins?

Before dressing the skin of an animal, it is necessary to remove it correctly, degrease and dry it. Thus, it will be possible to get really high-quality fur.

For home dressing you will need the following:

• vinegar essence;
• washing powder;
• hyposulfite;
• salt;
• ammonia;
• wooden standard rules;
• roots or bark of tannins;
• fish fat;
• tassel.

Skin soaking and skinning

Immerse dry skins in a salt solution (40 g per 1 liter of water). Its temperature should be room temperature. For 1 kg of skins, 10 liters of solution will be required. They should lie in it for up to 24 hours. Then turn the soaked skins inside out and gently wring out. Freshly removed skins do not need soaking, you just need to remove pieces of fat, muscles, films from the mezra with a blunt knife. Now you know how to process the skin, which means you can approach the next step.

Skin degreasing

Prepare a soap solution at room temperature. For 5 g of powder, you need to take 4 liters of water. Put the skins in the solution for 20 minutes, lightly crushing them with your hands. After that, rinse them in cold water, wring out and turn the skins inside out with fur.

Dressing skins by pickling

For dressing skins, you need to make a pickel. Take a bowl, pour 20 ml of vinegar into it, add 40 g of salt and a liter of water. For 1 kg of skins, 10 liters of pickel will be needed. skins immerse in the solution with the flesh outward. For thin skins (rabbit, hare, juvenile muskrat), 3 hours of soaking in the solution is enough, for skins of medium thickness (young sable, large fingerlings of muskrat, squirrels) - 6 hours, for thick skins (muskrat and adult sable, fox) - 12 hours . Cover the basin with a lid so that it does not smell of vinegar.

After this time, take out the skins, wring them out with your hands, fold in half with the skin to the skin in a pile and put it on the bed under oppression for half the pickling time.

Drying skins

Dry the skins at room temperature on the rules with the fur inside. As soon as they dry a little, you can begin to knead them. Remove the skins from the rules and remember them as if you were washing a handkerchief. Then put the skin back on the rule and rub off as it dries. As a result, the dry skin after kneading should become soft, pleasant, fluffy. If it or individual parts remain rigid, then it must again be put on the rule with the flesh outward and grease the unfinished places with a pickle. Dry again and wash the skin. Repeat this treatment until each skin is soft and fluffy.

Skin neutralization

When the skins become soft, you can proceed to the neutralization procedure. It involves immersing products in a hyposulfite solution for 1.5-2 hours. The solution is prepared as follows: 50 g of hyposulfite is mixed with 30 g of salt and poured with a liter of water. Then the skins must be rinsed in soapy water, squeezed out, turned inside out, dried and mashed.

Skin tanning

Tanning skins must be approached responsibly, as this operation can adversely affect their quality. To do this, you need to lubricate the mezdra with a tanning brush. You can buy it at the pharmacy or make it yourself. For the tanning agent, you will need to pour 500 g of oak or willow bark into a container and pour a liter of water. Then boil the mixture and leave to infuse for a day. Strain the broth through cheesecloth and grease the skins with it. Then dry them and wash them.

Oiling skins

Be sure to fatten the skins. This procedure will make them soft and elastic. Dilute 50 g of powder in 300 ml of warm water, add 50 g of fish oil and 10 drops of ammonia. Mix the ingredients well and add another 500 ml of water. Moisten the skin with a fat emulsion and hang the skins to dry on rules. Then stretch the products and wring them out. That's all, the skins are ready.

Now you know how to dress skins, but if you are still not confident in your abilities, then it is better to watch the video, then the process will become more understandable.

How to dress the skin of a sheep at home so that it does not lose its presentation? After all, sheep are bred mainly for wool and meat, but some farmers throw away the skins. And the point here is not at all that the skin itself is of no value, just few people know how to dress it correctly. Most beginners give up this activity after the first unsuccessful attempt. In fact, dressing sheep skins at home is a difficult task, but quite doable. It is only necessary to strictly observe the technology of the process.

Peculiarities of dressing skins

The whole process of dressing consists of several stages: aging, skinning, picking, washing, tanning and drying. It is worth noting the fact that it is necessary to start processing the skin as soon as possible, without putting things off indefinitely. Otherwise, the skin will lose its presentation and, accordingly, its value.

