The process of tanning hides using the pickling method involves the action of aqueous solutions of various acids on the skin. The skin of a degreased and soaked hide usually consists of many bundles of fibers that are tightly woven together. If you take a section of the skin of a skin that has been tanned and examine it with a microscope, you can see that these bundles are split into many thin individual fibers, and the higher the degree of looseness and softness of the leather tissue that makes up the skin, the higher the degree of splitting of these data bunches. A similar result can be achieved using a pickle solution, which at the same time removes excess substances from the hide that can glue the fibers together during subsequent drying.

There are many recipes by which pickle solutions can be made, but they all rely on the same principle of creation. Pickel is a solution of acid (one or a whole series) and table salt in different concentrations in water. If we consider inorganic acids, then hydrochloric or sulfuric acid is most often used to prepare pickel, and among organic acids, acetic acid is most often chosen, and a little less often - lactic and formic. Skins that are treated with these acids are able to retain their good properties for an extremely short time, since after the pickling process, acid remains in the thickness of the skin, which over time corrodes the inner core. The deterioration of the skin occurs especially intensively in conditions of too high air humidity. The strength of the skin gradually decreases, the degree of its elasticity and softness decreases. If strong inorganic acids were used, the color of the coat may even change - the hair gradually turns brown, becomes duller, as if burnt out, and the shine and natural beauty of the fur disappear. It is for this reason that after the pickling process using inorganic strong acids, a neutralization procedure is immediately carried out, however, it is almost impossible to completely neutralize all acid residues in the thickness of the skin.

Organic acids, in particular the most accessible of them, acetic acid, act much more gently and make it possible to obtain skins that have good elasticity, which will last for quite a long time.

Composition of acetic acid pickel: you need to take “glacial” (concentrated) acetic acid in an amount of 10-40 ml, a little table salt (35-45 g) and dissolve it in one liter of water. If it is not possible to get concentrated acid, then you can take food grade 70% acid (acetic essence) in an amount of 30-50 ml per liter of water.

The significant variation in the amount of acetic acid for preparing the solution is explained by the fact that the skins of different animals may require different concentrations of the solution for pickling. It depends on how dense and thick the leather tissue of the hide is. For example, to pickle the skins of gophers, hares and other animals that have loose, thin skin, you can use a solution with a low concentration - 10-15 ml per liter of water. For the skins of raccoon dogs, ferrets, jackals and other fur-bearing animals with medium-thick skin, as well as young deer and roe deer, you need to prepare a solution using about 20-30 ml of acetic acid per liter of water. If you are going to pickle the thick skin of a bear, wolf, wild boar, or elk, then you will have to prepare the most concentrated solution - it should contain at least 30-40 ml per liter of water. All volumes given refer to acetic acid with the highest concentration. If food grade acid is used, then you need to multiply all the numbers given by about 1.3 or 1.2. Small deviations in dosage are quite acceptable and will not have too strong an effect on the skin, slightly changing the time that the skin will need to spend in the pickle.

The entire pickling process should be carried out in plastic, enamel or wooden containers that are not prone to oxidation.

Washed and degreased skins should be immersed in a pickle at room temperature. The amount of solution should exceed the mass of paired skins by at least three times, that is, for one kilogram of skins you need to take at least three liters of solution, and preferably around five to seven. The skins should float freely in the solution. Pickling time usually ranges from five hours to four days, depending on how dense and thick the leather tissue is. If the skin of hares, gophers and other animals with loose, thin skin is processed, then 5-15 hours is usually sufficient. Skins of animals with skin of medium thickness, that is, jackals, raccoon dogs, roe deer, young deer, etc. require from 12 to 40 hours. For the thickest skins of bear, elk, wolf, and wild boar, the time can range from one and a half to four days. The readiness of the skin is recognized by the presence of a “dryer”. To check, the corner of the skin, folded in four layers with the flesh facing out, must be strongly compressed. If, after straightening the skin, a whitish cross remains at the point of compression and remains for at least half a minute - the so-called “drying mark”, then the skin is already ready and can be removed from the solution for further processing.

