Ok weathers shit and there’s no Uni homework time to do the write up hehe.

Our original skins had been left out of the freezers after a shuffle around so Ruru went out and shot a goat to get us started... Cheers

Along with this skin we had - 1 possum (Joey in the fluffy stage) skin, one cat and one rabbit skin. This provided the best range of skins to test.

Skins that weren't done straight away were frozen, no salt, folded skin to skin to prevent freezer burn.

Process that We Undertook:

*1. Skins were "fleshed" with a Leders fleshing knife, skins were draped over a rounded piece of wood to make this a hell of a lot easier. The skins were then washed in cold water with about a tablespoon of dishwashing liquid and a tablespoon or two of washing powder

*2. Skins were then given a healthy covering of salt then folded skin to skin on a 45 degree board, left overnight, wet salt scraped off and new salt added, folded and left over night again. (Used salt was kept to be dried and used again) Skins then weighed to determine the amount of tanning solution needed. (Weights worked out to be about 2,5kg for the goat skin, 500gm for rest) The skins were then washed in the same solution used to wash in previous steps.

*3. A tanning solution was mixed - for 3 KGs of skins - 250ml of tanning solution, 1kgs of salt in the solution, 17ltrs of water. Stirred to dissolve salt and mix solution.

*4. Skins were added to solution, stirred twice a day, once in the morning once at night. They were left for 5 days as the goat skin appeared to be cured through the thickness of the skin, rabbit, cat and possum were cured within 2-4days.

*5. Skins were then left to dry(used an old clothes horse for this purpose) until damp (but not wet or dry ready) for the leather conditioning oil at the required amount for the weight of the skin (I did this approximately) was about 250ml for the skins I had, this was spread with a brush quite thickly.

*6. Skins where then left to dry (warning this takes bloody ages in winter)

*7. Skins where then worked and broken this was done in two ways.
- First way (was used for all skins bar goat) skins were rubbed with a rough pumice stone until soft and suede-ish. -Warning do not be over zealous can wear through skin.

- Second way - used for the gat skin - A "hobby" rotary tool was used with a silicon carbide "bullet shaped bit" to abrade away the tough outer layer of the skin- this was the quickest way and proved to be quite safe the carbide (I think that’s what It was any way) tip didn't seem to abrade through the skin but removed the dark blue outer that appears to toughen the skins. Then the goat skin was worked with the pumice stone to soften.

- On all skins after drying etc there appeared to be a dark blue layer that was on the skins, when abraded and worked off the skins became softer - this didn't appear to be a membrane before putting into the solution but did when it came out. I doubt whether we could have removed this layer while fleshing.

The Rabbit, cat and possum skins came out very soft and suede-ish. The goat skin is still quite hard but is flexible and an ideal for a floor rug.

Side notes- Bulk salt can be purchased at RD1 or similar store approx $12 for 25kg. We purchased the commercial kit of Leders tanning kit for $146 ($155 Inc postage) which included 2.5L or tanning solution and 2.5L of Leather lube and also a "commercial fleshing knife". This could do up to 30kgs or 10 times the amount we have done- but can be stored indefinitely in concentrate. This was purchased from Hunting and Outdoor supplies http://www.outdoorsupplies.co.nz/


The finished product:
I think you can figure out which is goat/cat/rabbit/possum.










(743 words far out wordy bugger eh.)

Shoot one wallaby skin take to taxidermist pick up one ready to go rug.
14 words even better

Nice goat skin like the colour.

Prob a bit  thick here but did you salt them then use the fleshing knife to scrape the membrain off. as thats how i did mine.possum do not come out blue if the mix is a little bit weaker, takes an xtra 2 days to cure fully thoe. and comes out white i used a sanding disk orbital one on the electric drill to do my goat fellow skins when cured with the oil and dried. with thicker skins you need xtra xtra oil on the skins as they do tend to come out harder if not enough oil is used at the damp stage..
thank you for the post it brought back to good old days for me

i was wondering how you are supposed to know when the skin is done? and can you reuse the same mixture or do you have to make a new one?