Knives

"Feed mixing salt"? What exactly is that?

You can buy alum from the grocery store, but a couple ounces will cost about $4. An amount large enough to do even a couple hides will be $20.

As was mentioned, it is cheaper to buy in the bulk section of particular stores. I've only seen it in a few, it was in the bulk spice section. I paid a little more than $2/lb.

Kayleigh

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Feed mixing salt looks like rock salt, but not as large. I bought at small pail of it to mix in the duck and chicken food when I was making custom rations.

yep, non iodized, looks like pickling salt to me.

Okay, thanks! I wasn't sure if it was a mineralized salt or just the plain uniodized stuff. I guess its cheaper from the feed store, if you are looking for a quantity suitable for tanning.

But since I won't be tanning Basil now that he has figured out what to do with a visiting doe, I guess I won't be needing it anyway. He is a chinchilla-looking bun and his fur would have been too nice to waste.

Oh, I only listed the knives, I use a pair of heavy-duty kitchen shears too

Actually, I just like being well prepared, using knives I already have. I didn't have anything that I felt comfortable using as a single "all arounder" and don't want to buy anything else right now. The Buck is used strictly for bleeding, and I am very picky/possessive about keeping the edge on it keen. Of all my knives it feels the best in my hand when performing this task. However, it is a bit too big for my comfort when it comes to skinning/gutting, so I use the smaller knife. Until I got the kitchen shears I used the larger, heavier butcher knife for cutting through bone. These days I keep the butcher knife for backup because it holds a very keen edge but is a bit unwieldy. Last thing I want to happen is being stuck with a knife that just isn't quite sharp enough when I'm at a critical point and really, really NEED a super-sharp knife.

As for lolipops... about three. After that third time I just dispense with the time-consuming licking and get to the center with a well-placed crunch...

MariaAz,

Crunch...

If you don't want to spend any extra $ but want to to cut bone, without a knife, try using limb loppers, hand pruners might work if you have really strong hands, but limb loppers work very nicely on Deer and Hog. Should work fine on rabbit. The specialty shears and scissors are great but if you already have loppers, consider giveing them a try.

be allocated to rabbit processing. I also got a bunch of Alaskan Ulu's which I often use for skinning, that will work nicely.

You can make a darned nice ulu, from a worn-down Skil saw blade, as they are fair to middling good steel depending. Take a nice ceramic cutoff blade and cut about a 90 degree pie slice out of the blade, and use any kind of grinder to put an edge on it without destroying its temper. If you want to drill it to put a proper handle on it, you will need a cobalt alloy drill, or break lot & lots of Hi-Speed Steel bits till you get it done. The older Dofasco blades are darned good steel, and make a great ulu, but they take a fair amount of work. Worth it I think, but hey, its up to you.

DG

I wanted to get an ulu when we went to Barrow, AK but back then I didn't think it would be more than a souvenir. Now I wish I'd gotten one! I can see how useful one would be for skinning.

Oooh, just think.. another knife I could add to my kit

Early in their relationship with their environment, Inuits, whom we knew by their generic name of Eskimo's, found clam shells great for scraping hides, hence the Ulu shape. When they could get native copper or obsidian, they made some GREAT tools from them.

I found it pretty easy for Not-Craftsman->ME to make a full set of them from any particular used Skil Saw blades, the common 7 1/4" size, alth the round shape is more important than the size.

As long as you proportion the Pie shaped piece to the potential blade width, you will get a nice one. When I worked in Ft. Yukon, the lady, Mrs.Frances, who sat patiently and showed her new white fur trader guy how she sewed gloves,used a sewing ulu, a small one about 2" wide and about 4" long, just big enuf to grasp handily while she trimmed little pieces of hides and threads with it. Now since that was an Athabascan community, use of an Inuit tool, tells you how versatile and accepted a tool the ulu had become.