The skins removed from the pickel should be lightly squeezed and allowed to rest for 10-12 hours, folded skin to skin. During this period of time, the hides will be finally treated with residual acid, which will penetrate into the densest and thickest areas of the skin. After the curing process is completed, the skin can already be considered tanned.

Hare skins, on which subcutaneous films remained, muskrat skins, as well as skins of animals with dense thick skin (bear, elk, wolf, wild boar), in order to ensure complete processing, can be pickled using a stepwise method. To do this, the skins are first immersed in a fairly weak pickel (10 ml of acid and 40 g of salt per liter of water), after a few hours, acid is added to this solution, actively stirring it, 10 ml per liter of solution. After a few more hours, this procedure is repeated again and pickling is carried out until the skins are completely ready, that is, until a “drying” appears.

Skins with thick flesh can also be softened during stepwise pickling. To do this, a few hours after pickling, you can add fresh bread kvass to the solution in an amount of approximately 400 ml per kilogram of skins. The softening time should be about two hours, during which the skins need to be stirred. The further process is no different from the scheme described above. The result will be tanned hides that are lighter and significantly more elastic, although their area will be reduced by about 3-4%.

Well-defatted light skins with thin skin can be pickled using the spread method. To do this, you need to prepare a pickle of medium concentration and apply it using a bristle brush, a brush or a cloth swab, fold it tightly, skin to skin, in a stack or roll it into a roll, making sure that the skin and fur do not touch each other, and leave it like that for one and a half to two hours to lie down. This cycle needs to be repeated about two or three times, and then checked for the presence of “drying”. As soon as the “drying” appears, the skins should be left to sit for another 5-6 hours.

There are many ways to tan skins. The most accessible and proven ones will be presented here. The process of dressing skins takes place according to the following scheme: soaking - washing - fleshing and degreasing - pickling or pickling - tanning - drying - finishing.

Before dressing, inspect the skin; if the skin is contaminated with resin, remove it (resin) with alcohol.

Soak

The process of soaking skins processed using the fresh-dry method. Produced in a solution of table salt, concentration - 40 - 50 grams per liter of water. The amount of solution should be such that there is a layer of water 2 - 3 cm above the skin. To prevent microbes from developing in the solution, add an antiseptic - zinc chloride (2 g/l), formalin (0.5 - 1 ml/l) , 1 - 2 tablets of furatsilin. When soaking, you can add a little washing powder to the solution. If the skin does not get wet within 12 hours, the solution must be changed. Soak until the nose and paws are soft.

the washing up

Wash the leather in a warm (not hot) solution of washing powder. Some recipes recommend washing “until your hair squeaks.” When washing, it is necessary to rinse the skin of sand and remove the smell of dog from the fur. This is especially important for foxes and raccoons. When washing, the skin is partially degreased, so washing can be carried out after fleshing/degreasing. After washing, the skin is wrung out and the inside is wiped with a dry cloth.

Flesh

The skin is scraped with a blunt knife in the direction from the tail to the head, stretched onto the board. It is good to make a special convex board from a hardwood slab. The purpose of fleshing is to remove residual fat, film, and cuts of meat. If the initial processing was done well, then the skinning will be easier.

Pickling

This is a classic method of tanning hides, providing higher quality tanning and greater strength of the leather. The disadvantages are the processing time and the unpleasant odor. The recipe is as follows: 200 g of wholemeal oatmeal or rye flour is stirred in 1 liter. hot water, add 20 - 30 g of salt and 7 g of yeast, 0.5 g of soda. When the solution has cooled, immerse the skin in it. The duration of fermentation is 2 days. The solution must be stirred periodically so that a film does not form on top and the solution does not rot.

