Dressing the skins of sheep is a multi-stage process that requires diligence and even physical strength. This is usually done by specialists, but, if desired, every beginner is able to master the furrier craft. We learn how to produce and preserve the sheepskin yourself.
Features skinning
Skins are an important source of income for farmers raising sheep for meat. But many livestock farmers simply throw their skins, not wanting to mess with the dressing. This is really a chore. Some sheep farmers prefer to take their raw skins to special collection points. But if there is a large distance between the farm and the point, and there are only a few skins, such trips are unprofitable.
The best solution is not to throw away valuable raw materials, but to make skins yourself. What is important to know about dressing:
- The process is divided into several stages:
- headache;
- pickling;
- washing;
- tanning;
- drying.
- If the skins are prepared for sewing a fur coat, then they must be removed from sheep of the same age and color. They should be removed in one season. In a small farm, skins can be collected gradually - as the slaughter of the sheep. A fur coat requires 7-8 sheep skins.
- The whole process of dressing takes about a month.
- It is better to dry the skins in air, in dry weather. It is advisable to make skins in the summer.
- For dressing you will need the simplest materials:
- washing powder;
- salt;
- vinegar;
- sawdust.
- Prepare a solution so that the sheepskin floats in it and is covered with the top.
Mezdra - the leather part of the skin. The appearance and life of the product depend on the quality of its manufacture.
Who should do this?
Specialists - furriers are engaged in dressing hides. In addition to knowledge of the technology of dressing, the furrier needs physical strength - he has to deal with wet raw materials. One skin weighs, in the wet state - about 10 kg. Significant muscular strength is needed to raise and mash raw sheepskins.
The process of making sheepskins is a long and time-consuming process. To get an impeccably dressed skin, one must be a good specialist in their field. High quality workmanship is easier to achieve in a production environment. With artisanal dressing, the quality is worse - there are defects in the skins, unpleasant odor, heaviness. As a result, the products are no good, except for flooring.
Raw materials
There are three types of raw materials:
- fur;
- leather;
- fur coat.
Each type involves a specific technology of dressing. Features of getting sheepskin:
- Sheepskin fur is obtained from fine-fleece and half-fine-fleece sheep. The fur of such breeds is extremely thick and uniform, consists of down fibers. The skin of such animals contains a lot of fat - 20-30%. Products made from sheepskin are worn with fur outside.
- Sheepskin sheepskin is durable and resistant to moisture. Get this raw material from coarse sheep. The skin tissue is less oily than that of the fur. The process of making fur sheepskin requires more attention when processing skin tissues.
- Leather raw materials are not suitable for fur and fur products. Leather sheepskin goes to the manufacture of leather and suede products.
Production schemes for different sheepskins differ:
- Fur Sheepskin. In production, the process lasts around the clock in the following sequence - soaking (soaking), wringing, shearing, drying, degreasing, rinsing, pickling, bedding, tanning, bedding, dyeing, washing, greasing, drying and rolling. In handicraft production, the number of stages is reduced, but the quality is lower.
- Sheepskin fur coat. The process of dressing consists of such stages - soaking, curing, degreasing, pickling, tanning, wet grinding, neutralization, dyeing, degreasing of skin tissue, finishing. The process is continuous.
Preparation for the process
To successfully make a skin, it must first be removed correctly.
Preparation Procedure:
- Make the first incision at the neck, lead it through the stomach - to the root of the tail. Then, make circular cuts near the carpal and hock joints located on the front and rear legs, respectively. Remove the skin with a knife, trying to prevent a single damage - a rush or cut.
- After removing large debris from the sheepskin, lay it with a mazra up.
- Carefully inspect the leather surface, if on its inside there are leftovers of meat, lard, tendons, scrape them off with a knife.
- Having folded the sheepskin in half, leave it for a couple of hours - cool in a cool room.
- Two hours later, they start dressing. You can’t wait more than two hours.
It is easier to work with fresh raw materials than canned ones. But if there is no opportunity to immediately take up the skins, they are canned.
Tools and equipment
For dressing skins, at the stage of coiling, special equipment is needed. They hides their skins manually or with the help of special machines - they are used at dressing points and in large livestock farms.
What is needed for mezdrenia:
- Deck - a massive board on which the skins are spread. It should have a convex and smooth surface.
