More Than One Way to Skin a Rat 2: How to Tan in September.
As I'm sure all five of my regular readers recall, almost a month ago I posted a tutorial on how to skin a rat. With the onset of cooler weather, it's time to land the plane and post a tutorial on how to tan those pelts I'm sure each and every one of you have been keeping in your freezers ever since.
I hate to do it, but I must start by pimping a product...
I tried to find a free alternative to Dixitan, so I researched what they did back in the day. It turns out they used to make a paste with animal brains. Screw that. Dixitan is cheap. For about five dollars you get enough to tan a deer (roughly) and for those of us that don't need that much, don't worry, it keeps forever. It's actually nice to have around, as it produces that oaky smell we tend to associate with leather. Very soothing.
Woot! lets tan.
Before you start, learn from my mistake. Don't even attempt tanning unles it's in a relitively cool environment. I wasted a rat skin in the shed on some hot days because the shed is in the shade and I figured “meh, cool enough”. It came out looking like I did nothing at all. Dixietan comes with its own set of instructions but I’ll type here anyway. It suggests you salt your pelt for a few days, but it doesn’t matter if you work on a fresh pelt.
Putting it on ice counts as keeping it fresh, otherwise make sure the pelt is cooled down once you’ve finished fleshing, put it in the fridge for 10 minutes, this stops bacteria growing. Also, any fat and muscle left on a pelt that's been frozen for a few days is easier to remove, just be doubly careful not to cut thru your hide.
Mix up the powder with warm water to make a paste and flip your pelt over to apply the paste to the ears.
I didn't do this on the first hide I ever tanned (a mouse) and the ears came out like rawhide while the rest of it came out nice. Now I'm always sure to give the ears some extra love.
Put your pelt fur-side-down again and smear the paste onto the pelt with the back of the spoon or butter knife, put enough on to cover it thoroughly.
Leave this for 24 hours in a cool, dry, dark place. I use a waterproof container, under rags buried in the shed.
24 hours later…
Scrape of this and flip over the cardboard (the original side is somewhat soggy by now) put on another layer of paste. Don't forget to flip the pelt over and get the ears.
Leave this on for 3 days.
3 Days later...
Now here’s the hard work part again.
Scrape the paste off of the pelt.
Wash the pelt thoroughly; you’ll notice the pelt has a leathery texture already. Use shampoo on the fur if you like, I did :D. If you have access to a sink, consider yourself lucky. towel dry the pelt and rub some soap into the leather. Once this has soaked in, put some olive oil into it too. Mop up any excess. Now this is the most important part. As the leather is drying you need to keep that leather moving, it’s what makes the pelt supple. On anything bigger than a rat you'd be stretching it now, but rats and mice have thin skin as it is, and are easy to tear. if it dries stiff, just put some water back on it, to make it nice and supple, and rework the leather. Very important you give your all to this part. Keep moving it until it is dry, it doesn’t take long. You should now have a lovely supple pelt. Your leather may or may not turn white, mines a creamy brownie color but as long as it’s supple, you know you’ve done it all right.
And there you have it, your very own rat pelt.
Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, have fun tanning your first pelt, I know I did.
And if you were wondering about those mice I was tanning with Miranda, they came out beutifully.