In order for the whole procedure of dressing skins to be understandable not only to specialists, but also to beginners in this matter, we will consider in detail each stage of the work. So let's get started.

After you have skinned a slaughtered sheep, you must carefully examine it. If pieces of fat, meat or tendons remain on the inside, it is recommended to scrape them off with a knife.

All excess debris is removed from the wool, the sheepskin must be clean. After inspection, the skin can be folded in half and put in a cool place for two hours.

Dressing stages

In order to qualitatively dress the skin of a ram, it is better to start work immediately after removing it. This is what the process of dressing at home should look like.

Soak

For this procedure, you will need a spacious container. The fact is that sheep are rather large animals, and the skin must be completely hidden by saline solution. To prepare such a solution, you will need:

• furatsilin or formalin;
• salt;
• acetic acid.

A solution is made according to the following recipe: for each liter of water, two tablets of furacilin or 0.1 milliliter of formalin are dissolved. The salt content in such a solution can vary from 30 to 50 grams at the discretion of the farmer.

As an antiseptic, you can add acetic acid to the solution, at the rate of 5 grams per liter of water.

Experienced furriers add decoctions of oak, birch or willow leaves. The proportion of such decoctions in the solution should not exceed 500 grams per 10 liters of water.

In such a saline solution, the skins must be soaked for at least twelve hours. If after this period, the skin does not soften, then it is necessary to repeat the whole procedure again.

To understand that the skin is ready for further processing, you need to scrape the inside (mezdra) with your fingernail. If it will give in easily, you can proceed to the next step.

Mezdrenie

The purpose of this process is to rid the skin of possible residues of fat and fat. In addition, it helps to remove the extra layer of skin.

This is done as follows: the skin is stretched on a flat surface or a special machine. The work is done with an iron scraper or a blunt knife. This is done so as not to accidentally damage the skin. Skinning is usually carried out from the back, gradually moving towards the head.

Wash

After you have finished skinning, the treated skin must be washed. To do this, it must be immersed in a cleaning solution for five minutes. To prepare it you will need:

• washing powder - 3 grams;
• table salt - 20 grams.

All dosages are based on one liter of water.

After the fleece has been in the cleaning solution, it is squeezed out and proceed to the next step.

Pickling

This stage is aimed at improving the properties of the rune. After pickling, the fibers soften and the lamb skin becomes more elastic.

The pickling solution is made from water, salt and acid. Moreover, the acid can be used both acetic and formic. To prepare a solution, for every liter of water add 50 grams of salt, 15 grams of acetic acid or 5 formic acid.

As in the case of soaking, the fleece should remain in the solution for about 12 hours. You can check how successful the process is as follows: the fleece is bent in half and squeezed. After straightening, a clearly visible strip should remain at the fold.

Tanning

It is impossible to qualitatively dress the skin of a sheep without tanning at home. The purpose of this stage is to give your products strength. This procedure is again associated with the preparation of the solution. For this you will need:

• table salt - 50 grams;
• chrome tanning agent - 6 grams.

All components are indicated for one liter of water. The skins are lowered into the prepared hot solution and left for a day. It is necessary to monitor the process, not allowing the solution to cool, and periodically heating it up.

Fattening

This stage is aimed at giving your products shine. To prepare the composition you will need:

• table salt - 100 grams;
• glycerin - 25 grams;
• ammonia - 20 grams;
• egg yolk - 70 grams.

The solution is applied to the core. After that, the skins are stacked in such a way that their inner parts are in close contact.

Drying

To begin with, you need to squeeze the fleece, this can be done using a centrifuge. After that, the skins are dried in thermal chambers at a temperature of 40 degrees.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated in dressing. Most of the time, you will be making various saline solutions. Show a little attention and responsibility, and everything will work out for you.

If you raise rabbits and want to learn how to skin properly, you must know everything about animals, what time to skin rabbits, how to skin them, and how to properly preserve skins so they can be stored for a long time. This is all the preparatory work that includes dressing skins.