- Pallet - they collect mezdra into it.
- Mezdryak - curved sharp knife with two handles. With its help, the remains of fat and meat are cut.
- Mezdrilny car - with its help, fat is qualitatively removed. There are cars with one or two knife shafts. They operate the blade shaft hydraulically or pneumatically.
For manual marking, there is also a whole range of all kinds of sharp cutting tools. The skins are processed with the help of different sizes of fins:
- knife knife;
- straight fat;
- toothed ring;
- collapsible knife knife;
- hare - for breaking;
- braid;
- gouging knife.
Also, for making hides, large containers are needed in which they could be placed completely in a straightened state. In factories where dressing is put on stream, in addition to mezdrilny machines, special centrifuges are used - for drying skins.
Canning
So that the raw material does not spoil, it is canned. Preservation consists in dehydrating the skins and saturating them with salt. Raw materials are considered conserved if they contain at least 12% salt and not more than 48% water.
Thanks to salting, in a pair of skins most of the microorganisms die. Preservation does not cause noticeable changes in collagen, on which the elasticity of the skin and fur depends. It is impossible to preserve raw materials by freezing or drying - they will inevitably deteriorate.
Helpful hints:
- To skins do not lose strength - do not stretch them.
- When sprinkling salt, evenly distribute it over the entire surface.
- Keep salted sheepskins in a dark place - so that they do not zadublen and not crack.
- Periodically check the condition of the skins - air, twitch the fur.
If the fur of a canned sheepskin climbs, it will soon deteriorate - it is necessary to repeat the salting.
Wet method
This method of conservation is used only in the cold season. Screening is carried out without subsequent drying. Salting order:
- In a dry, shaded and cool place, spread the skin - up to the skins.
- Having straightened the sheepskin, sprinkle it with salt. The amount of salt is 30-40% by weight of the salted raw material. As a rule, 800 g of salt goes to one skin.
- Salting out lasts 7-8 days.
Before canned sheepskins are rolled up, they are folded with mazra inward:
- bend a quarter upper part;
- bend the side parts to the center - a quarter;
- fold the skin, bending along the ridge;
- roll up starting from the neck;
- tie the bundle with twine.
Dry salted method
The first stage of conservation practically coincides with the wet-salted method - the skin is salted out in exactly the same way. But the salts take a little less, since the effect of the salt is enhanced by the addition of naphthalene - it is put in order to scare away the pests. The norm of naphthalene is 0.8% of the weight of the skin.
Salting sheepskins
Skins sprinkled with salt are stacked. After 2-3 days, they begin to dry, hanging on poles in a straightened form. The skins are hung, bent along the line of the spine.
Sheepskin is dried on both sides. First up with mazra, then up with fur. When drying comes to an end, the temperature should be 30 ° C.
Drying skins in direct sunlight is prohibited. In the summer they are dried in the shade, in the winter - indoors.
Acid salt method
This is the best way to make fur sheepskin. The composition of the mixture for canning:
- table salt - 85%;
- aluminum-potassium alum - 7.5%;
- ammonium chloride - 7.5%.
To preserve uniformity, mix the ingredients thoroughly. For one sheepskin you will need about 1.5 kg of the mixture. The composition is rubbed into the mazra, and then generously sprinkled over its entire surface. Salted sheepskins are stored for 5-7 days in the same way as with wet-salted canning.
During preservation, a reaction occurs, as a result of which sulfuric acid is formed - it effectively dehydrates the raw materials and inhibits microorganisms. And the resulting aluminum sulfate salt provides tanning. Thanks to acid-salt preservation, sheepskins are kept for 6 cold months or 2 warm.
Fresh dry canning
This method is used in the summer - if suddenly for some reason there is no access to salt. The skins are simply dried in a shaded area. This method of conservation can not provide high quality products.
Stages of dressing - step by step instructions
Sheepskin, in the process of dressing, go through the same stages as any other. It is advisable to start processing the skins immediately after removing them. Every missed minute will negatively affect the quality of the finished product.
Soaking
For soaking, you need a capacious container - so that the sheepskin fits freely in it. The solution is prepared from:
- salt;
- furatsilina or formalin;
- acetic acid.
