Hunters love to use the skins of fur animals for making hunting trophies and, of course, for sewing fur products. But in order for all of them to serve for a long time and please the eyes of the owners, certain rules must be observed. And the most important of them says: the dressing of the beaver skin at home should be of high quality, otherwise after a short time the product will simply creep at the seams.
About how to properly carry out the dressing process, we will tell later in the article.
Animal Skin Technology
To become the owner of a luxurious beaver fur coat, you must first go hunting successfully, then properly remove the skin of the animal and process it, observing the technology, not forgetting the important details - the process of dressing the beaver skin, as well as other fur animals, leads to its shrinkage 25% of the total area.
Therefore, it is very important from the very beginning to correctly calculate how many skins you need to make in order to get the coveted fur coat. The dressing itself takes place in three stages, which we will talk about in detail:
- Skin preparation.
- Dressing.
- Handmade hide processing.
So let's get started!
Skin preparation: getting ready for dressing
Furrier dogs with serious experience argue that the beaver skin dressing process should begin as soon as possible, but this is not always possible. So, if the beavers were hammered a few days ago, or even waited for the end of the hunting season, their skins need to return a state close to paired. That is, from the fresh-dry storage method (with it, the skin is sprinkled abundantly with about half a kilogram of salt, leaving it for two weeks), the skin must be preserved by soaking it.
How it's done? The skin is placed in a special solution, in the preparation of which the following ratio is observed:
- 5 l of water
- a glass of salt
- furatsilin tablets (3 pcs.);
- 2.5 kg of any washing powder or detergent (both liquid and powder).
It should be borne in mind that about 8 liters of the finished solution will go per kilogram of skins. If it is less, then the wool will be knocked down into lumps, and if you overdo it, then rapid growth of microorganisms can begin in it.
We continue to prepare for dressing: soaking
Dressing the beaver skin at home takes more than one hour, which is why furatsilin and salt are added to the solution described above. They disinfect the liquid, not allowing bacteria to multiply in it, which provoke the process of decay.
Detergent, on the other hand, is an excellent component that helps cleanse fur and mink from all kinds of dirt and speed up the soaking process. By the way, you should pay attention to the fact that the powder, which is part of the solution, does not contain biologically active substances, otherwise the process, on the contrary, will be delayed.
Remember that the prepared solution for soaking should be thoroughly mixed until the salt and furacilin are completely dissolved, and only then can the skins be lowered into it. In order for them to get wet, you need to spend about 24 hours. True, sometimes this process lasts longer, then you need to prepare another solution for soaking.
Beaver Hide Skins
When the skins are soaked enough, you need to go over them again with a blunt knife and clean them from the fat, meat and tendons remaining on them. In this case, you must be extremely careful - do not cut the roots of the hair and avoid tearing or cutting the skin.
The process of dressing the beaver's skin should be continued, even if it already seems that it is clean, since the skin tissue is broken during the mending process. As a result, its permeability increases for those substances, which we will discuss further.
By the way, if the mezra is thick, you will have to cut the skin a little so that the skin does not remain rough, otherwise it will later be too uncomfortable for sewing.
After the described process, the skins are washed. This must be done in any case, even though a detergent was present in the soak. Use ordinary shampoo and warm water for washing. If the fur is too greasy, you can add liquid detergent to the water to help degrease it.
Dressing beaver skins at home with vinegar
We turn to the main process of dressing - pickling. Using this process, we can achieve elasticity and softness of the skin tissue in the beaver skin.
The picel solution that is needed for this is prepared as follows: 50 g of salt and 70% acetic acid are added to clean water (in a ratio of 10 g per liter of water).
Remember that instead of vinegar, you can not use hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. They can harm not only beaver skins, but also your health!
Dressing the beaver skin with vinegar lasts for a day. If for some reason you need to speed up the process, then the concentration of acetic acid can be increased by adding it at the rate of 20 g per liter of water. This is enough to reduce the process to 10-12 hours. True, with this ratio, you can reduce the strength of the skin, so you should think about whether you need to speed up the process.