The first operation is skinning the animal. Rabbits should be slaughtered for skins in late autumn, winter and early spring, when the molting process is completely over. The core of the skins is homogeneous, of the same color, without dark spots, the pile is the same in height, there is an underfur.

If you slaughter from 5 - 6 months of age, the skins are thin, tender, the amount of fat in the thickness of the mezra is small. In rabbits older than a year, the mezra is thicker and fatter. In males, the thickness of the mezra and the elasticity of the skin differ from females.

For fresh skins, it is necessary to do the primary skinning (degreasing) - to remove the remnants of meat and fat, otherwise, during long-term storage, putrefactive bacteria develop in these places and, with further dressing, hair flow appears on the skin.

After the initial skinning, the skins are stretched on the rules and dried, maintaining the original size. The skins are dried in the warm season under awnings, avoiding direct sunlight. In cold weather, dry in a warm, dry room or drying cabinets.

Fresh skins are afraid of high temperatures, keratinization occurs, such skins do not soak well, therefore dressing skins at home does not always turn out soft. Rabbit skins at home are best preserved in a fresh dry way; dry-salted canning is rarely used.

Before dressing, I sort the skins into batches according to size, skin thickness, age and gender. Thick skins, skins of old males in a separate batch, since for such skins during dressing it is necessary to increase the duration of exposure to solutions, the temperature and the amount of chemicals by 30%. Immediately before soaking, unnecessary parts, heads, tails and paws are cut off on the skins.

Soaking skins

The first thing to start with is soaking dry canned skins in a special solution, without which not a single dressing of skins at home begins. But before you start soaking, you need to prepare tools, fixtures and equipment for dressing.

The container must be acid-resistant (enamelled pots, bathtubs, plastic containers, stainless steel tanks, etc.). To mix the skins, you need a wooden spatula, a thermometer, and rubber gloves.

The purpose of soaking is to bring dry skins to a steamy state, to remove dirt, excess fat and protein. Poorly soaked skins after dressing are rough and not elastic. Water for soaking is taken fresh, it should be soft, insoluble lime soap is formed in hard water. Usually hard water is softened by adding.

Water is taken at a temperature of 18-22 degrees, at a higher temperature putrefactive bacteria develop faster. To suppress these bacteria, add salt 40-50 g/l and some kind of antiseptic (formalin 1g/l, zinc chloride 1g/l, KFN 1g/l or disinfecting tablets).

The amount of water is taken so much that the skins float freely. The soaking time ranges from 12 to 24 hours, as soon as the non-soaked areas disappear, the soaking is stopped.

To reduce the soaking time of heavily dried and thickly skinned skins, add washing powder 1-2 g / l, 1.5 g / l of acetic acid or soda ash can be added, sometimes ammonia and borax 1 g / l are added to reduce the soaking time. Skins need to be stirred frequently. After soaking, the skins are pulled out, squeezed, and the skins begin to be skinned.

Skinning

This process is needed in order to remove subcutaneous fat and muscle layer from the skin of the animal. If this layer is not removed, then during further processing of the skin, chemicals in such places (acid, salt, tanning agent, degreasing agents and other additional preparations) in solutions will not pass well into the depth of the leather tissue, this will affect the quality of the dressed skin.

Dressing rabbit skins allows you to skin skins in various ways: just with a knife on a plywood rule, you can use a two-handed scraper on a deck, on a special sharpened bracket or on a scythe, if any skinning machine this is the best and easiest option. I believe that when dressing skins at home, the most optimal and not difficult option is skinning on a spit fixed on a bench.

After you clean the skin, you can start degreasing the skins (washing).

Degreasing wash

In the skin of skinned skins there is internal fat, its amount depends on the type of animal, if it is a domestic animal, then on its feeding. Internal fat prevents the penetration of chemicals in aqueous solutions into the depths of the skin of the animal.

When dressing rabbit skins at home after skinning, we have to wash the skins using degreasing materials, surface active substances (surfactants) - this is washing powder 2-3 g / l and soda ash 1-2 g / l. You can use various detergent pastes, liquid soap, Feri, Prevocel, OP preparation, various syntanols.