Pickling (acid treatment)

used instead of fermentation. Pickel composition (per 1 liter of solution): 60 ml of 70% acetic acid, 30 g of salt. You will get a strong pickel (4.2%). Stronger pickel destroys the skin, so it is better to make 3% pickel - 43 ml of 70% vinegar essence per liter of water. Salt is required. You can use sulfuric acid (2.5 - 5 g/l), but mineral acids reduce the strength of the product. Pickling lasts from several hours to two days, depending on the thickness of the skin, the quality of degreasing, etc., and it is better to under-expose the skin than to over-expose the skin in the pickle. The end of pickling is determined by the “drying” and “pinch” test. The “drying” test is done like this: the skin is taken out of the solution, near the groin it is bent in four with the flesh facing up, the corner is pressed tightly and a fingernail is drawn along the fold. If the skin is ripe, a white stripe will remain on the fold for some time - a “dryer”. The “pinch” test is simpler: hairs are plucked out in the groin area; if this is done easily, the skin is ready. Another sign of ripeness of the skin is that the inner layer of skin can be easily separated with your fingers. After pickling is completed, the skin is lightly wrung out, folded in half with the fur facing up and placed under a small weight. The stay lasts 10 - 12 hours. Since acid remains on the skin, the skin is placed in a solution of baking soda 1-1.5 g/l for 20 minutes.

After pickling, the skin is dried on a straightener. First they dry with the flesh side up, then with the fur side up. Remove excess solution with a rag; when drying, straighten the fur by shaking the skin. Finally, dry it with the inside side up, but if it’s too dry and you can’t turn the skin out, don’t break it, leave it like that, you’ll still get the skin wet anyway. Or you may not dry it completely.

Tanning

performed in a solution of chrome alum (potassium alum can only be used in a mixture with chrome alum), 2 - 3% carbolic acid, or in a decoction of oak or willow bark. You can use a decoction of willow bark, since alum must be obtained, phenol (carbolic acid) smells unpleasant and is harmful, oak makes the skins too rough, and willow is always at hand and colors the skin a pleasant creamy color. The recipe is as follows: you will need bark from willow trees that have fluffy leaves. Suitable and willow. Fill the pan with bark (tightly, but not tamping). Fill with water and boil for half an hour, then drain the solution, add 30 - 50 g of salt per 1 liter, and cool. Instead of soaking the skin, you can soak the inside, repeatedly applying the solution with a brush. The skin should be soaked in tanning agent. After this, the skin is folded with the flesh inward and left to cure for a day.

The skin is then dried

This is where we need to work. The skin will have to be dried almost by hand. As the skin dries, it is removed from the straightener, crumpled, and stretched in different directions. You need to catch the moment when the skin is semi-dry; when stretched, it will turn white and become “suede-like” to the touch. The paws and muzzle are stretched across. After drying, the core can be carefully treated with sandpaper. Now the skin has become soft.

To increase its water resistance and softness, fattening is performed. You can soak the skin with a 1:1 mixture of glycerin and egg yolk, or with this solution: dissolve 50 g of soap in 0.5 liters of boiling water and add 0.5 kg of fat (pork, fish, etc.), add 10 g of ammonia alcohol You can replace part of the fat with glycerin, part with yolk, and a small part with machine oil (up to 5%). Lubricate the inside with the mixture and let it sit for several hours. Then the skin is dried, kneaded, the fur is combed, the inside can be rubbed with chalk, it will absorb excess fat and the inside will be light. Thick areas can be rubbed with sandpaper, but don’t get carried away! This is where the torment ends, the skin is ready.

In order for the fur to be good, the skin of a fur-bearing animal must be deadened (faded, with white flesh), obtained during the hunting season, properly removed, degreased and dried. This is a prerequisite for obtaining high-quality fur.
For homemade dressing you need: vinegar essence, table salt, laundry soap or better washing powder “Novost”, wooden standard rules of the required sizes, hyposulfite, bark or roots of tanning plants, fish or seal oil, ammonia, brush, pumice, knife, glass jars with lids, tablespoon.
Sequence and features of operations.

1 Soaking.

Dry skins are immersed in a salt solution (4 level tablespoons of salt per 1 liter of water). The temperature of the solution is room temperature, about 18-20° C, but not more than 25° C, since at high temperatures the hair may grow (“leak”). The liquid ratio (the ratio of the weight of dry skins to the weight of the salt solution) is 1:10. The holding time of the skins in the solution is 12 (up to 24) hours. The soaked skins must be turned inside out and squeezed carefully by hand. If the skins are freshly removed, soaking is not performed.

