The content of the article:
Many farmers think that dressing rabbit skins at home is a very complicated procedure. This is not so: fur dressing does not require much effort from you, but this process is stretched in time. For dressing skins takes 5 to 7 days, depending on the method of primary processing.
Read also the article: how delicious to cook a rabbit at home?
How to choose a rabbit skin for dressing
For dressing will suit a ten-month rabbit skin. Such an animal already has a formed fur cover. This allows you to remove from the dermis the remains of meat and fat, without damaging the rabbit fur. The process of primary skin processing is called skinning.
After the skin was removed from the carcass, it must be turned inside out and examined. If the masdra is blue, the rabbit was sent to the slaughter during molting.
When melting such skins, there is a risk of damaging the fur cover. It forms bald patches, which affects the quality and price of the finished material.
Smoothing rabbit skins
There are two methods of primary skin processing. In the first case the dressing begins 2 hours after slaughter. With this method, the skin and fur are dry, which facilitates fleshing.
The second method is the mashing after drying and soaking. With this processing technology, the skins are left for 24 hours in a room with an air temperature of 24 ° C. Then it is placed in warm water, the temperature of which is 35 ° C, for 24 hours.
If the fur is of good quality, then you can carry out the fleshing 2 hours after the slaughter, so you will save 48 hours. The dressing of rabbit skins using the second technology is used, if they are a lot of blue.
Use a kitchen knife or a hunting knife. It is not necessary to sharpen it, as it is easy to damage the dermis with a sharp knife.
Removing the remains of meat and fat is needed, starting with the rump and moving to the front of the skins. It is necessary to slightly cut the vein at the foot of the animal and remove the film from the dermis by hand, simultaneously cutting the meat with a knife.
Stages of pellet production
In addition to the primary processing, there are several stages of skinning:
- washing and degreasing of fur;
- picking;
- tanning;
- lifting;
- drying;
- softening;
- grinding.
After mashing, it is necessary to wash the fur and dermis in warm water at 38 ° C in order to dissolve the residues of fat. In 10 liters of water, add 10 grams of detergent and 10 g of dishwashing detergent.
Carry out manual washing if there are a lot of blue on the skins, or you have torn the dermis when mashing. You need to wash twice - in fur, and turning the skins inside out. After washing, the skins should creak, if this does not happen, you need to continue washing.
If the skins are of high quality, they are loaded into a washing machine for 30 minutes under the "Economy" mode with the spin function. After washing, you can start pickling the skins.
Pickling rabbit skins
Pickering is an important stage in the making. It is carried out for the disinfection of skins. To prepare a solution for a solution, you will need:
- 10 liters of warm water (38 ° C);
- 20 tablespoons of salt (50 g / l);
- 100 g of formic acid (10 g / l).
Formic acid does not leave a smell on the skins and does not have toxic fumes, unlike acetic or sulfuric acid.
Formic acid should be added in two stages: half in the preparation of the solution and half - after 2 hours after immersion of the pelts in the solution. Sulfur and acetic acid are added to the solution in one step.
In the solution, you can also add an antiseptic, for example, furatsilin, to prevent the formation of putrefactive bacteria. Skins are left in such a solution for a day, and then slightly washed. Pickering can be considered complete.
Preparation of tanning solution
To prepare a tanning solution in 10 liters of water, add 500 grams of salt and 30 g of chrome tan. Such a solution can be replaced with decoction of leaves of oak or walnut (250 g of leaves per 1 liter of water). The broth is cooled to a temperature of 38 ° C, salt is added and the skins are immersed in it.
To neutralize the acid, after 2 hours after immersing the pelts in a tannin solution, add baking soda into it in the proportion of 4 g / l.
After tanning, the skins are again washed and placed under a press for 24 hours. Then they are dried in a room for two days with fur outside, turn out and dry the dermis for three days. During the drying, the gray sections of the dermis are stretched by hand.
By the end of drying, the skin should be firm, like shoe leather.
Final stages of development
The next stage of dressing rabbit skins at home is softening. To do this, each skin is treated with a solution of glycerin and water, which is prepared in the following proportions:. After wetting, the dermis is kneaded in the palms.
To wet the dermis, use a spray gun, repeat the procedure every 30 minutes for -2 hours.
Dressing rabbit skins at home is a simple but lengthy process. The final stage of dressing is grinding. To do this, sandpaper passes through the sandpaper.
For bleaching and better removal of pellets, the skins can be sprinkled with chalk.
