Preserving hide?

[rg732122 0]

I recently came across a no longer living rabbit. I would like to preserve the hide to make strips. What is the process in doing so? Any help would be appreciated.

 

 

 

Thanks,

Nick

[fiShawn 0]

A good mixture of salt and 20 mule team borax is what I use unless you wish to tan it. you can find borax with the laundry detergents....works good for clothes too!

[tidewaterfly 0]

For strips it will need to be tanned, actually garment tanned. The process is expensive and the chemicals involved are nasty, so afterwards need to be disposed of properly. Wild rabbit is one of the most difficult hides to properly tan. It's hard to get good results since the skin is so thin. I've tried tanning Cottontail hides, and never got a single one to where I could use them for strips. I've tanned hundreds of hides of various types too. The rabbits just ended up as dubbing.

 

You may be better off just drying it & preserving it as fiShawn suggested, and using the fur for dubbing. You'll want to remove as much fat as you can from the hide, then clean it with a good degreasing dish detergent & warm water, rinse with cold water then dry the fur. Get as much water off as possible. Then stretch it out on a board, or a hide stretcher if you've case skinned it. If you put it on a board, start with the fur side out, so it dries. Then before the skin dries completely, turn it over & apply the salt/borax mixture. Put thin strips of wood or plastic (large soda straws work well) between the board & hide to allow air to get in there for better drying. In a warm, dry place it should dry in a couple of days. I always put hides in plastic bags & into the freezer for several days. This dries them further & makes sure there are no vermin left in the fur. A freezer is a good place for long term storage for hides & feathers as long as you keep them dry.

 

It's much easier to buy tanned rabbit hides & cut them into strips or just buy the packaged strips.

 

 

 

 

[rg732122 0]

Thanks for the advice. Its sitting frozen in the freezer until I figure out what to do with it. Just hated to see it go to waste on the side of the road.

[JSzymczyk 0]

For strips it will need to be tanned, actually garment tanned. The process is expensive and the chemicals involved are nasty, so afterwards need to be disposed of properly. Wild rabbit is one of the most difficult hides to properly tan. It's hard to get good results since the skin is so thin. I've tried tanning Cottontail hides, and never got a single one to where I could use them for strips. I've tanned hundreds of hides of various types too. The rabbits just ended up as dubbing.

 

You may be better off just drying it & preserving it as fiShawn suggested, and using the fur for dubbing. You'll want to remove as much fat as you can from the hide, then clean it with a good degreasing dish detergent & warm water, rinse with cold water then dry the fur. Get as much water off as possible. Then stretch it out on a board, or a hide stretcher if you've case skinned it. If you put it on a board, start with the fur side out, so it dries. Then before the skin dries completely, turn it over & apply the salt/borax mixture. Put thin strips of wood or plastic (large soda straws work well) between the board & hide to allow air to get in there for better drying. In a warm, dry place it should dry in a couple of days. I always put hides in plastic bags & into the freezer for several days. This dries them further & makes sure there are no vermin left in the fur. A freezer is a good place for long term storage for hides & feathers as long as you keep them dry.

 

It's much easier to buy tanned rabbit hides & cut them into strips or just buy the packaged strips.

 

+1. :thumbsup:

[Jeremy Parker 0]

I've had success with tanning rabbit hides for strips mitten liners etc.... this recipe is good because you can not overtan your product. You will have to work the hide afterwords but it does work

 

My recipe has no real nasty Chemicals !

 

5lbs sea salt

2lbs alum

10gal. rain water

 

warm the water to desolve the the salt, do the same for the alum. now combined it all and you have your Tanning Solution.

 

you will have to leave a rabbit hide for about 3 days in this solution then stretch it to dry and then work the hide over to soften it. It also works on other animals I've used this for deer, wolf, groundhog , squirrel and on and on!!!

(deer hide takes about 7days in solution)

 

Have fun with it I have!!!!!

[JSzymczyk 0]

please keep in mind that salt/alum is not a "true" tan, but it does good to preserve a hide if done right. Rabbit is a very thin hide which tears easily- VERY easily. I've still got a couple pieces of snowshoe hair from Maine and Alaska which I tanned and it was quite difficult to work with without tearing.

 

The best you can do at home is to get the chemicals from a place like Jonas Bros. Taxidermy. I have done a lot of hides at home with their stuff and had good results, able to make real garment quality furs but it takes a lot of work. Don't forget that a lot of the quality of the end-product depends on how the dead animal is processed, the sooner the better. Once hair-slip starts due to bacteria, it will never really be saved, although some processes will "tighten" the hair temporarily. OK getting off topic-- bottom line, like Tidewater said, it's so much less painful to just buy rabbit strips.

 

Definitely is possible to do at home. The first time you snag a heavy rabbit strip streamer and break it off, it will hurt a lot when you remember the hours of work you put into the hide!!

[Jeremy Parker 0]

please keep in mind that salt/alum is not a "true" tan, but it does good to preserve a hide if done right. Rabbit is a very thin hide which tears easily- VERY easily. I've still got a couple pieces of snowshoe hair from Maine and Alaska which I tanned and it was quite difficult to work with without tearing.