2 Mechanical degreasing, fleshing

removing from the flesh with a blunt knife movements from the rump (rear) to the head of previously unremoved pieces of fat, muscles, films. This work can be done on a good wooden straightener or on the thigh, placing an oilcloth under the skin. If the skin is clean, the operation is excluded.

3 Degreasing and washing hair and flesh

in a solution of laundry soap (foam) or “Novost” washing powder (other washing powders are not recommended). Dissolve the soap in warm water, as for washing your hair, beat the foam, cool the solution to room temperature 18-20°C (no more than 25°C). If “News” is used, then take 5 g of powder per 1 liter (1 tablespoon per 4 liters) of water.
Place the skins in the solution for 20 minutes, lightly knead them with your hands (wash them), turning them with the fur in and out. Then rinse in clean cold water, wring out by hand, and turn fur inside out. A small amount of hair in soapy water should not be a concern.

4 Dressing of skins by pickling

Pickel: 2 full tablespoons of vinegar essence and 4 tablespoons of salt (without top) per 1 liter of water. Pickel temperature is 18-20°C (no more than 25°C!). Liquid ratio 1:10, same as soaking. The skins are immersed in a pickel with the inside out: thin skins (hare, rabbit, juvenile muskrat) - for 3 hours, medium thickness (large fingerlings of muskrat, young sable, squirrels) - for 6 hours, normal thickness and thick (adult sables and muskrats, fox ) - for 12 hours. Cover the jar with the contents with a lid to prevent the smell of vinegar. If the skins are different or you are not sure of the correct determination of the thickness of the skins, it is better to underexpose them in the pickle than to overexpose them. From time to time the solution is stirred with a stick or spoon. After the pickling time has passed, the skins are taken out, squeezed out by hand, folded in half or in thirds, skin to skin, in a stack like pancakes, and laid to rest under pressure (weight). Keep under pressure for half the pickling time (thin skins - 1.5 hours, medium - 3 hours, normal and thick - 6 hours).

5 Drying the skins

carried out at room temperature, away from heating devices, on straighteners with the fur inward), and then kneaded. It is better to start kneading the wet (slightly damp) and still soft skins. They are removed from the rules and wrinkled slightly, just like washing a handkerchief. Sip lightly along and across, not forgetting the edge parts (at the rump, head, paws). Put the skin back on the straightener and knead it as it dries. The last operation is convenient to carry out in front of the TV: you watch the news or another program and gradually knead all the skins. If the dry skin after kneading becomes soft, fluffy, pleasant, then it is dressed and ready for subsequent operations. If the entire skin or its individual parts remain hard, then such unfinished skin is again placed on a straightener with the flesh outward and the unfinished areas are smeared with a brush with the same pickle in which it was tanned, or prepared fresh (1 full tablespoon of vinegar essence and 2 tablespoons of salt per 0.5 liters of water). Soak all unfinished areas with the solution: the less they are treated, the more. Dry again on a straightener and peel off the skin. Those places where the skin is thick, where there are films, or where it has become worse, are wiped with a pumice stone, removing the thin top layer of flesh, or scraped with a blunt knife from head to tail. Repeat this process until each skin is soft and fluffy. To consolidate the achieved quality of fur and increase its durability, the skins tanned with pickle and kneading are neutralized, washed again in soap suds or “Novosti”, tanned, fattened, finally kneaded and wiped with pumice.

6 Neutralization

The skins are immersed for 1.5-2 hours in a hyposulfite solution (sold in pharmacies or photo stores): 50 g of hyposulfite (one heaped tablespoon) and 30 g of salt (1 heaped tablespoon) per 1 liter of water. The solution temperature is 18-20° C (no more than 25° C!).

7 Rinse

skins in cold water, wash them in “News” or in soap suds (as in point 3), but only faster, for 3-5 minutes, rinse again in cold water, wring out and pull the skin outwards onto straighteners, dry and knead in room conditions (as in point 5).

8 Tanning

a very responsible operation. Untanned skins lose strength faster when exposed to moisture, tear and crumble. Over-tanned skins become tough, like soles. Therefore, it is better to carry out the tanning weakly - by spreading the flesh on a straightening brush with an aqueous extract of any one common tanning agent. To do this, pour a half-liter jar of crushed dry bergenia roots or oak bark (sold in pharmacies) or willow bark with two jars of water, bring to a boil, boil for 10-15 minutes, then leave for a day. The broth is filtered through cheesecloth. Using a cold decoction, use a brush to evenly moisten each skin from the inner side, then they are dried again on straighteners. As the skins dry, knead them (as in step 5).