If you really want to make one or get a handy friend to make one, the best
material to get is an actual OLD Skil Saw blade, the kind say 20 + years old that used to be RE-Sharpened, as it will be good tool steel that will both take and hold an edge. When making them, make sure your cutting and grinding is cooled frequently enuf to maintain the orginal temper qualities, and you will have a lifetime tool that you will really enjoy. I am both very happy with mine, even the souvienr one my daughter bought me in Alaska, and the one she made in shop class she gave her Mom.

Personally I always acquire some good heat treated and tempered steel, like springs and stuff. One of my boys made me a knife from an old file, which I liked, and have but is very brittle due to the hardness of the file.
That way if I ever have some time on my hands in which I want to fashion an edged tool, I have the basic stock to work with my small assortment of tools, vise, skil-saw and power drill.

Making an ulu has half the work done due to the CIRCLE of the Saw Blade.
Basically if you cut one of those good older blades into THIRDS, a 120 deg arc, you will have a great and versatile tool.

Have fun. Also, I am sure ULU's even cheap ones are available on-line.
My souvienr one is from FRED MYERS [ KROGER ] in Fairbanks, and has a good stainless blade and phenolic handle, actually quite a tool for under $15.00.

Finally got a bunch of people I can talk to about knives, fur, skinning, etc !

Ya'll Fight Nice Now, ya hear ??

DG

I think besides a small folder and a strong fixed blade like a mini-Kbar,
if I had room in my working collection for two others it'd be the Buck Bird knife, with one trapper blade and the gut hook. I use the gut hook for almost everything but a gut hook and it is sooooo useful. The other one would be an ulu for cutting hides, scraping hides and skinning.

To round out my collection of "working edged tools" I have a 1# hand axe of Japanese steel, made at a time after the Japanese tool industry started making good mass produced and tempered steel, with a nice fiberglass handle.
That is for the heads. The other blade I have is a Tramontina 17" Bowie with fake plastic stag handles I wrapped and super glued with probably 50' of chute cord. The blade probably weighs 2# and is my fav in the woods, rather than a hand axe. Carbon steel it holds a nice edge, and I cant see too much it would not cut.

1. Small Folder ; 2. Med to large fixed blade, i.e. Mini-Kbar ;
3. Buck Bird knive ; 4. Ulu ;
5. 1# hand axe ; 6. 12" or larger Bowie.

Thats about my assortment of working edged tools.

DG

"Wow thanks for all the replys I don't have Rexs yet but I plan to get some in the spring. I found the instructions on how to tan here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Moder...bit-Hides.aspx"

yEP. That's the link. Follow it closely and test the hide for "doneness". I tried it, but haven't quite gotten the technique down yet. I thought I had a pretty good pelt. No oil, no smell, felt like leather - but once i tried to dye them, the pelts curled up and turned to glass. Not sure what happened. I' haven't given up though. Also, we raise meat rabbits, so the fur is not optimum.

There was a terrific (though graphic) website which had a pictorial on how to butcher rabbits. It was from some operation called "Raw Dog Ranch", and the site has been featured on this forum several times. I learned a great deal from that tutorial. I couldn't find it and hope it hasn't been yanked from the web. It was very valuable to me,.. went over the different knives, broomstick method (which has never failed me), processsing, tips and more.

Hope you can find the link if you need it.

thanks for the M.E.N. article on tanning rabbit hides. Pretty much all right spot-on, from my knowledge acquired in the fur industry.

I googled RAW DOG RANCH, and the header told me they were hacked and had a trojan inserted. The owner is rebuilding the site, so I think for everyone's safety here, they have a good anti-virus program, like "AVAST", which is updated daily free.

My speculation is that probably the same mindset that vandalized the folks on the fiber rabbit thread, probably feel very proud and justified with they
hurt some site that gives out information on how to make food of animals.
Oh well, just make sure you got a good antivirus, and expercise good physical security in your day to day operations also.

Best,

DG