Tanning rabbit hides

Tyler15

Tyler15

New member
Although hunting is one of my favorite hobbies, fly fishing is my #1 and I recently got into tying flies. Im sure you guys know that a lot of game species are used to create a lot of different types of flies.

What I am getting at as is I would like to be able to use some of the rabbit and squirrel hides I get while hunting for tying flies. I just dont know how to tan the hides so they are usable. Ive looked online for information about tanning and just havent come up with much.

Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Tyler
 
I'm drying out a rabbit hide I got yesterday just stretching with salt.

Some huge jackrabbits would really be worth tanning.

I always get lazy when I skin them and just rip it off.
 
You can dry them with salt, as mentioned before......you can also tan them with ALUM (should be able to find at a drugstore) I can't remember the process, but the net should be able to help....basically, you mix the alum with water and soak the hide for several days (better look up the process though)....makes a nice soft hide.
 
there is no need to tan them if your useing them for fly tying,
tanning makes leather and secures the hair,unless you want to wear the skins save your time and money.
all i do with muskrat,rabbit,squirrel pheasant necks is skin them out,i take pins and use some styrofoam panel stuff or even a cheap foam cooler would work,and put them fur down,pin them down stretching them a little and then let them dry.when they dry i pout them in ziploc bags to keep bugs out.
i just gave away my entire fly tying stuff of 15 years ofstocking up on stuff.was abouta grand worth of stuff with the hackles,hooks,possums,badgers,etc.
it worked fine for me
 
just natrual--nothing added.when they were done drying i would use a razorknife and (fur side down)cut them into 1x1" squares and keep them in ziplock bags or small coffee cans.salting will get into the fur and when ya picnch off some to tye down lumps may be there.
i also would lay the face(mask)fur down and lay a heavy screen right onto it to dry.
for beaching the fur i used pretty powerful hydrogen poryxide---i got it from a womans beauty salon.2 tablespoons of 21% hp would bleach without burning the fur in about a 2 minute dip/then rinse and then ya need to re-dry the fur again.i used rite dyes to color them what i wanted
 
Try some borax to dry out the skin.
It does a pretty good job of bugproofing, and it doesn't attract moisture from the air like salt does. It's nice and clean and it won't rust stuff like salt will.
It works great for drying bird skins too in case you want to keep "capes" from grouse or pheasants.

If you want to do an actual tan, salt is the first step to the tanning process.
 
Woops just saw u wanted them for flys!

Yea don't tan them, it will lock the hair.


Just skin it open it up and tack it out to cardboard. no need to flesh it really, rabbits dont have alot of fat. Salt it with non idinized salt an in about 2 days take the salt off and let it sit or about another day to make sure it's dry.

I do this with deer tails also for bucktail jigs

~Bryan
 
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