pickling musk uneven results

I picked up 5 dryed not tanned muskrats in Alaska fur ronde

I hydrated them in salt but I added some dawn to try and degrease them.

I put them in a 2 gallon bucket with a gallon of safety acid.

The ph jumped to 4 so I added more acid. After three days the skins were uneven so I took them out and rinsed them in water. I them put them in a new batch of acid.

After three days I am still having uneven results.

The PH has been at 1 and stable.

Some areas are white and some are still grey. Some are red. (I assume it is blood I should have gotten off before the pickle)

I am trying to add some pictures.

I am still in Alaska and the nights are getting down to 55 or 56 so that may be impacting things.









Any recommendation would be appreciated.

I am continuing to stir them daily.

When the pickle is finished, I will neutralize them and then put them in ez 100 to tan them.

 

just saw that I have two copies of the same picture.

 

I soaked them in salt water until they were soft. (or at least Ithought that they were) I then put them in pickle and they have been in pickle for about a week.

Several sites, recommended dawn for light degreasing. I kn ow that thney also use it to clean birds in oil spills. so I thought that it could help cleaning the muskrat.

It is possible that I did not hydrate them enough.

so if they were not fully hydrated when I started the pickle, is there anything I can do to save them at this point?

 

If they are grease burned. What fo i dogrim here?

Do i neutralize them then degrease them or judt degrease them rinse and back to pickle.

 

I did not have that degreaser, but my son in law has a business that has a good degreaser thatg is really good at organics. I used some of it, (because I had it and I wanted to get it before I lost my window) I know it wold take a few days to get the real stuff, and thiught athat I would give this a try.

It is a specialty degreaser for cleaning floors before they do a special coating on them. It is very good at organics, it will handle cleaning floors in kitchens at restaurants before they apply a non slip treatment. It has instructions for degreasing motor blocks at a 1:1 and greasy floors at a 12:1. Since the skins were already wet, I used it straight, knowing that it would get diluted from the pickle left in the skins anyhow.




Anyhow I degreased them for a few hours (I pt them in before I want to a DR visit. When I got back hecked the PH and it was at a 6. So I rinsed them well in running water and then made a .small batch of safety acid, to bring the PH back down. I then put them back in the safety acid and salt and checked the PH, it was at 1. I checked again in half an hour and it had not changed.

That was yesterday.

Today I checked them and they are progressing much better. The white color is spreading and getting much more even. So oit looks like they were grease blocked.

I will continue to check the progress, and agitatethem over the next few days. I plan to will continue the pickle and neutralize them this weekend ang get them into ez 100.



I have been reading and as I understand it the goal of the neutralizing is to get the outside at about a 4, but keep the inside of the skin at a lower ph.v(The tanning solution is drawn to the lower PH first and will tann from the inside out. (as I understand it)

Since these are muskrat and pretty thin I was thinking of neutralizing the m or only 5 minutes instead of 20.

Am I guessing right on this, or should I let them neutralize for 20?

I already mixed a gallon of water and a table spoon of baking soda. The PH is at a 6, but I am sure it will come down some when I add the wet skins from the pickle.

I will check the PH before I transfer them to the ez 100 and adjust it to 4.0 as needed.

Again yhanks for the recommendations.

When I was cleaning gthem from he degreaser, there was no hair slipping, so I guess that I have not done any damage yet.

Thanks again for the quick replies.

If I had quick access to the degreaser mentioned I would have used it, but it would have taken a few days to get it delivered to me, so I thought I would try what I had access to.

 

I am using ez 100. From the process I have read, the ez 100 is processed at 4, so it calls for netralizing the skins to 4 before you put it in ez 100.

 

The degrease helped some. But did not solve it. If i use the bras brush do i do that now and continue to pickle? I asune so.

I have had it in pickle about 9 days so i think i have some time to get a brass brush and try it. I wish i had seen the post earlier i was just at a shop that has tools and i saw some brass wirebrushes there.

 

I found a small fine wire brush in a dremal kit (I DID NOT USE THE DREMAL) I am pretty sure it is stainless. So I tried it on the skins. I ended breaking up a thin layer that was easier to break up in the grey areas. It reminded me of the layer that you pull from the back of ribs. I was able to remove a lot of it, but I did at least break it up over the enire skin and put them back in the pickle. My PH is still stable at between 1 and 2.

I would like to start the ez tan tonight, just becasuse of the scheduling of things. I wanted to be free to oil them and start drying this weekend. BUT if it looks like they are pickelng better (that is turning the white color, I will let them go a few more days)

I plan to use them to line gloves, so I am not really worried about the skin side to much. But I would like them to last a while.

 

Sorry if that was confusing

I used the correct acid ratio i forget but about 1/2 oz to a gallon and salt

I did overtan them

They were very greasy and ended up pretty thin

But i got there and have enough to try my hand at gloves

I am going to waterproof them first and see howit goes

I need some more leather for the shell but it will happen some day