Salted rabbit hides won't dry

Submitted by Katherine on 11/20/05 at 5:13 PM. ( gonfishing121@yahoo.com ) 172.185.212.230

I have 8 rabbit hides that I am trying to salt dry so I can work on them one at a time. I am currently working on 4 hides that I froze and I don't like the results and don't want to have so many hides at once. I salted drained salted drained and then layed them out to dry after three days they didn't dry so I have hung them from a clothes line to spped the drying process. Every thing I read say dry cool area to dry. I have then ina pole garage that has no door. Am I using too cool of an area? what Temp would the Ideal place be? I want to get the rabbit hides down so I can then work on sheepskins. And Yes I have an EZ100 tanning kit to use on the new hides.

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why not freeze them

This response submitted by ryan on 11/20/05 at 8:24 PM. ( ) 67.136.217.231

why not freeze them until you are ready to tan, I think this is better than salting. If you are ready to tan, you don't actually have to dry the skins out before tanning. Just salt them for 12-24 hours, shake off excess salt and throw them in the pickle.


Hi Katherine

This response submitted by Dan on 11/20/05 at 10:10 PM. ( ) 205.188.116.196

If you're hanging the hides in a shed with no door the salt is probably just absorbing humidity from the air outside. Ryan is right...rabbit skins are so thin that they don't really need to be dried out anyway. They will pickle very fast and tan the same.


salt

This response submitted by newbirdman on 11/21/05 at 5:56 AM. ( ) 205.188.116.196

Did you leave them in the salt long enough so they absorb the salt ? I leave all my skins in salt for about 4 -5 days . Rick


rain

This response submitted by TD on 11/21/05 at 10:16 AM. ( ) 68.68.81.61

they wont dry if it,s raining and humid unless u put in a room with a fan to circulate the air.....GL


freezing rabbit

This response submitted by katherine on 11/21/05 at 5:50 PM. ( ) 172.185.209.45

It was raining here when I started. but it has been dry since I hung the hides. I salted for two days then resalted and drained for another two days. When I was working on the hides that I froze this summer. the hair started to come off when I was washing off the pickle, Thats when I decided to try drying first. Also two pigs two lamb and a beef is going to fill all my freezers. BEsides I like the way the membrain is showing up so well on the dry it should help with the scaping before pickling. and I need to know How to dry so I can do the beef skins and the lamb skins and hopefull a deer or elk if hubby or daughter have any luck.


im new at this

This response submitted by Jon on 12/1/05 at 9:39 PM. ( ) 12.217.173.31

whats up i just started tanning and i am starting on rabbits and i need to find out exactly how to do it and the easiest way so can you help me


jon


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