How to prepare a solution for soaking:
- furatsilin is dissolved in water - 2 tablets, or 0.1 ml of formalin are taken per 1 liter;
- salts per 1 liter put from 30 to 50 g;
- vinegar is added for an antiseptic effect, 1 g - 5 g;
- seasoned furriers add oak, birch or willow decoction to the solution - they are prepared from the leaves of these trees. In 10 l of water - no more than 0.5 l of broth.
The skins, having soaked, are kept in the prepared solution for at least 12 hours. If half a day is not enough to soften, the procedure is repeated. In order to understand whether the skin is ready for the next stage, they scrape the mesdra with a fingernail - if it is easily scraped off, they go on to mousse.
Coagulation
The purpose of the coat is to remove residual fat and fat, as well as excess skin, from the inside of the skin. The skinning procedure:
- stretched on a special machine, and if there is none, then simply on a flat surface;
- scrape from the inside with a blunt knife or a special iron scraper.
- First process the back, then move towards the head.
Smooth Sheepskin Coating
Fur skins are made only with a blunt instrument, sharpness is not allowed - so as not to cut the material.
Degreasing
After skinning, the skin is washed by immersing it in a solution prepared from:
- common salt - 20 g;
- washing powder - 3 g.
Doses are indicated for 1 liter of water. After washing, the sheepskin is removed and squeezed out - you can proceed to the next stage.
Picking
The purpose of this stage is to improve the properties of raw materials. Pickling (translated from English - "pickling") softens, gives the sheepskin elasticity.
How to prepare pickling pickle:
- water at room temperature - 2 l;
- salt - 100-120 g;
- vinegar 9% - 1 l.
Instead of vinegar, you can take acetic acid - 30 g, or formic acid - 10 g.
The skin acidifies in vinegar-salt solution as much as when soaked for 12 hours. To check the elasticity of the skin, it is squeezed, bent in half. If the process is successful, then on a straightened surface, a strip from the bend is clearly visible.
If the skin is to be used for sewing clothes or products that are in direct contact with a person, then the pickle solution must be neutralized. To do this, the skin is soaked in a soda solution for 1 hour - 1 g of soda is taken per 1 liter of water. Neutralization reduces the strength of the sheepskin, but it becomes hypoallergenic. Pickling ends with the next washing of the skin - wash it with running water.
Tanning
The purpose of tanning is to increase the strength of a sheepskin. For 1 liter of water take:
- table salt - 50 g;
- chrome tanning agent - 6 g.
The skin is placed in a container, the solution should completely cover it. The exposure time is 48 hours. The solution is heated at times - so as not to cool.
Having examined the slice, evaluate the results of tanning with a magnifier. If the color is uniform, the process is over. To enhance the tanning effect, a decoction of horse sorrel root is added to the solution.
Sheepskin smells unpleasant, it is necessary to get rid of the smell. For this purpose, alum is placed in the tannin solution - 7 g per 1 liter. Alum eliminates odor, gives the sheepskin elasticity, disinfects and accelerates its drying.
Zhirok
The purpose of fatliquoring is to make the skin shiny. Prepare a solution of:
- edible salt - 100 g;
- glycerin - 25 g;
- ammonia - 20 g;
- egg yolk - 70 g.
This solution is smeared with mezdra, and then the sheepskin is folded so that the inside is in contact with each other.
Drying
The skin is carefully wrung out before drying, for example, using a centrifuge. Then the sheepskin is dried in heat chambers - at a temperature of 40 ° C, or on the street. As the skin dries, the skin is kneaded and stretched to make it softer. Mezdra cleaned with pumice. It usually takes three days to dry.
Drying the skins of smooth-haired sheep
Final processing
The final touch in the process of skinning is the cleansing of the hair. The sheepskin is knocked out with a stick, then the pile is ironed with a clothes brush. The fur is wiped with hardwood sawdust. Heated sawdust on a baking sheet, they are combined with a solvent - turpentine, gasoline, acetone, etc.
Hot sawdust soaked in solvent is rubbed into the hairline. Because the skin is beaten out with a stick. The finished skin is hung out to dry - it lasts 1-2 days. Now it can be stored indefinitely - as a raw material for the manufacture of fur products.
Having learned how to make a sheepskin, you can do the same with the skins of any animals. Now you do not have to throw away skins or go because of one or two to the dressing point - you can do everything yourself.
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