The temperature of the washing solution should not exceed 40 degrees to avoid welding the skin. The skins can be washed by hand using a corrugated washboard or in a simple activator-type washing machine.

If dressing skins at home takes a long time, then this is the best option to facilitate all water operations. Frequent stirring of the skins in the degreaser solution promotes the rapid washing out of fats.

It is necessary to wash the skins for no more than one hour, so as not to damage the skins, because all detergents have weak alkaline properties, and alkali strongly corrodes shit. After washing, the skins are rinsed well in a large amount of warm water and squeezed.

Pickling, pickling

These are equal processes. Pickling is more labor intensive work. Pickling is the effect of acid and salt on the hide. At home, dressing of rabbit skins is carried out with the help of soured kvass and directly with acids.

When dressing with acetic, formic, lactic acid, the skins are more elastic. Formic acid has good penetrating power. Good results when using sulfuric acid.

To prepare a good pickel, you need to take 40 g / l of food salt and 15 - 25 g / l of acetic acid 70% or 8 - 10 g / l of formic acid. Instead of these acids, you can take sulfuric acid 4.5 - 5 g / l, a mixture of two acetic acids 10 g / l and 1.5 g / l sulfuric acid gives a good result. Salts in all cases from 40 to 50 g/l. The temperature of the solution is 30 degrees, for thickly mezdrovyh 40 degrees. The duration is from 16 to 24 hours, or rather, it is determined by the appearance of a “drying” on the skin in the groin area. If white stripes remain on the folds, this indicates that the skins need to be removed.

Determine the readiness of the skin and the "pinch". If, with a little effort, the pile begins to crawl out, this indicates that it is time to stop pickling. After pickling, a laying follows.

Dressing skins at home can also be carried out with soured kvass, this method is little used by furriers. The skins dressed by fermentation have a strength 2 times higher, they turn out to be more viscous and elastic.

For fermentation, oat or rye flour, yeast and salt are used. The skins are turned inside out with fur, coated with a thick layer of sourdough and folded in layers, covered with polyethylene, after a day the skins are again smeared with sourdough, the skins mature for 2-3 days. The temperature in the feet should not exceed 35 degrees. The duration is determined by the "dry".

Skin tanning

Skins after treatment with acid can stretch and be soft, but once they are wet and then dried, they immediately coarsen. The acid exfoliates the collagen fibers in the dermis, and when moisture gets in, they stick together again and the skins become stiff.

In order to prevent collagen from sticking together, it must be covered with a tanning agent, and when fattening, also with particles of fat. Such skins are not afraid of moisture, temperature and aggressive chemicals.

Skins can be tanned in many ways: using chemicals, or using natural tanning agents of plant origin (wood or herbal). Tanning can be chrome, aluminum potassium (more often dressing skins at home combine chromium and aluminum potassium in equal parts 4 g / l + 4 g / l), chromium peak, formaldehyde (formalin 40% 10 g / l), cellulose, synthetic, and of course vegetable (tannin).

The most common tanning is chrome (for fur 4-7 g / l of dry powder of chromium sulfate, the basicity is 33%). The skins tanned with potassium alum are soft, the dermis is white, one drawback, when moisture gets in, the alum is washed out and the skin becomes coarsened, so they have to be combined with chrome tanning agent. Duration 10 - 20 hours. The temperature of the solution is 25 - 28 degrees.

In the absence of chemical tanning agents, you can use. These are decoctions of the bark of willow, oak, chestnut, Siberian fir, spruce, Siberian larch, and so on, or decoctions of herbs: horse sorrel, herbs (hay). Be sure to salt in any tanning agent from 40 to 60 g / l.

In Russia, in the villages, dressing skins was often practiced by decoction of hay, as skins were tanned in Rus'. A container of 40 - 50 liters was clogged tightly with hay, filled with water, boiled for half an hour, then the broth was infused, salted, cooled to 30 degrees, decanted and it was possible to load 2 - 3 skins. The duration is several days, the tanning agent must go through the entire thickness of the skin.

Greasing hides

Tanned skins need to be burned. Collagen fibers covered with tanning agents in the dermis need to be covered with particles of fat, otherwise in a humid environment, as well as when washing fur, the tanning agent may be washed out, and when the skins dry out, they coarsen. Lubricated with fat collagen fibers glide and do not stick together, annealed skin is elastic, stretches in all directions.