9 Zhirka

increases the softness and elasticity of the skin. 50 g of soap is diluted in 0.3 liters of warm water, 50 g of fish (or seal) oil and 10 drops of ammonia are added. Everything is mixed well, water is added up to 0.5 liters, cooled to room temperature 18-20 ° C. The skin of the skin stretched on a straightening brush is evenly moistened with the fat emulsion so as not to contaminate the fur. Then the skins are dried on straighteners at room temperature. If the hair gets dirty, wipe it with a cotton swab soaked in gasoline.

10 Final kneading

and finishing the inside of the skins with pumice is done as in point 5. Then they are pulled in different directions. Each skin is turned fur-side out and shaken several times, holding the head and hind legs. The skins are ready. You can use them to cut and sew fur products.
The eyes admire the clean, shiny, fluffy, soft, elastic fur; it is pleasant to lean your cheek against it. The soul rejoices in the beauty created by nature and its own labors.

Siberian fishery" No. 1 1996

Information provided

09.09.2013 | An old recipe for tanning hides: How to tan a hide

Recipe for tanning hides: How to tan a hide

Many hunters, having obtained a trophy, think about preserving it in the form of a skin. However, not everyone knows the recipe for tanning skins and often wonders: how to tan a skin so that it is beautiful to look at and pleasant to the touch? Carefully read the old simple recipe for dressing skins and your trophies will delight you for a long time.

The dressing of the skin begins with soaking

Very strongly salted and dried skin is first soaked and rinsed. Then they put the soaking solution into the solution. The skin should float freely during soaking in water, and a 4-6 centimeter layer of liquid is needed above it. The volume of water used for soaking needs to be measured, because... exactly the same amount of solutions will be required for future processes:

• pickling (fermentation);
• tanning

The skin contains a lot of bacteria, which multiply at a tremendous speed in the solution. To destroy them, antiseptics are introduced into the soaking solution.

Recipe for soaking solution for tanning hides

To 1 liter of water add 40-50 g of table salt (a tablespoon), 0.5-1 ml of formalin or 1-2 tablets of sulfidine (norsulfazole, furatsilin or tetracycline). You can additionally add a decoction of oak, willow, birch or eucalyptus leaves to the water (0.5 liters of decoction per 10 liters of water).

Usually the skin soaks (becomes like a steam room) within 12 hours. If this does not happen, it is put back into a fresh solution.

The next stage of skin dressing is fleshing

The recipe for dressing skins recommends turning the hair inside out and putting it on a wooden block (a board, a smooth log, a conical frame of thick poles) and scraping the skin with a blunt knife (the back of a hacksaw blade or a steel brush), removing the remaining meat, fat and removing films. The direction of movement of the scraper is from the tail to the head, when fleshing the side parts - from the ridge to the stomach. The skin is pulled tightly without folds, but without stretching too much. If any skin is clearly oily, then after fleshing it can be washed in a good powder or a soapy solution of laundry soap. Do not rub the skin with soap so that there are no undissolved pieces of soap left. After washing, rinse thoroughly and rinse the flesh and fur with clean water.

The next stage of skinning is fermentation.

(classical method of dressing), which was previously used for all types of fur raw materials.

Recipe for fermentation solution for tanning hides

The fermenting solution is prepared in a glass or enamel container. For each liter of hot water:

• stir 200 g (faceted glass) of coarse rye or oatmeal;
• 20-30 g of table salt (less than a teaspoon);
• 0.5 g of baking soda (on the tip of a knife);
• when the solution has cooled to 28-30 degrees, 7 g of yeast (steamed as for yeast dough).

After preparation, place the fermenting solution in a warm place. It’s good to make kvass in advance, at least a day in advance, so that it “ferments.” This is determined by the bubbles of released air.

