rabbit fur

[Monty]

my father in-law raises rabbits, "califorinans, and checked giants". there pelts are a lot nicer and prettier than the avg. cottontails. when he cleans the rabbits he discards the pelts because he has so many and he dont have a use for them. My question is how would i prepare the pelts so i can try to tye some small round jig heads, say in the 1/8 oz. size or smaller? any help would be great.

monty

[deadlystreamer]

Hi Monty,

I don't think you need to tan the hide, If you just laid it out and salted it down real good so it'll get air and let it dry out.

Tack the hide to apiece of plywood and use just table salt, rub it in the skin real good and let it dry. Use a lot of salt, not the shaker off the table. LOL

Then you'll be able to cut the hair off, as you need it. You could go through the tanning process, but I can't remember all the steps, it's a salt brine thing and It's been so long I've forgotten how to do it. I actually never did but my Dad was a taxidermist and I use to watch him do all this stuff. Wish now I had learned all that mounting and tanning stuff.

Best of luck with the hides. I know that tanning with the hair/fur on is a different process, but is done all the time.

I'm sure you can get away with just salting it down to use for tying flies. George

[Monty]

thanks deadlystreamer. my father in-law is from your neck of the woods and he raises them for food. its better than chicken, LOL! he kills about 50 to 100 rabbits a year just for food. thats alot of pelts to just see go to waste. i am not a fly tyer by any means but would like to learn, so i am going to give it a try. thanks a millon,

monty

[Big Splash]

Monty, the rabbit fur is excellent for fly tying- I like to use strips cut out of the hide (1/4") wide and use it with the hide attached. Makes a great leech, or baitfish pattern.

You can see my rabbit strip flies in the gallery.

[Mac10]

Once you have the rabbit skins supple and plyable, you will notice the fur has a direction of growth. If you cut strips with the grain (so to speak) the strips will be good for the tails of certain jigs...such as minnow imitations, if you cut the fur crosswise to the grain you will get a strip that is used at the front of a lure for wrapping and tying....like a collar. If you go to the flyshop and study the Zonker Strips, you will see that some are strips and some are crosscuts.

Cutting the hide.....use long and slender pointed shears. I got mine with a haircutting kit and work the point on the fur side under the fur so you never cut the fur....the other blade, under the hide is the one you want to cut the hide. I hope this is clear....the sharp pointed blade must glide along the skin under the hair. If you make a lot of jigs, I think you will find that the ones tied scantly work much better than the thick and fat ones. The hair is tremendous material, really moves well in water.

[Mac10]

Almost forgot, Important to lay a small bunch of bucktail hair across the top to straddle the hook....this prevents the rabbit from tangling on the hook. I use a different color bucktail than the jig (rabbit) hair to make a stripe down the middle of the top. Lately, I've had the best luck here in East Tennessee with a white jig, black head, and blue overlay of bucktail hairs. I start with white bucktail, cut a little bunch and color it with a blue permanent marker......I get it roughly blue then rub it quickly before drying between thumb and finger to smooth out and blend the blue....when dry, I tie it on and finish the jig.

I use nail polish instead of head cement....about the same price, but easy to use. Hard as Nails with Nylon.

Good fishing, Mac

[Mac10]

A red flat waxed thread works the best for tying jigs....I like to use the 3/0 size or the equivalent. I think I'm done now!!!!

[deadlystreamer]

Mac10,

Excellent information and well put.

As far as salting down a hide,(as I was talking about earlier) you can also use Borax powder, rub it well into the hide and let it set for a week or so.

In the Dec 03/Jan04 issue of Field Stream check out page 92 & 93, It talks about Preserving and dyeing buck tails. Very interesting and will help you guys trying to preserve your hides for tying material.

Here's the whole article,

http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/hunting/article/0,13199,562424,00.html

Read # 3 Preserve and dye bucktail for streamers

[Gr8flyz]

Rabbit hides as well as any other hide you want to use for fly tying needs to be properly tanned. Just drying & salting, or using borax will not work if you want the hide to be pliable & not rot after it's wet again. Tanning needs to be done for "garment use", which will keep the fur from slipping and falling out, and preserve the hide after you get it wet.

The chemicals used for this type of tanning are very expensive & very toxic, so if you have a lot of hides it's probably a better idea to send them to a qualified tannery than to try & do it yourself.

Also if you want to dye them different colors, that's also best done before

the tanning process, as the dyeing process will often leave the hides hard & brittle, especially if done with acid dyes or dyes like Rit that require hot water to perform properly.

[deadlystreamer]

Bummers Jim, I know I shouldn't talk about something I've never done. Rabbit fur I've never tanned, dyed or dried. I just thought you could do the same with rabbit that you do with deer tails. :oops: I never said I knew everything. LOL

I've dyed deer tails and pillowcases with feathers. It's work and like you said it's a trial and error thing. It's easier to buy the stuff anyway.

Sorry about the wrong info gang.

For home a personal use of deer tails the F&S article will work. I've done that many times.

[Gr8flyz]

George, your info wasn't entirely wrong, but there is a difference between preserving a hide for taxidermy, or tying use if you intend to remove the hair from the hide, and preparation where you'll be getting it wet again.

I talked to a few good taxidermist & they tell me that garment tanning is the only way to fully prepare a hide, even for taxidermy. The tanning is in the hide with a garment tan, while other types of tanning or preserving is on the hide. The problem is with getting it wet, as with using it for tying flies or jigs. Once it's wet, if it's not properly tanned, it will begin to decompose, and the hair will fall out, or "slip" as it's called in the fur trade.

You can preserve raw hides by tacking to a board, or on a fur stretcher, and salting or applying borax to the hide and letting them dry. This is fine where you'll be removing the hair from the hide, but even as such they have to be protected from moisture, and vermin.

As far as the dyeing part, I found out the hard way about dyeing tanned rabbit hides. Fortunately I only dyed a small piece. It turned out to be a beautiful blue color, but the hide dried hard as a rock & brittle as a salttine cracker!