 

The best you can do at home is to get the chemicals from a place like Jonas Bros. Taxidermy. I have done a lot of hides at home with their stuff and had good results, able to make real garment quality furs but it takes a lot of work. Don't forget that a lot of the quality of the end-product depends on how the dead animal is processed, the sooner the better. Once hair-slip starts due to bacteria, it will never really be saved, although some processes will "tighten" the hair temporarily. OK getting off topic-- bottom line, like Tidewater said, it's so much less painful to just buy rabbit strips.

 

Definitely is possible to do at home. The first time you snag a heavy rabbit strip streamer and break it off, it will hurt a lot when you remember the hours of work you put into the hide!!

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: I have a deer skin jacket that is 20yrs(hand made by me!) old and I have quivers that were my fathers when he was a boy so 80yrs old that still are being used that used the not "true" as you call it recipe for a tan.

I also have many pairs of Moccassins and such I've made for people in my area for fun !

Funny used that recipe also again!!

 

So I will keep using my not so "true" tanning solution and not harming the enviroment in the process !!

[jdowney 0]

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: I have a deer skin jacket that is 20yrs(hand made by me!) old and I have quivers that were my fathers when he was a boy so 80yrs old that still are being used that used the not "true" as you call it recipe for a tan.

I also have many pairs of Moccassins and such I've made for people in my area for fun !

Funny used that recipe also again!!

 

So I will keep using my not so "true" tanning solution and not harming the enviroment in the process !!

 

Well, in all fairness, what he meant is that salt/alum/borax recipes are desiccants and do effectively preserve hides, especially in arid environments. True tanning involves changing the proteins in the skin and replacing the water with oil.

[Jeremy Parker 0]

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: I have a deer skin jacket that is 20yrs(hand made by me!) old and I have quivers that were my fathers when he was a boy so 80yrs old that still are being used that used the not "true" as you call it recipe for a tan.

I also have many pairs of Moccassins and such I've made for people in my area for fun !

Funny used that recipe also again!!

 

So I will keep using my not so "true" tanning solution and not harming the enviroment in the process !!

 

Well, in all fairness, what he meant is that salt/alum/borax recipes are desiccants and do effectively preserve hides, especially in arid environments. True tanning involves changing the proteins in the skin and replacing the water with oil.

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: what ever!!!!!!!!

[JSzymczyk 0]

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: I have a deer skin jacket that is 20yrs(hand made by me!) old and I have quivers that were my fathers when he was a boy so 80yrs old that still are being used that used the not "true" as you call it recipe for a tan.

I also have many pairs of Moccassins and such I've made for people in my area for fun !

Funny used that recipe also again!!

 

So I will keep using my not so "true" tanning solution and not harming the enviroment in the process !!

 

Well, in all fairness, what he meant is that salt/alum/borax recipes are desiccants and do effectively preserve hides, especially in arid environments. True tanning involves changing the proteins in the skin and replacing the water with oil.

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: what ever!!!!!!!!

 

very well put by JDowney. Different preservation methods for different uses.

[Jeremy Parker 0]

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: I have a deer skin jacket that is 20yrs(hand made by me!) old and I have quivers that were my fathers when he was a boy so 80yrs old that still are being used that used the not "true" as you call it recipe for a tan.

I also have many pairs of Moccassins and such I've made for people in my area for fun !

Funny used that recipe also again!!

 

So I will keep using my not so "true" tanning solution and not harming the enviroment in the process !!

 

Well, in all fairness, what he meant is that salt/alum/borax recipes are desiccants and do effectively preserve hides, especially in arid environments. True tanning involves changing the proteins in the skin and replacing the water with oil.

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: what ever!!!!!!!!

 

very well put by JDowney. Different preservation methods for different uses.

It works on rabbit, I have hundreds of strips and every color under the rainbow!

Just sharing what works for me! And the last word is? Have fun!!!

[swellcat 0]

I recently came across a no longer living rabbit. I would like to preserve the hide to make strips. What is the process in doing so? Any help would be appreciated.

Your effort is appreciated. You will have tying material there, regardless of how the preservation goes.

 

Here's a reference point for Indian/smoke/brain tanning which avoids the harsh chemicals: http://www.braintan.com/tanown/index.htm.

 

My newest acquisition is a possum pelt — North American (Didelphis virginiana) — and it is sexy as all get out. The animal was a road casualty, and his injuries rendered his brain unavailable for tanning, so I used an egg and some mayonnaise as the tanning fats. Preservation sequence was skin, salt, shampoo, "brain", smoke, soften. The pelt is cleaner than I am and smells of leather and barbecue sandwich.

 

The gentlemen are accurate in their warnings about rabbit hide thinness (which is also an issue for our possum), but what do you have to lose in trying? Scrape and soften gently. Worst case scenario is you'll learn something, plus have some great dubbing and tailing material.

 

Fwiw, I did have some very decent, usable braintanning results on a Kansas black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus Californicus) hide which has been used for Byford zonkers. The local white bass (Morone chrysops) and ambitious little longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis) can't seem to eat them fast enough.

[jdowney 0]

It works on rabbit, I have hundreds of strips and every color under the rainbow!

Just sharing what works for me! And the last word is? Have fun!!!

 

I'm curious how the preservation holds up after repeated immersions? I also preserve rooster necks and various small animal hides this way, but the skin itself is not used on my flies so there's no concern about water exposure. Out here in the high desert I get away with using nothing more than salt and a dry day.

 

One day I'll give brain tanning a try.... see if I can do it without quoting a zombie movie (braaaains.... braaaains.... )