[Jacob-list] Sheepskin treatment

[Linda]

In my copy of Home Tanning & Leather Simplified, it has a chapter on tanning 
for fur which includes sheepskins.  There are a number of recipes and it does 
say you can begin with a green, dried or frozen skin, so you have some time!
The ingredients for the processes are:
1. Basic Alum-Salt calls for Alum & Salt (DUH!)
2. Alum-Salt-Soda - the same plus washing soda
3. Basic Acid-Salt recipe calls for salt and sulphuric acid aka battery acid.
If you need the directions, let me know.  I've used the Alum-Salt on rabbit 
skins and it came out well.

Linda
Visit our flock of Jacob Sheep
www.patchworkfibers.comwww.patchworkfibers.com


On Tue, 30 Oct 2001 14:09:51 -0500, Chovhani wrote:
>   Can you believe this. I've spent an hour surfing  the net, using four 
different search
>engines and I CANNOT find some  straightforward instructions for turning my 
raw sheepskin
>into a rug or throw. I  know you guys won't let me down!
> 
>I didn't think I'd need advice you see. I own John  Seymour's book of 
self-sufficiency, and
>use it for everything, but just as I'm  about to get out the borax something 
told me to stop.
>These instructions do not  say anything about the wool.......I don't want to 
wreck it for the
>sake of  rawhide......his method cures rather than tans.
> 
>So.....I collected the fleece, head attached and  dripping, still warm, 
straight after the
>kill. Tons of blood everywhere, got it  into my bathtub, cut off the head and 
tail, cut a
>rough sheepskin shape, and  rinsed all the blood off. NOW WHAT?
> 
>Seymour says to rinse in a borax solution,  then dump it in a solution of salt 
and sulphuric
>acid, and leave for 3  days. Then rinse it in borax again, churn in the 
washing machine, half-
>dry it,  and finally work on it by hand. I'm game for all this, but what about 
the wool?  Or
>do you guys have a better way? When I wash fleeces I do them in the washing 
 machine, but I
>don't use these harsh chemicals (I'm an organic gal) so I'm  clueless.
> 
>Please get back to me as fast as you can before the  stores close in case I 
need to go fetch
>anything.
> 
>THANKS!
>Melanie
>
> 
> 
>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20011030/3c85b228/attachment.html