Has anyone had any experience egg tanning? I had to put down a rabbit today, and decided to use the opportunity to brush up on butchery and have my first crack at tanning. By the time I had the bun fully butchered and scraped the hide, I was pretty tired so I skipped the brain tan and decided to try an egg tan. I'll be finishing it tomorrow, probably smoking it in the afternoon. Any suggestions for how to smoke it properly? I haven't done it before and I'm a little nervous, I don't want to ruin my first hide and waste it.
When smoking, heat control is really important. You want to smoke it not cook it 🙂
Whenever you have hides that you want to wait on working, you could always roll/fold them up (fur side in iirc) and either stick it in a fridge or freezer. I've done this with my deer hides.
I have to admit it but I've never heard of egg tanning.
Runs With Scissors
yes, I do egg tanning.. high, slow and low..
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Well, it seems to have tanned, but I think it didn't smoke properly as the next day it went from reasonably soft to literally kinking and tough as it dried. I smoked it over a fire but it was windy, so I think it didn't get well smoked.
did you work it again and again as it dried? it sounds like it was still wet (soft) and then you dried without stretching it, and it will need to be worked to be softened again, you need a rounded shape to pull it over making it change directions after so many pulls, if you didn't stretch it so it dried thin and pulled, it will take a lot longer to soften, work it for five to ten min daily for x amount of days and it will soften up.
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smoking is a preserve step, has little to with the texture of the flex of the hide, that has to do with the stretch and the working the hide itself
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