How to Tan A Rabbit Hide

In this post, I will show you how to tan a rabbit hide. You can use this method to tan any small animal hide. This is fur-on tanning, which means we are leaving the fur on the hide. Let’s do this!

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I have ruined eight rabbit hides in the past year. Do you know that emoji with the girl slapping herself on the forehead? That’s what I would have inserted here if I could. I’ve asked forgiveness from all those eight rabbits but I’m happy to report that the ninth hide was a success and I would like to share this success with you!

My journey in tanning started with learning how to tan a deer hide since I couldn’t bear the thought of just throwing away the hides after we butchered deer in the fall. It took me a few hides to feel comfortable with brain tanning and making buckskin.

How to Tan a Rabbit Hide…

All of my deer hide tanning included taking the hair off the hide and naturally, I was also curious to learn how to do this with the fur on… a rabbit is perfect for that! My friend raises rabbits for meat so I asked her to give me the hides after they butchered their rabbits.

Is This the Only Way?

I tried a few different ways but was looking for a simple way to tan a hide, fur-on, without needing to look for products like alum and such (tanning rabbit hides with salt and alum and borax are some common ways you’ll come across if you search online for tanning tutorials).

Before we start going through the steps of tanning a rabbit hide, let me just say that this is how I do this, it’s not the only way to do it. They say that if you ask a dozen hide tanners how to tan a hide you will get a dozen different answers. This is true, I think.

Hide tanning is an art, and in art, there is no wrong way and there is no one way. If it works for you it works, that’s all there is to it.

I’ve tried a few ways of tanning in the past and I’ll keep trying and experimenting with different ways, but for now, this process of tanning that I am about to share with you works well for me for small hides.

Tools You’ll Need…

• A butchering knife – for skinning the rabbit.
• Fleshing knife – to flesh the hide.
• Work beam – you need to make sure that you have a proper work area. This will make your life so much easier. You’ll see my beam in the photos below. It was made from a simple PVC pipe and two cedar posts.
• Gloves
• Apron 
• Dish soap – we need two drops for the second rinse.
• Plywood – we are going to pin and stretch the hide on this board so make sure that it is large enough.
• Nails and a hammer – we are going to use the nails to hold the hide stretched on the plywood. It doesn’t matter what nails you are using, however, thin nails will do best.
• Hair dryer – to speed up the drying process.
• Hair brush – to brush the fur as we dry it.
• Egg yolk – to “brain” the hide. More on that later.
• A bowl – just a small bowl for the egg yolk.
• Pastry brush – to apply the egg yolk.

Tanning a Rabbit Hide Step-by-Step…

Step one – skin the rabbit. First, we have to get the hide off the animal. I go into more detail on how to skin a rabbit in my How to Butcher a Rabbit post so make sure to head over there and take a look.

In short, hang your animal from its back legs, cut the skin right under the back legs joint, and then continue in a V shape towards the center of the tummy, between the two hind legs. From there move in a straight line down the stomach until you get to the neck. Cut the head off and you are left with the hide.

Step two – rinse the hide. The next thing we want to do is to rinse the hide. You don’t need to use soap or anything else in this first rinse, just cold water.

Step three – flesh the hide. Fleshing is removing all the flesh and fat from the skin. A fleshing knife (linked above) has a very dull edge, not sharp at all. You can also use a piece of dull metal or a spoon or a butter knife.

Whatever you use, our objective here is to scrape the flesh off of the skin gently. Place the hide on the beam (which is simply made from a 4? PVC pipe and a couple of cedar logs), and hold the hide to the beam with your body (that is covered with the apron…), then, gently scrape the flesh off the skin away from you.

I’ve learned that this is so much easier with a deer hide! A deer hide is a hundred times tougher so you can just go at it, but rabbit skin is so thin and tears easily. In some areas, it’s as thin as paper. You have to do this gently or you’ll rip the hide.

If you do make holes in the hide it’s not a huge deal because we can always sew them later. But do go gently here and take your time. You might need to get rid of the hide that was around the front legs. You can cut it off which, of course, will leave you with two holes. Since they are close to the edge of the hide you can either trim around them or sew them later.

Step four – rinse the hide. After fleshing is done, it’s time to rinse again. This time, to get rid of some of the fat, put the hide in a bucket and use a tiny drop of dish soap and cold water. After you’re done rinsing the hide make sure to try and squeeze it and twist it as good as you can to remove as much water as possible.

Step five – partially dry the hide. We are going to slightly dry the hide. The emphasis here is on SLIGHTLY, we want it just a tiny bit damp. Place the hide, skin down, on a piece of clean plywood, and use a hair dryer and a brush to dry the fur. This takes some time… We don’t need it completely dry, it’s going to go through another washing but we also don’t want the hide completely wet.

Of course, you don’t have to use a hairdryer. If it’s a nice day outside you can simply leave it in the sun and check on it once in a while. Make sure your dog can’t reach the hide and be mindful of flies, we don’t want them to come to lay eggs all over the hide.

Step six – pin the hide to a board. You can use whatever nails you have, they don’t have to be long nails like I used, It’s just what I had. Use your hammer and nails to pin the hide to the board to keep it stretched. You don’t need to stretch it tight, we just don’t want it to move. Keep the nails at the edge of the hide and don’t worry about the tiny holes that they make, they are barely noticeable.

Step seven – brain the hide. Let’s talk about the braining process… Traditionally, you would use the brain of the animal to tan its hide. It is said that every animal has a brain big enough to tan its own hide (except a buffalo, I think). If you want to use the brain you can remove it from the animal’s head as I show you how to do with deer in my post How to Extract Deer Brain for Hide Tanning. I think that it works pretty much the same with all animals.

