skoronesa

So, like I was totally stoked monday afternoon. This lady gave me a bag of 9 frozen rabbit furs!!!! She used to raise rabbits for meat and said that she has thrown out hundreds. She finally thought about tanning some, tried it with a kit and it came out bad so she gave up. She happen to have some in her freezer still. Totally made up for the kruddy morning and getting shocked. I put them in a bucket with what I hope is more than enough salt. I say hopefully because I finally got around to taking my second rabbit fur out of the brine bucket and there was no salt left. I don't remember hw much I had used but I tend to go way extra because I can reuse any that's left. There are a ton of squirrels around our house again, I just haven't had time to shoot and skin some. They are going crazy over the two black walnuts we have.

I use kiwi conditioning oil/grease. It made my work boots water proof up the 2nd row of laces for at least a couple months. Putting up with plumbing and heating work that says something about that stuff. They are suede and not smooth/polished so that's even more impressive. But they are also really well made military boots meant to endure any condition so yours might not fair as well if they are designed to be breathable for hiking.

Now I just have to finish tanning the other rabbit hide I have had in a brine bucket for like a month so I can make those mittens for my other son.

So, the squirrel and rabbit furs finally stopped smelling, I finally got some leather conditioner, and also finally got some motivation. I had a day alone with my youngest who this bag is for and he wanted to play marbles. How could I not finish it and get him his first set of marbles? We went to the store for marbles and the playground after I finished. We played marbles at the sand table and he was so happy to have them he told anyone that walked up about it, he's not even 3 yet. The bottom is a piece of 1/8" suede. The drawstring is some pretty week lace and will need to be replaced. I will most likely get another squirrel this fall and make the bag taller.

The shoulder pad on my rifle sling is squirrel I egg tanned. I have only egg tanned and have no brain tanned items to compare it to. The fur has stayed on fine. It is not pliable because I did not work it, Didn't need it to be for a sling pad. I got it soaked the other day going through the brush after a rainstorm, it is fine. It was tanned last fall. Also, don't leave the skins in the egg for 4 days, two is fine. I was being lazy and putting it off and it wreaked because of it. If you tan them you aren't making rawhide, you are making leather. You could heavily brine, salt and dry them. Then they would be rawhide and stable unless they got moisture and the salts came out. I think I remember reading that this is why chrome tanning isn't technically tanning, it's just the salts stay in really well.

Did you guys hear about the guy that wasn't sure if he was ready to be a father? He was having feelings of "inDADequacy". lolz

Bark maybe later. Brain is gross. Not so much the brain as cracking open the skull. Egg is fast. I don't know what brain would smell like, but I just opened the egg container and the wife was pissed when she came home Perhaps I let it sit a day or so too long.. lolliez. Skins got rinsed, wrung, and are salt drying again between stones. Next I will rubb them down with leather conditioner and begin making them into things. Rohn, Don't expect much. The squirrel marble pouch should be nice as I have made many but the mittens I am not sure.

Dude, that is like the epitome of satisfaction for a small project. You gave the customer exactly what they wanted, you easily made your vision accurately into reality, and you did it quickly. Great job, it looks really nice!

I shoot, skin, and egg tan squirrels and now a rabbit for their furs. Really hoping to get some chipmunks, a red squirrel, a black squirrel, and maybe a young woodchuck at some point too. After skinning I rinse and brine the pelts in a bucket with rock salt. I use cold/tepid water and add some citrus juice as our water is heavily alkaline, this helps to stop the hair falling out. 2 Days, agitating when I pass the bucket. Then I Rinse them well, wring them out, lay them flat on paper towels and heavily salt the inner with table salt and put some salt on the fur side. This then gets put between two patio slates to dry for about 2 days. In my current batch I am at the egg stage. I rinse the salt off, wring them out and rub them with whole egg yolks in a tupper ware containers. This gets put in the pantry/extra oven to soak up the egg, roughly 2 days or until it smells funky. Rubbing in the yolks frequently. My next step will be a light rinse and drying between paper towels and the stones again. Depending on what I choose to do with them I will work/stretch them to make them pliable and then apply kiwi leather preservative. The rabbit will be mittens for my middle son and the squirrel will be my youngest sons first marble bag.

I suppose I could make a drum out of one then.

I egg tan. -After skinning and getting off most of the fat I brine them for a day or two shaking the bucket whenever I walk by. It's in the porch so I guess like every 6 hours. I honestly just use sidewalk salt, like for the winter. The stuff I had this time was mostly nacl with some mgcl. Not sure how cacl would do and I wouldn't want to try kcl. -Then I wring them out, remove more of the gunk, cover them in table salt and wrap them in paper towels. I prefer table salt here because it is finer. -Change the paper towels after a day and make sure they have enough salt. -Then when they are good and dried out ensuring any breakdown has stopped I scrape them when they are dry. -Re-wet them and do a final scraping. -Wring them out and cover them in egg yolks which I also rub in. Put them in some tupper ware and leave it for about two more days rubbing in the yolks about every 12 hours or when ever I feel like it. I don't stretch my furs like most as I prefer a thick supple skin and fur mass instead of trying to maximize area. The only thing I need to worry about is our alkaline water from the lime but it's only an issue if I use warm water, the hair falls out. If you stick to chloride salts and your water is nuetral the ph should remain nuetral. This time I added some lime juice just to be safe as it is my first rabbit fur, usually I just get squirrels. I shoot woodchucks too but they have coarse fur, are kinda grody, and usually get roughed up so I don't keep the pelts.

I got two hind legs and a front from the rabbit. I actually cooked it like you would squirrel because I wanted to be sure it was fully cooked. My wife picked me some wild raspberries which I think really made the presentation and was a great fit. The seasoning is just some montreal steak seasoning.