For those who deal with rabbits for the sake of business, it will be very useful to know how to make skins do it yourself. After all, skins are also taken, which means obtaining additional profit. The cost of the skin depends on the breed of the rabbit, the most valuable is the fur of a black-brown rabbit, white giant, chinchilla, as well as a short-haired Rex rabbit. However, if the rabbit fur is good regardless of the breed, it must also be preserved.
To get the highest quality fur, you need to know a few rules. It is best to make skins of young animals at the age of 6-8 months, also mature individuals who have reached a weight of 3-5 kg are also suitable for this. It is best to slaughter from November to March, during this period the rabbits have the thickest fur and the molting period has not yet begun.
Before you start dressing, the skins need to be sorted by size and weight. This will allow you to accurately calculate the amount of solution for their processing.
Materials and tools for dressing skins:
- washing powder;
- water;
- a container for soaking hides;
- salt;
- antiseptics (sulfidine and formalin are suitable);
- It is advisable to make a decoction of oak, birch or willow leaves;
- deck for mezdreniya;
- Pickling ingredients (oatmeal or acetic acid).
Skinning process:
Step one. Soaking hides
After the skins are removed, they need to be removed from all the excess, it can be various contaminants and excess residues. After this, the skins are placed in water, its temperature should be 40 degrees. The amount of water should be in a ratio of 9: 1 to the total weight of the skins. To achieve a better effect, washing powder is added to the water at the rate of 1 teaspoon per liter of water.
As for the duration of soaking, here everything already depends on the quality of the starting material. If the skin is completely fresh, that is, it was removed recently, 3-4 hours are enough for soaking. If the skin was removed long ago, in addition to soaking it in water, it will still need to be soaked in a salt solution with a strength of 1.5 - 2%.Soaking in saline takes 10-12 hours, while the skins need to be stirred regularly.
Soaking is necessary in order to clean the skins from various kinds of contaminants. In addition, soaking allows you to make skins more elastic and durable. If the skins are soaked well enough, they will easily separate the subcutaneous fat layer. If this does not happen, the skins need to be soaked for several hours.
Among other things, when soaking it will not be superfluous to fight against various kinds of pathogenic bacteria. For these purposes, antiseptics are added to the water. The everywhere available sulfidine and formalin are well suited for these purposes. For each liter, put 1-2 tablets or 1 ml of antiseptic.
For the best effect, decoction of oak, birch and or willow is added to the water. If within 12 hours the skins are not soaked to the desired characteristics, the water is drained and poured fresh.
Step Two Coating and skinning
After the skins are soaked, they go to the machining stage. At the same time, subcutaneous tissue, adipose, and also the muscular layer are removed from them. In addition, in the process of coiling, the skin is stretched in the right directions, this increases the efficiency of the pickle solution. Before the skin, the skin must be carefully examined for the presence of foreign objects, it can be thorns or straw, they can easily break the skin and it will lose its value.
The skin is stretched on a special deck, which is installed at an angle of 45 degrees. First, the skin is fixed with the head to the master, and then the subcutaneous fat layer is removed from the center of the skin, first to the left and then to the right front paw. With this treatment, the skin stretches evenly, which improves the pickling process in the future.
There are several ways to hide skins. Most often, sharp scrapers, knives or a well-ground piece of braid is used for these purposes. There is still such a method of staining, which is called "whipping." In this case, subcutaneous adipose tissue is scraped from the skin with a blunt scraper. If you come across places where the film is not strongly connected with the dermis, it can be carefully removed by hand.
As regards the “cut-to-size” cure technology, all that is superfluous is cut off with a circular knife. But with such work, experience is needed, since it is possible to easily cut the hair follicles and the skin will be spoiled.
At the final stage, the skin is washed and degreased. For these purposes, you can use washing powders. Fairy dishwashing detergent is also great. Erase the skins to creak. Then they need to be squeezed out, squeezing with a fist, other methods can ruin the skin. And finally, the skins need to be wiped with a dry cloth.
Step Three Picking
At this stage, the skin is removed from the adhesive components, and also make it more durable and elastic. For pickling, the skins are fermented for several days in a special jelly, which is made from oatmeal. To make jelly, you will need 200 grams of oatmeal, a liter of water and a half tablespoon of yeast.
There is also a chemical method, it is simpler and better. For it, organic acid is needed, lactic, acetic or formic is suitable. For 1 kg of raw materials, at least 3 liters of solution will be needed. Skins should float freely in solution. The process takes from 6 to 24 hours. Then the skins are pulled and sent to the bed, it lasts 1-2 days.
Step Four Tanning hides
For tanning, a decoction of pine, oak or willow bark is used. It must be applied to the mazda until it stops absorbing it. In total, the skins are treated for a couple of days, applying a decoction 2-3 times every day.
At the final stage of processing, the skins are impregnated with a greasy solution so that they do not become brittle. For these purposes, suitable fish oil, glycerin, lard. Then the skins are rolled up and stopped for 12 hours for impregnation.In the end, the skins are dried when unfolded.