June 9, 2011

Trimming

A square approximately 9"x9" was trimmed from the large hide.

A square approximately 3"x3" was cut from the large hide for testing purposes.

Resalting
Excess wet salt was scraped from the hide.

550 g of NaCl was added to the large hide.
450 g of NaCl was added to the small hide.

Soaking
The 3"x3" test strip was placed in distilled water for 24 hours to remove blood and salt.

The solution had a pH of 7.5 when the piece of hide was removed.

Liming
An NaOH solution was made by combining 200 mL of H₂O with 2 g of NaOH. The pH of this solution was 10. The 3"x3" test piece was placed in this solution at 1:45 pm. 

Due to the high pH of the solution, the hide was checked for progress at 6:30 pm; however, the hair was still firmly attached to the hide at this time.