How to stretch the skin? Working with natural fur

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:47

Natural fur has been used as a material for clothing since ancient times, when harsh weather conditions suggested to our ancestors that the skins of dead animals would be useful for making warm clothes and blankets. More than one millennium has passed, and man has learned to make fur, dye, bleach, tint … But the main achievement in this area was the tanning of leather and fur.

Currently, the process of dressing fur is automated, but includes all the same basic processing steps as thousands of years ago. Only despite this, natural fur remains a highly valuable material, and the owners of its expensive types are financially secure and successful people.

Types of fur and their characteristics

Depending on the type of animal, fur is divided into:

• beaver fur (quite warm and moisture resistant material);
• otter fur (one of the most wear-resistant);
• raccoon fur (warm and very popular fur, relatively inexpensive);
• marten fur (also warm, hypoallergenic and fairly wear-resistant material);
• ermine fur (very rare, expensive and not the most practicaloption);
• karakul (expensive material with unusual colors);
• fox fur (beautiful and practical material);
• seal fur (easy care, suitable for very low temperatures);
• mink fur (beautiful, moisture resistant, practical, rather expensive material: the cost of 1 meter of mink skin is more than 6,000 rubles).

This is not the whole range, there are other types of furs.

Natural fur processing - material stretching

Now it is worth touching on the question of how to stretch the skin or process previously prepared fur. To do this, you need to moisturize the skin. It is better to do this with a brush or a spray bottle. Water quality plays an important role here. It is better if it is distilled - without various impurities of metals, chlorine and other elements.

After this procedure, the skin should lie down for about 30 minutes. The exact soaking time depends on the thickness and elasticity of the material. It is very important not to allow excessive moisture - the fur must remain dry!

Stretching the skins can be started at the moment when the skin is almost dry. Editing should be done in the direction of the pile. The skin is straightened and pinned with nails or safety pins to the board. Try not to damage the structure of the skin and hair when stretching. If the pile is long, then such material is attached with the fur up, and if it is short or medium in length - with the fur to the board.

The material should be stretched strictly in a certainsequence: first prick the bottom of the product, then the middle, after which we evenly stretch to the left and right from the center and diagonally from bottom to top to the edges. After finishing the stretch, leave the product to dry completely. On average, this time is about a day. Then we remove the skin and leave it for at least 2 hours to lie down. It should be noted here that the more the wet material is stretched, the more it will shrink. Having finished talking about how to stretch the skin, you can proceed to other methods of processing.

Fur processing - greasing

Greasing is necessary only if the elasticity of the skin is reduced, then work with fur begins. To eliminate the dryness of the skin tissue after the drying stage, before removing it from the stretch, wipe the material with a cotton swab or a small piece of cloth soaked in glycerin. After that, leave the skin until the glycerin is completely absorbed, and only then remove it from the stretch. This procedure will prepare the skin for cutting, making it soft and supple.

Then you can remove the material from the board, comb the fur and start cutting. Wavy edges should be trimmed immediately.

Fur color

If natural fur is heavily soiled, then it should be cleaned before dyeing, as the paint does not penetrate well into the contaminated hair structure. To do this, take an alkaline solution.

Composition of the solution:

• 2-3 tsp s alt;
• 1 tsp ammonia;
• 1 tsp detergent;
• 2 tsp baking soda;
• 1 liter of water.

When coloring, the skin should be treated with glycerin or apply a greasy cream in order to avoid drying out.

Fur skins are usually dyed darker. When coloring in a lighter color, you will first need to lighten the hair with hydrogen peroxide.

The fur is dyed by placing the skin on a wooden board and securing it with pins or small nails. Use for this ordinary hair dye. Before the procedure, the fur can be slightly wetted to make it easier to distribute the paint. Exposure time - according to the instructions on the package. We wash off the paint without removing the skin from the board, under the shower, then dry it and lift the fur with a hair dryer. The meat will take the longest to dry.

Hide tanning

During drying and other procedures, the skin is subjected to mechanical processing, as a result of which the material becomes brittle and hard. Tanning helps to strengthen the structure of the skin of mink, otter, raccoon, marten and other animals, which occurs due to the penetration of tanning substances into the skin, which bind protein fibers. The skin after such a procedure remains plastic and soft, increases resistance to decay, to the influence of high temperatures. Also, the material perfectly tolerates repeated exposure to water, coloring and subsequent drying.

Tanning can be done with both chemicals and natural vegetable tanning agents.

Consider one of the methods of tanning. To do this, you need a half-liter can of oak bark,which can be purchased at a pharmacy. Pour it with two cans of water and bring to a boil, then boil for 10-15 minutes and leave to infuse for a day. Then the decoction is filtered and already cold applied with a brush on the skin from the side of the mezra and dried on spacers. In the process of drying, lightly wrinkle.

This was one of the steps on how to stretch the skin at home.

Fur durability

An important indicator of the quality of fur is its wear. The fur of the otter is considered the most wear-resistant. Products from it will last 20 seasons without any restorations. In second place in wear is beaver fur, in third place is fur seal. Products from the most popular and desired types of fur - sable, mink and arctic fox will last 12, 9 and 7 seasons respectively. Least of all, it will be possible to vilify the fur of a hare (season 1), long-haired rabbit (season 2) and marmot fur (season 3, 5). You can also go deeper into the topic of wear resistance of some species and talk about how to process the skin of a rabbit, but talk about something else.

Indicators of wear resistance of fur:

• hair strength;
• mezdra strength;
• bond strength of hair and skin tissue;
• thickness and density of the skin;
• thickness of the epidermis and subcutaneous tissue;
• hair density, etc.

In turn, for example, the strength of the bond between the hair and the mezra depends on the type of fur, the season of production, and also on the observance of the skin processing technology. So, during the molting period, the connection of the hair with the skin is minimal, so fur should be mined in late autumn. In thatperiod skin has the best performance.

How to distinguish a fake?

It is not uncommon for natural fur to be counterfeited with cheaper material. For example, a marten, after giving the appropriate appearance, is passed off as a sable, a nutria as a beaver, and a mink is often replaced with a rabbit or marmot.

In order to recognize the substitution, you need to pay attention to the fur. The beaver, for example, has longer guard hairs than the nutria, and the undercoat is thicker. The awn of rabbit fur is much softer than that of mink. And the fur of the marmot is of different lengths, unlike the mink, which has a perfectly even hairline.

Conclusion

The love of most of us for natural fur is in our genes, from the moment when our ancestors realized all the advantages of wearing products from it - softness, warmth and comfort. You can independently answer questions about how to stretch the skin, how to process it and make it beautiful. You can also buy ready-made material.