How a raw or "green" skin is prepped 

How it's done Process A

  • Remove the skin from the carcass, split and turn the ears and lips (hard to explain what this means exactly), then remove all remaining meat from the hide. Using a flesher thin the hide if needed.Salt the skin side well using non-iodized product. Next hang skin side out on rack and let fluids drip out, the following day resalt and rehang until dried. (as long as the humidity stays low a salt dried cape will last for months even longer)

Process B

  • Rehydrate the salt dried-skin (you cannot put a salt-dried skin "straight in the pickle" without first rehydrating) Now that the natural moisture in the skin and blood have been removed. We can rehydrate the skin to allow the good fluids to penetrate the skin. COLD water & rehydrator is all you need for this step. We us Atesan LPW usually 12-16 hours to rehydrate the salt dried skin if only dried for a few days. Longer depending on how long the skin has been salt dried

Process C 

  • With the skin rehydrated return to flesher and remove any remaining flesh, thin skin and introduce to the pickle bath.
  • The pickle is a mixture of salt, acid and degreaser. Maintaining the PH at the proper level locks in the hair and rids the skin of the bacteria that causes slippage. After 3 days the PH stablizes. One additional thinning of the hide and one more day and the hide is ready for the next step

 Process D

  • Neutralize the skin after pickeling. A little salt and sodium bicarbonate plumps up the skin and gets it ready for the tanning process. The skin is "thirsty" and ready to obsorb the tanning oil

 

Finishing Process  E

  • Tanning oil- After skinning, salting, pickeling, neutralizing, with some fleshing, thinning, degreasing and deodorizing it's now ready for the brush on tanning oil. This is the process that turns the skin into leather. The oil penetrates for approx 18 hours. After that we wash do a final thinning if needed and shampoo. The skin is ready to be mounted or on a stretcher. All are blown dry to fluff up the hair and once dried air brushed to bring back the color lost along with any other finishing work.  - All skins are dried one at a time. We don't dry in a tumbler. It's done all by hand. This gives me the opportunity to inspect the hide very carefully.