According to the dressing recipe, the skin is immersed in a cooled solution for about 2 days. For 1 kilogram of paired skins, 3 liters of fermenting solution are required. The skins must be turned over more often, and the kvass must be stirred so that a film does not form on its surface and it does not rot.

The fermentation (pickling) process can last from 5 hours to 4 days and depends on the quality of the raw materials, room temperature, age of the animal, its gender, disinfection conditions, etc. The warmer the kvass, the faster the fermentation occurs. But you can’t heat it above 38 degrees. The yeast fungus dies.

To determine the end of the process, the skins need to be kneaded a little while stirring in the solution and tested by drying or pinching.

The removed skin needs to be bent four times near the groin with the flesh up (into the pig's ear), squeeze the corner tightly, run your fingernail along the rib and release. If a white stripe (drying line) remains at the site of the scratch and gradually disappears, the skin is ready. For the same purpose, you can try plucking: pluck out the hairs in the groin area and, if this can be done without much effort (with a slight crackle), it’s time to end the fermentation (pickling). Each skin has its own time. It is better to under-expose the skin in the solution than to over-expose it. We can say that in an overexposed skin (in the groin area), the fur comes out rather than being pulled out. But if you’ve brought it to this state, don’t throw it away. The dorsal part, as a rule, is preserved, but the next stage needs to be reduced by 3-4 times.

The next operation of skinning is curing

The skins ripened in pickel (kvass) are lightly squeezed, stacked with the hair up, covered with thick plywood or a board, and a load (for example, a bucket of water) is placed on top. The laying lasts a day or two, during which time the skin ripens. The main thing during curing is to squeeze out excess moisture from the skin, and the moisture that remains in it with the pickle is what brings it to condition. If there is only one skin, then simply fold it in half.

• After curing, you need to remove any remaining acid from the hair that may interfere with subsequent processes. Therefore, it is then neutralized within 20-60 minutes:
• or baking soda solution - 1-1.5 g/l

or hyposulfite solution - 10 g/l (in b/w photography it is used as a fixative).

After neutralization, it is better to rinse the skins with clean water.

The next operation of skin dressing is tanning.

To prepare the decoction, place the bark along with small twigs in a bowl without compacting, add water and boil for half an hour. Drain the broth, add 50-60 g of table salt per 1 liter of solution and cool to room temperature.

The tanning agent is prepared in advance and the skin is kept in it for 12 hours to 4 days. Its quality can be improved by adding 2-2.5 liters of horse sorrel root decoction, prepared in the same way as described above, to 10 liters of willow decoction.

Overexposure during tanning is undesirable, and therefore its completion is determined as follows (in the groin area): lightly squeezing (pulling a section of the groin area between the fingers), cut off a small piece of skin or make an incision. And on the cut, under a magnifying glass, they examine how deeply the tanning agent (yellow) has penetrated into the skin. The process is completed when it is completely impregnated.

The last stage of skinning is fatliquoring.

According to all recipes for tanning skins, fatliquoring must be done, because it makes the skin softer and increases its water resistance.

The fat emulsion recipe for finishing the tanning of hides can be done in the following ways:

• mix and then beat glycerin and egg yolk well (1:1);
• dissolve 50 g of soap in 0.5 liters of boiling water and, stirring, pour in 0.5 liters of animal or fish oil, stir and add 5-10 ml of ammonia.

The emulsion is applied to the flesh with a brush or swab. Then the skins are laid out for 3-4 hours, folded in half, skin to skin or hair side up on some surface. It is advisable not to stain the fur so as not to clean it later. After this, they are hung and dried at room temperature.

As the skins begin to dry out, they need to be kneaded and stretched in different directions. After complete drying, they need to be thoroughly washed. Then the hair is combed, and the inside is rubbed with chalk or tooth powder (they absorb excess fat and give it a pleasant white color) and treated with sandpaper. Finally, the skin is beaten out, dominated and the hair is finally combed.

This is a simple old Siberian technology for dressing skins, this recipe for dressing skins will be useful to every hunter. I have processed the skins of muskrats, martens, foxes and rabbits using this method. The quality is very high, and the skins are strong and durable. Hares need to be driven away very quickly. Too thin.

Gennady Bannikov (G.)