![]() ![]() When your pelt is ready, the skin will be white. Microbial growth over time can change the pH of your solution. If you have a pH meter, keep an eye on the pH so it’s under 2.5. You can use a stick to mix, or be like me and just swish it around with the lid on. Once added, give this mixture a swirl every once in awhile to keep the anaerobes from growing in there. Wait for this mixture to cool before adding your pelts. Add your vinegar or citric acid (3 tablespoons of citric acid, or equal parts vinegar and water: 1 gal vinegar per 1 gallon of water). It doesn’t matter in which order you boil the water and add the salt just make sure your salt is pretty well dissolved. I’m not really exact in my measurements, but you’ll want maybe two gallons of water. In case you haven’t noticed, they’ve made the cans of salt smaller lately to keep the price the same. If you have the old 32 oz cans, you can pour half of it into a big pot of water. To make pickling solution, boil water with 1 lb of salt. I do it because it helps the follicles tighten around hair, like an astringent. the salt keeps the skin from swelling up too much in solution, and helps keep most of the germs at bay. First you cover the skin with salt, then you add salt to each of your acid solutions. Salt: it’s important that you have lots of salt. For pickling, go with straight white vinegar or citric acid.įor tanning, you’ll need something like alum (ammonium aluminum sulfate), aluminum sulfate, or even battery acid from the automotive store (30-40% sulfuric acid). One box of arm & hammer will do fine for a rabbit.Īcid: you want a nice low pH to pickle your pelts. You’ll want to keep on hand an acid neutralizer as well for neutralizing between steps, as well as in case of any spills or mishaps.īaking soda: this is your neutralizer. Before you do this, you’ll pickle it in acid as well. Your tanning solution will be an acid dunk. When you’re ready to tan, put it in a container of water and rub off some of the salt in the water. Use regular or fine grain salt, not rock salt. If you’re not going to be able to put it into solution right away, store it in the freezer to keep it free of any germs. Salt (and optionally sprinkle Borax on) the whole thing. Scrape off as much of the meat as you can. It only works on rabbits and not other critters in my experience. This is one of those “whoa” moments the first time you do it. Neat trick: you can gut a rabbit by squeezing everything out of its butthole.
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