In production, industrial fat compositions are used for these purposes; there is a wide variety of such preparations. They have been worked out by technologists in production, and have good penetrating and lubricating ability.

The main component is animal fat (of all domestic animals and birds) and liquid industrial oils (industrial, obtained during the processing of petroleum products: machine, spindle, transformer, vaseline).

Skins can be fattened in two ways: dipping and spreading. The dipping method is more productive, it is used in production. The disadvantage is the high consumption of the emulsion. This work is done in containers, often combined with tanning.

But the dressing of skins at home, uses mainly the spreading method. The fat emulsion is applied to the dermis with a brush, the consumption is small. Handicraft fat compositions in the dressing of rabbit skins have good performance and are readily used by home craftsmen.

To prepare such an emulsion, you can take 200 g of any animal fat, dissolve in half a liter of boiling water, add 25 g of machine and 40 g of glycerin, and then add 200 g of chicken yolk. Mix the whole composition well, after which we use it for its intended purpose.

After tanning and laying, the rabbit skins are stretched on the rules, coated with fat, after two hours they are hung out to dry.

Finishing work.

The dried skins are kneaded and stretched in all directions. The trifle is well wrinkled by hands, overdrying should not be allowed. Overdried skins will need to be moistened again. Larger skins can be pulled through the staple, kneaded on a disk, you can sharpen one edge of the board and use this edge for kneading.

For large skins use. Rabbit skins are well dressed at home; with proper processing, they are easily wrinkled by hand.

If you process a large number of skins, then mechanization is needed -. It can be made from wooden boards or plywood sheets. The diameter of the drum is 1.5 meters, the width is 70 cm. To rotate, you will need a small electric motor and a gearbox.

The optimal number of revolutions of the drum is 30 - 40 rpm. Inside there are partitions for capturing skins. To break the skins, you need large pieces of car tires or river pebbles the size of an orange.

Skins and sawdust are placed in the drum. When rotating, the skins fall and, thanks to pieces of rubber, are kneaded. In the drum, you can clean the skins from fat, for this, a solvent (turpentine, white spirit, etc.) is added to the sawdust.

After such processing, the skins must be shaken from sawdust either on a special mesh drum or on the same drum where a mesh is installed instead of a locking hatch.

Sawdust used hardwood oak, aspen, birch, beech). After breaking down, the skins need to be given an aesthetic appearance, the dermis is polished with sandpaper by hand or on a machine. After processing, the skins become even softer. Then the pile is combed out with a metal needle brush.

If you don’t have a retractable drum, it’s okay, dressing skins at home is carried out without it, you can clean the skins by washing in shampoos for wool, you shouldn’t wash the skins immediately after dressing, you need to wait a while so that the fat from the fat emulsion well lubricated collagen fibers, the skins should rest.

When washing, chemicals (tanning agent, salt) will be preserved to some extent and the skins will remain soft.

Dressing rabbit skins at home: Instructions

For thin rabbit skins, the following processing scheme can be applied.

1) SOAKING. Soaking freshly dry skins in a solution: we take the amount of water with a temperature of 20-25 degrees so that the skins float freely in the container. The amount of salt is 30 g / l, so that the solution does not rot, add formalin 40% - 1 g / l.

For better watering of the skin, you can use washing powder 1 g / l and acetic acid 70% 1.5 g / l. We cut off everything superfluous on the skins: tails, paws and heads. We load into the solution, mix often. The skins will be soaked for 20 hours. The skins are then pulled out and pressed. Let's get to the grind.

2) MEZDRENIE. We remove the remnants of meat and fat on the dermis using a braid, which is fixed on the bench. You can remove the meat film with your fingers, but this is a long time; on a spit, it takes several minutes for an experienced craftsman to churn the remaining meat. Finished clean skins are sent for washing (degreasing).