However, it’s really hard to do with small animals! It’s a tiny little brain and it’s so hard to get it out of the small skull. I tried, just for the sake of experimenting, and even though I got the brain out I found that it was really hard to dissolve it in water as you should do before spreading the solution on the hide.

So there are a couple of options here…

1. Use a brain from another animal. If you have a deer brain in the freezer or if you can get pig or cow’s brain from the local butcher you can use that brain. Again, just dissolve it in a little bit of water and use the solution on the hide. If you want to see how to make the solution and for a recipe check out my How to Tan Deer Hide post.  
2. Use an egg yolk instead of the brain. That is what I ended up doing with this hide…

All you need is one egg yolk, it has a lot of fat in it and will help us soften the skin. Beat the yolk in a bowl and use a kitchen brush to brush the damp skin. Make sure to cover every area of the skin with a good amount of egg yolk (one egg yolk should be enough for one rabbit hide). Try not to brush the fur with the egg yolk but if you do it’s no big deal.

Then, cover your hide with a damp towel. Leave it like that for the night and make sure the hide does not dry. So if you leave it in a warm place keep your towel a bit damp to keep the moisture. If you leave the hide outside or in a shed, make sure to cover it well so flies don’t lay eggs on it.

Step eight – third rinse. Next, let’s wash the egg yolk from the hide. Again, only use water in this step, no soap and then squeeze the hide well to remove the excess water.

Step nine – dry and soften the hide. You are almost done! Now, the softening part is the hardest with a deer hide because the skin is so thick but the easiest part to do with a rabbit hide because the skin is so thin. You need to be gentle here since you can easily rip the skin if you pull too hard.

Alternate between drying, stretching, and pulling the skin. You can use the hairdryer again a little bit at the beginning to get to a point where the hide is damp, then pull and stretch a little bit. Let the hide sit on the board to dry in the air a little bit longer, then work the hide again for a few more minutes.

Pull here, pull there, stretch it this way and that way. The point is to do this as the skin is drying. If you let it sit and dry too much it will just dry hard and we don’t want that. As the skin dries and you pull it to open it up and soften it, you’ll notice that it changes color a little bit, and everywhere that you soften and is getting close to being completely dry becomes whitish (that’s an indication that you are doing it right).

Some people do this for a couple of hours in front of the TV at night, I preferred doing it over a period of three days. I mess with the hide for a few minutes, then fold it in half skin to skin and again fur to fur and place it in a plastic bag. This way it doesn’t dry on me too quickly.

I went back to it after a few hours for another 15 minutes of stretching and softening and then folded it and put it in the bag again and so on and so on until it was completely dry. This just worked better for me but you can do it all in a couple of hours if you prefer.

I do need to warn you that some hair does come off and can make quite the mess. So wear clothes that you don’t mind getting rabbit fur on and prepare to clean your house from rabbit hair if you do this indoors.As the hide is drying, this is also your time to sew any holes if you want to. I’ve heard of people just using a regular needle and thread because the skin of a rabbit is so thin, but if you want you can use leather sewing equipment.

Step ten – smoke the hide. The last step in the hide tanning process is to smoke the hide. If you don’t smoke and leave it at this stage, every time it touches water it will go back to being raw hide. The smoke preserves the skin, closes it, and makes it waterproof.

I haven’t smoked my hide yet. I am in the process of building a smoker so it’s easier for me to smoke hides (and other things). You can see the smoking process in the deer hide tanning post that I linked to above but since rabbit hide is smaller and thinner you should only smoke it for around 30 minutes.

Once your hide is smoked, leave it outside in the fresh air to lose the smoke smell, then, you can use it in projects. You’ll probably need more than one hide for a project. Another option is to use it as part of a project. For example, I was thinking about sewing a purse from my deerskin and adding pieces of rabbit fur here and there.

Caring for a Tanned Rabbit Hide…

As far as I know, there isn’t much that you’re supposed to do after smoking the hide. You might want to give the fur a brush once in a while, but other than that, there is really not much to maintain.

Tips…

• Getting the hide – if you want to try this but don’t raise rabbits for meat, try to find someone in your area who does or someone who hunts rabbits. A good place to ask is in your local Facebook homesteading groups.
• Place the hide in the freezer – when you do get a rabbit or just the rabbit hide, if you don’t have time to work it right away, fold it, place it in a ziplock bag, and place it in the freezer. When you have time, take it out and let it thaw before starting the tanning process.
• Freeze deer brain – during the hunting season, if you can extract deer brain and place it in the freezer (each brain in its own ziplock bag), do so. I think that brain mixed with water is a better solution than the egg. It’s very fatty and softens the skin much more.
• Other animals – follow this hair-on tanning process with any other small animal. I’ve tried a raccoon, a young goat that didn’t make it, a groundhog… It can be the same process with all the other small animals.
• Use a net – if you are planning to leave the hide to dry outside, it might be beneficial to place it under a net of some sort. Flies find it very quickly and we do want to try to keep them away.
• Vacuum – another thing that can make this process a bit easier is a vacuum. Especially if you are going to work the hide inside. It does lose some hair and it can be much easier to clean the mess with a vacuum.

Frequently Asked Questions…

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I hope that this tutorial on how to tan a rabbit hide gave you an idea of the process. Again, follow the principals but you can try changing the methods a bit to fit your schedule or the way you like to work. If you grow rabbits for meat, this is a great way to use their skin. This is also a great project for a child who wants to start with hide tanning since the skin is thin and is not too hard to work. I hope that you’ll try tanning a rabbit hide!

More Great Tutorials…

• How to Cook a Rabbit
• How to Weave a Round Basket
• Fishing Line Deer Fence
• How to Make Goat Milk Soap
• How to Make a Bamboo Screen

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