How to stretch the skin? Working with natural fur

Natural fur as a material for clothes was used in ancient times, when severe weather conditions suggested to our ancestors that the skins of killed animals would be useful for making warm clothes and blankets. Not one millennium passed, and man learned to make fur, color, bleach, tonify ... But the main achievement in this area was tanning of skin and fur.

At the moment, the fur production process is automated, but it includes all the same basic processing steps as thousands of years ago. Only in spite of this, natural fur remains a high-value material, and owners of its expensive types are financially secured and successful people.

Types of fur and their characteristics

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

• Beaver fur (warm enough and moisture resistant material);
• Otter fur (one of the most wear-resistant);
• Raccoon fur (warm and very popular fur, relatively inexpensive);
• Fur marten (also warm, hypoallergenic and sufficiently wear-resistant material);
• Fur ermine (very rare, expensive and not the most practical option);
• Karakul (expensive material with unusual coloring);
• Fur fox (beautiful and practical material);
• Fur seals (unpretentious in care, suitable option for very low temperature);
• Fur mink (beautiful, moisture resistant, practical, quite expensive material: the cost of 1 meter of mink fur is more than 6,000 rubles).

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

Processing of natural fur - stretching material

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

After this procedure, the skin should lie for about 30 minutes. The exact time of a sling depends on the thickness and elasticity of the material. It is very important not to allow excessive moistening - the fur should stay dry at the same time!

Stretching skins can begin when the skin is almost dry. Edit should be done in the direction of the pile. The skin is straightened and pinned 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 fastened with fur upwards, and if short or medium length - with fur to the board.

Stretch the material should be strictly in a certain sequence: first pierce the bottom of the product, then the middle, then evenly stretch left and right from the center and diagonally from bottom to top to the edges. Having finished the stretching, leave the product until it dries completely. On average, this time is about a day. Then remove the skin and leave for at least 2 hours, on the prolek. It should be noted here that, the more the moist material is stretched, the more it will shrink. Having finished talking about how to stretch the skin, you can proceed to other ways of processing.

Fur Processing

Fatty is necessary only in the event that the elasticity of the skin is reduced, then work begins with fur. To eliminate the dryness of the dermal tissue after the drying phase, before removing from the stretch, the material should be wiped with a cotton swab or a small piece of cloth soaked in glycerin. After this, leave the skin until the glycerine is completely absorbed, and then remove it from the stretch marks. This procedure will prepare the skin for cutting, make it soft and elastic.

Then you can remove the material from the board, comb the fur and begin to cut. Wavy edges should be straightened immediately.

Color of fur

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

Composition of the solution:

• 2-3 tsp. Salts;
• 1 tsp. Ammonia;
• 1 tsp. Detergent;
• 2 tsp. Baking soda;
• 1 liter of water.

Mezdru in color should be treated with glycerin or apply a fat cream in order to avoid its drying out.

Fur skins, as a rule, are painted in darker colors. When coloring in a lighter color, you will first need to lighten your hair with hydrogen peroxide.

Pain the fur by placing the skin on a wooden board and fastening it with pins or small studs. Use for this ordinary hair dye. Before the procedure, the fur can be slightly dampened to make it easier to distribute the paint. The exposure time is according to the instructions on the package. The paint is washed off without removing the skin from the board, under the shower, then dry it and raise the fur with a hair dryer. Most of the time you need to dry the mezdra.

Tanning of skins

In the process of drying and other procedures, the skin is subjected to mechanical treatment, as a result of which the material becomes brittle and rigid. Tanning helps to strengthen the structure of the pelts of mink, otter, raccoon, marten and other animals, which occurs due to the penetration of tanning substances into the skin that bind the protein fibers. Skin after this procedure remains plastic and soft, resistance to decay increases, to influence of high temperatures. Also, the material perfectly tolerates repeated exposure to water, color and subsequent drying.

Tanning can be done both with the help of chemicals and natural tannins of plant origin.

Consider one of the ways of tanning. To do this, you need a half-liter can of oak bark, which can be purchased at the pharmacy. Pour it with two jars of water and bring to a boil, then boil for 10-15 minutes and leave for a day to insist. Then filter the broth and already cold apply a brush on the skin from the side of the mashra and dry on the spacers. In the process of drying, slightly kneaded.

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

Wear resistance of fur

An important indicator of the quality of fur is its wear. The most wear-resistant is the otter's fur. Products from it will last 20 seasons without any restorations. On the second place in the toe - beaver fur, on the third - fur seals. Products from the most popular and desirable types of fur - sables, mink and polar fox will serve 12, 9 and 7 seasons respectively. The least able to wear the hare fur (1 season), rabbit long-haired (2 seasons) and marmot fur (3.5 seasons). You can also more deeply touch on the wear resistance of some species and talk about how rabbit skin to process, but talk about something else.

Fur wear resistance indexes:

• Strength of hair;
• Strength of the masdra;
• The strength of the connection between the hair and the skin tissue;
• Thickness and density of the skin;
• Thickness of the epidermis and subcutaneous tissue;
• The density of the hair cover, and so on.

In turn, for example, the strength of the connection between the hair and the fur coat depends on the type of fur, the production season, and also on the compliance with the technology for processing hides. So, during the moulting, the connection of the hair with the skin is minimal, so fur should be harvested in late autumn. During this period, the skin has the best characteristics.

How to distinguish a fake?

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

In order to recognize the substitution, it is necessary to pay attention to the fur. In the beaver, for example, the outer hair is longer than the nutria, and the undercoat is thicker. The fur of the rabbit is much softer than the mink. And the fur of a marmot is of different length, unlike a mink, which has a perfectly even hairline.

Conclusion

The love of most of us for natural fur is laid in the genes, from the moment when our ancestors realized all the pluses of socks made 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 the finished material.