3) DEGREASING. We wash the skins in the washing machine, the old type, you can do it by hand. We take the amount of water with a temperature of 35 - 40 degrees as much as when soaking. The amount of washing powder for hand washing 3 g/l, soda ash 2 g/l. If the skins are greasy, you can add FERI 1 g/l. We wash 30 - 40 minutes. Then we wash the skins in a large amount of warm water. Squeezed skins are sent to a container with acid.

4) PICKING - tanning. Pickling can be combined with tanning, thereby reducing curing time. A bath is being prepared: as much water as when soaking, the water temperature is 28 - 29 degrees. The amount of sulfuric acid is 5 g/l, salt 70 g/l, 6 g/l chromium tanning agent (chromium sulphate with a basicity of 30% - green powder), 7 g/l hyposulfite, 12 g/l aluminum alum.

The processing technology is as follows.

Salt is poured into water at a temperature of 30 degrees and acid is poured. Skins are loaded. Dressing skins at home requires frequent mixing, therefore, skins are often mixed. After 10 hours, hyposulfite is added. After 2 hours, the first half of the dissolved chromium tanning agent is poured in, everything is mixed. An hour later, pour the second half, again interfere. An hour later, aluminum alum is poured.

After the expiration of four hours, the skins are checked for "drying", if the result is positive, the skins are taken out, laid out in layers and left to lie in this position for 12 hours. Then the skins are broken on a spit, stretched along the length and pulled on the rules.

The skins are fattened with a fat emulsion, after 2 hours the skins are hung out to dry. As soon as the skins begin to dry out, they are crumpled, broken, twisted and dried again. Dry and mashed skins are polished, cleaned and combed.

Skinning at home: especially for beginners

The scheme for processing rabbit skins is as follows:

1) Soaking canned skins.

To begin, select skins, preferably thinly skinned young rabbits. Do not dress thick skins of old males yet. We prepare the solution: clean, tap water (preferably soft) should be taken in such an amount that the skins can float freely in the container.

The water temperature is 25 degrees. We dissolve salt 30 g/l - for freshly dry raw materials or 20 g/l for dry salted skins. Fresh skins that have just been taken from an animal (paired ones) should not be dressed immediately by novice furriers; when dressing, hair flow may appear on the skins. In order not to take risks, the skins should be skinned (cleaned of fat, meat residues), pulled over the rules and dried.

You can make such skins in 2 weeks. It is imperative to add some kind of antiseptic to the soaking solution so that putrefactive bacteria do not develop. Best of all, 40% formalin 1 g / l, you can use tablets, 1 tablet of furacilin per 1 liter of water.

If the skins were stored for a long time and dried up, then 1-2 g / l of laundry detergent for wool and acetic acid 1.5 g / l can be added to the solution, this will help to better water the skins, it is easier to skin. Duration of soaking 16 - 20 hours. We mix the skins often.

The skins must be well soaked, otherwise the dressing of the skins will be poor. Then the skins are squeezed and proceed to the skinning.

2) Mezdrenie.

You can clean the skins from the remnants of meat and fat with a knife, pulling on a wooden rule, this is long and hard. You can on the deck with a two-handed scraper. I advise for these purposes to use a scythe fixed on a bench.

With certain skills, this work will take a few minutes. You need to scour the skin well, pull off the muscular film with a stocking. The dermis must be completely cleaned, otherwise in those places where the film remains, the skin becomes rough. The skins are then washed.

3) Washing (Degreasing).

It is necessary to degrease the skin, remove the fat that is inside the skin tissue, otherwise the penetration of chemicals in all liquid operations will be difficult. You can wash it in an old type washing machine, you can wash it by hand.

Preparing the solution: Water can be taken as when soaking, at a temperature of 35 - 40 degrees. Salt 20 g / l, washing powder 2 - 3 g / l and soda ash 2 - 3 g / l. We wash 30 - 40 minutes. Then rinse in warm water, wring out and lay in a pickle.

4) Pickling.

Treatment of skins in acid and salt. Solution: water, the same amount as when soaking, temperature 28 degrees. The temperature of the solution is kept constant throughout the pickling. Salts 50 g / l, 70% acetic acid 15 - 20 g / l (you can use sulfuric 96% - 5 g / l or formic 100% 8 - 10 g / l).

