

- #ACID TANNING RABBIT HIDES HOW TO#
- #ACID TANNING RABBIT HIDES SKIN#
- #ACID TANNING RABBIT HIDES FULL#
The skins need to soak in the pickle solution for between 2-5 days, depending on their size and thickness. The closer to neutral that the solution gets, the more chances for bacterial growth, which will affect the quality of your finished hide. The pickle bath needs to stay at a pH lower than 3 while the skins are soaking.

Pickling also kills any remaining bacteria on the skins and helps to set the hair.Īcid pickle: 85g (3oz) citric acid 450g (1lb) salt per 4L (1 gallon) clean water* It helps to get rid of the unwanted protein in the animal skin, which helps the tanning chemical to better adhere to the skin. The acid pickle is a solution with a low pH (around 2-3 pH). **Please be careful to wear gloves and eye protection for the next two steps.** It shouldn’t take any more than about 24 hours for the skins to fully thaw. This will ensure that the they are completely covered in the solution as they defrost. If possible, you should return every few hours to stir the hides. Once you have mixed the ingredients above, place the hides into the solution and leave to soak. 20L of clean, fresh water 4 kg salt 1L Methylated spirits *enough for 2-3 deer skins Instead, prepare a brine solution to slowly defrost the hides:Īpprox.
#ACID TANNING RABBIT HIDES SKIN#
This allows unwanted bacteria to start growing on the skin and could cause hair slip on your finished hide (this is where the hair falls out in patches that have started to decay). You don’t want to do this by just taking the hides out of the freezer and leaving them somewhere to thaw. To start this process, you will need to first defrost the hide.

#ACID TANNING RABBIT HIDES FULL#
If you’re like us, you probably have a freezer full of untanned hides. Very few people begin the tanning process immediately after your hunt. We use a pressure washer to do this and it makes pretty short work of what is otherwise a messy and laborious task. Please note: this tutorial assumes that your animal skins have already been cleaned of all meat and flesh. While you can get some of it from the supermarket, like the citric acid, it gets quite expensive as they only sell very small jars. We have put together some simple FAQs about this process, and have also included links at the bottom of this tutorial for where you can purchase all of the ingredients you’ll need.
#ACID TANNING RABBIT HIDES HOW TO#
Here is our step-by-step guide on how to tan a hide at home. Although the methods and the chemicals may have changed, this is something that humans have been doing since the dawn of time. Tanning a deer hide is not an easy task – there are a few steps involved – but it is very rewarding to have put that time and effort in yourself, and to end up with a beautiful hide to display in your home. In this quick tutorial, we show you how to tan a hide at home. Whether it’s creating a tasty meal, tanning a hide, preparing our own euro mount trophies, or capturing the moment on video, we love making the most of our hunting lifestyle.
