Thoughts on tanning and a how-to

Still haven't found a good source for alum, to tan Spike's hide. It occurs to me that I live in the middle of a LOT of tanoaks, so called because of the tannin in their leaves and bark, so called because it was used...to tan hides. The trees are almost all suffering from the sudden oak death virus (worrisome because they aren't actually quercus oaks, which means the phage is jumping tree genera, which could mean even worse problems...) but, well, bits of tanoak are not exactly going to be hard to come by. Since I walk past about a hundred of them every morning.

I'd brain tain it, but that means you have to smoke it to fully cure it, which is a major PITA. Plus, I didn't save Spike's brain (every animal has just enough brain to tan its hide, the common wisdom has it) and trying to find a cow brain is probably at least as annoying as trying to find alum. I even found a tanoak recipie online. (disregard the bit about stripping the hair and fleshing, since this is a fur skin, and a bunny at that. On a bunny, you just flesh it while you're softening the hide. Bunnies are easy. Something like a raccoon is a lot harder).

http://mtmen.org/hist_text-arch4/msg00713.html

So I think I'm going the natural route, for Spike the Bunny. I will let you know how it goes.

And because I think everyone should at least have access to this information, here is the basic way to tan a skin:

1. skin your critter. Thank your critter.
2. salt flesh side thoroughly until you're ready to deal, unless you can go to step 3 immediately. Roll it up neatly or tack it flat.
3. prepare bath. Salt+acid. I like alum, but others include battery acid (yuck! I will never use this! Although it is supposedly really great for greasy hides like raccoon) and tanoak. Using brains is a little more complicated, but it is the original way and makes a hell of a nice leather. According to the link above, you can use teabags to do small pelts like squirrel. Use a plastic bucket; some metal reacts to some of the acids.
3. Leave it in there for at least a week. Stir occasionally.
4. Rinse the heck out of it. Ewww and wonder why you're doing this if necessary. Thank your critter again.
5. stretch pelt on a board (tack it down, don't let it dry with creases or your fur will slip there). At this point, if your fur slips, you didn't salt it soon enough, didn't salt it thoroughly enough or, possibly, left it in the bath too long. Let it dry until it is a stiff piece of rawhide with fur. If you have slippage, you can still make leather of it, just complete step 6 on both sides of the hide, removing all the fur. Note that it won't be as nice as if you deliberately slip the fur earlier in the process. (one way is letting the hide sit in water for a few days before the tan bath, then scrape the fur off. You do this with deer, for buckskin. Yes, it's gross).
6. Soften it. This is the obnoxious bit. A good edged rock, dull saw blade, dull knife or ulu or pumice stone work well. You want to be gentle with bunny or you'll put holes in it. Mess with the hide, rubbing it skin-side down over the implement of your choice ad nauseum until the thing magically becomes leather. Takes about 30-45 minutes for a bunny. A deer takes all day. I'm a lazy sod and take my deer and anything bigger to professionals. But bunny/possum/fox/raccoon if I'm really in the mood is doable.

I used to do this a lot. Not so much these days, but I'm feeling the need to do it again more, and Spike did have an amazing coat.

"I never thought I'd have a girlfriend who would show me how to skin rabbits."
---Lucy