We mix the skins often. The duration of pickling is 16 - 24 hours, or rather, we determine by the appearance of "drying" on the skin. After the end of this process, we squeeze the skins and lay them out in layers on a hill in a basin in a warm place of 18 - 20 degrees. The duration of the laying is 20 - 24 hours. The skins are then neutralized.

5) Neutralization.

We will tan the skins with tannins, so we neutralize after pickling. Remove acid with baking soda. We prepare a solution. Water temperature 25 degrees. Baking soda 2-3 g/l, salt 20 g/l. Duration 1 hour, the skins are often mixed.

6) Tanning.

We will tan the skins with a vegetable tanning agent (tannins). We prepare the tanning agent: finely chopped branches, bark or sawdust (200 - 250 g / l) of willow, oak, spruce, wild rosemary are placed in a container, poured with water and boiled for 30 minutes.

Then cover and insist for several hours. The solution is decanted, filtered, salts of 50 - 60 g / l are added, cooled to 25 degrees. Skins are loaded for 15-20 hours or even up to 2 days. The tanning agent must saturate the dermis to the full thickness, it is checked on a cut of the skin, the cut turns yellow. After tanning, the skins must be fattened.

7) Fattening.

Let's take glycerin and chicken yolk in a ratio of 1: 1, mix well, get an emulsion, brush the skins on the rules without sparing the drug, put them in the feet, after 2 hours we hang them to dry.

8) Drying and finishing operations.

We dry the skins in warm weather in the air, in cold weather in warm rooms or drying cabinets. The temperature should be sufficient, 35 - 40 degrees, but not higher. The skins should dry during the day but no more, during which time the emulsion should soak into the depths of the dermis.

The skins during drying are constantly under observation, as soon as you see that they are drying up, remove, wrinkle, turn inside out, dry and wrinkle again. Be careful not to let the skins dry out, otherwise you will need to moisten them again. With successful dressing, the skins are soft, easily kneaded by hand.

We process dry skins with emery cloth, clean and comb the pile. The skins can be washed in shampoos for wool, but not immediately, you need to let the skins lie down for at least 2 weeks so that the fat soaks the collagen fibers well, otherwise you can immediately wash the chemicals and the skins can become rough.

Also watch an interesting video on dressing rabbit skins at home:

Now, after reading and watching, we can say that you are ready to start making skins at home! Well, for those who do not want to risk their skins and value their time, I suggest using the one that I have worked out during 20 years of my practice!

DAVID HARPER, MOTHER EARTH NEWS
"NEW GARDENER AND FARMER" 4, 2002

It is a sin to throw away the skin taken from the carcass of a killed animal, whether it be a trophy of a successful hunt, a domestic goat, a sheep or a nutria. Get to know a cheap and simple method of skinning, which, in my opinion, is accessible to everyone. I use it for dressing the skins of sheep, deer, woodchucks, rabbits and goats. But the method is suitable for dressing the skins of all mammals, especially if you want to keep the fur. After such dressing, the skin becomes soft and easy to work with, for example, for making things that require cutting and sewing.

Sprinkle salt on raw skins

The raw skin, just removed from the carcass, must be cooled, after removing the remnants of meat and fat from its inside. For cooling, the skin is spread in the shade on an absolutely flat surface, for example, on a concrete or stone floor, with the wool down.

When you feel to the touch that the skin has cooled down, immediately pour edible non-iodized salt onto its inner side (mezdra). For the processing of sheep or deer skins, you will need from 1.5 to 2.5 kg of salt. If the skins are not salted immediately after skinning the carcasses, they will be lost. The process of decomposition will begin, and during further processing, the skins will lose their fur.

The skin should lie on a flat surface, its edges should not twist. When dragging the skin, do not stretch it. If part of the salt crumbles from the surface of the mezra, add it without sparing. Salt should absorb moisture so that the skin is completely dry and crispy. The process can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. A completely dried skin retains both its shape and quality well.

What is required for skinning

If you are ready to start dressing skins, prepare everything you need for this in advance:

26.5 liters of water,

1 kg (16 cups) bran flakes

16 cups regular non-iodized salt

2 large plastic tubs with a capacity of 114 liters and 1 lid,

1 wooden stick 1.2 m long for stirring the solution and turning the skins,

3.5 cups of car battery acid

2 packs of baking soda

Wooden lattice or flooring for stretching skins,

hoof oil,

Metal brush.