To understand whether pickling has ended, you need to bend the mezdra with your fingers and squeeze it strongly in this place. If a white stripe appears (it is called “drying rack”), then the process has come to an end. By the way, the skins need to be stirred from time to time with a wooden stick, and after 12 hours, pour them with a new pickle.
Stitching and breaking the beaver skin
In order for acid to penetrate the skin to be evenly distributed over the entire surface of the canvas, it must be left to lie down for another 24 hours.
- After that, the skin is thoroughly washed under running water and squeezed out (but in no case do you twist it!)
- Then knead, that is, stretch both in length and in width.
- Put the skin in a soda solution (ratio: teaspoon per liter of water). This is necessary to neutralize acid residues that can damage the surface.
And to consolidate the result, tanning is carried out.
Skin tanning
Dressing the beaver skin at home cannot be considered complete without tanning. Since only this procedure makes the material impervious to moisture, resistant to temperature fluctuations and various chemicals.
For tanning, potassium or sodium chrompeak is needed. They vary in color, but this is not important for the further process.
About 5 grams of chrompeak is added to water heated to 40 ° C, salt is put there (at the rate of 50 g per liter of water) and the procedure begins. It will last about nine hours; To understand that the process has come to an end, you need to separate a small piece from the skin. If it turns out to be uniformly colored, tanning was successful.
In this case, the skin is removed from the solution and laid out with the fur out, leaving it for 12 hours. Then you need to remember to wash it again with shampoo and make it hard.
Fatliquoring and drying
The recipe for dressing beaver skins also implies mandatory fatliquoring. It is necessary in order to give the product elasticity. Spend it with the help of pastes and a solution that can be prepared independently. To do this, use a little transformer and laundry soap, which is boiled in a water bath until a thick sour cream is obtained.
The skins are spread out with the fur out, dried a little, and then turned over again with the fur down and begin to wrinkle and pull them. When the mezra becomes dry, paste is applied to it and continue to crumple until the skins are completely dry.
How to give the skin a "presentation"
After all the above stages of dressing the beaver skin have been completed, the fur needs to be given softness, shine and the ability to crumble at hand. To do this, polish the leather fabric with a piece of sandpaper, then with the help of sawdust of deciduous trees, degrease the mezra and, finally, comb the beaver fur.
As you can see, the dressing procedure takes a lot of time and effort, but the result is obvious: your product will not yield to the factory furrier products at all.
Dressing beaver skins in Moscow
True, at home it is difficult to compete with the possibilities of well-functioning production, on which they not only correctly process and produce fur, but also cut or dye it, depending on the customer’s desire.
I must say that beaver fur has recently become increasingly popular. Previously, it was used only in men's wardrobe, as it is rather heavy and dense, but modern technologies allow you to process beaver skins so that they become light and comfortable - suitable for women's clothing.
By the way, fur from the abdominal part of the beaver carcass is especially appreciated in this respect - there it is much softer and at the same time, denser than on the back and sides.
In general, such a fur is characterized by high wear (it can be used for 18 seasons!), Density, which can protect from any cold, and beautiful shades, thanks to which outerwear has a luxurious appearance and goes well with other types of fur and fabrics.
In Moscow you can find many studios that are engaged not only in professional dressing and preparation of hides for sewing outerwear, but also in the manufacture of stuffed animals. Beavers are no exception.
How much can a beaver skin dressing cost?
It is not always possible to process the hunting trophy yourself. Then people are interested in how much it costs to dress the beaver. The price of this service varies depending on the size of the animal. So, if the beaver is large, you will have to pay about 1400 rubles, and if it is small, then 900 rubles.
Flashing an animal costs about 1,500 rubles, and a haircut of dressed skin - 200 rubles.
By the way, remember that for the incorrect preparation of skins, which led to the appearance of cuts, holes or rotted areas on them, a surcharge of up to 15% of the order amount is taken from the customer in some studios.
What seems more convenient - you can try to do all the stages of dressing yourself or pay specialists money for it, only you can decide. But whatever the choice, we wish you good luck!