The indicated quantities are calculated for dressing four skins of large animals, or 10 rabbit skins, or 6 skins of medium-sized animals, for example, marmots. For dressing fewer skins, adjust the indicated numbers.

Skin dressing solution

A few hours before you plan to start dressing, dry skins should be immersed in fresh, clear water and soaked until they become elastic.

Boil 11.5 liters of water and pour it over the bran. After an hour, when the flakes are well steamed, throw them on a sieve to express the brownish infusion. Bring the remaining 15 liters of water to a boil. Pour 16 cups of salt into a plastic vat, cover with boiling water and stir well with a wooden stick until the salt is completely dissolved. Pour brownish infusion of bran into salt water and stir the resulting liquid.

When the liquid cools and becomes slightly warm, add car battery acid to it. Observe the precautions on the acid vial label when doing this. Wear old gloves and a long-sleeved shirt when handling acid. Pour the acid carefully, holding the vial just above the surface of the solution and avoid splashing. Stir the resulting mixture well.

Now you can start cleaning the dry mezdra. When dressing fresh skins, this procedure can be omitted. Immerse the skins in the solution and stir. The skins must be completely covered with liquid in order to be well saturated with it. In the solution, the skins must be kept for about 40 minutes, periodically stirring them with a stick for uniform soaking.

Fill the second plastic tub with clean warm water and proceed to wash the skins. Remove all the skins from the solution one by one using a wooden stick and place them in a container of clean water - you need to wash off the excess salt from the skins. In order for the skins to be washed better, they need to be stirred and patted with a stick for 5 minutes, and when the water becomes dirty, change it to clean.

Some people add baking soda to the rinse water to neutralize acid residue in the skin. This allows you to insure people with sensitive skin from possible irritation. But on the other hand, this neutralizes the acid that was used specifically to preserve the skin. Therefore, before pouring soda into a vat for washing dressed skins, decide for what purpose you will use them. If it is assumed that the skin or fur will come into contact with human skin, then you need to rinse it in water with soda. And if the skin is thrown on the floor like a carpet, or hung on the wall, then in my opinion, you can not add soda when rinsing.

Washed skins should be hung on a stable and strong crossbar so that water can drain from them. Then soak a sponge, rag or brush with the foot oil and apply the oil to the still wet skin. To do this, you will need 30 g of hoof oil. It is very quickly absorbed into the mezra, leaving only a slight oily coating.

Now the skin needs to be pulled over a wooden grate or flooring. When nailing the skin to the deck, gently stretch it out so that the skin is taut, but not too tight. Transfer the flooring with the skin stretched to the shade to dry.

Do not pour out the acidic solution left after dressing the skins without neutralization. To neutralize the acid, two packs of soda are enough. During the reaction, the solution will begin to foam strongly and release toxic gas. Therefore, it is better to do it in a room with good ventilation and stand away from the vat. On my small farm, I pour the neutralized solution into a roadside ditch and in this way destroy the weeds there. Do not pour the solution near the drain.

Skins during the drying period should be checked daily. When the core in the center feels dry, elastic and soft, remove the skin from the flooring, spread it with the fur down and go over the core with a metal brush. Thanks to this procedure, the skin becomes softer and lighter. Do not brush too hard or rub in any one area of ​​the skin. Just try to make the inside look like suede. After that, the skin needs to be hung for a couple of days for the final drying.

Last tip

As soon as your friends find out that you can make skins, be prepared for the fact that you will not end up with those who want to use your abilities. If you can't deny your friends this service, then at least don't do it for free. Industrial skinning costs between $25 and $45 a piece, and your service should be adequate even if the money you get is only enough for a case of beer. Otherwise, the hunters will drag you all their trophies, overwhelm you with work and deprive you of the opportunity to do other things.

It is possible that someone will use the services of professionals to find out what mistakes you made, or how much your service may result in. People value their own skins very much, and my warning will help you avoid misunderstandings and maintain good relations with friends.