GOING FULL PELT

Philip Siddell learn some new skills and makes use of a stash of rabbit pelts

- Philip Siddell

Early on in my hunting career, as I started to have some success over the land I grew up on, I kept the pelt from each rabbit I shot. I’m not sure quite what compelled me to hold on to those skins, but I suspected they could be useful. Unfortunately, in those pre-YouTube days, I had no idea how to transform them into something useable. In short order, that pile of pelts became a grimy mass of stiff, brittle sheets that ended up on the compost heap.

The atavistic impulse to hold on to those hides has never really left me. A little older, arguably wiser, and with some time on my hands, I decided it was high time I learned to make use of a much-neglected part of the airgunner’s most common quarry.

AMBITIOUS PROJECT

Over the last year or so, I’d already begun the process of learning how to tan and preserve various pieces of fur and feather in order to feed my off-season fly-tying habit, but I felt it was time to tackle a more ambitious project, something that would make use of full pelts and also put an end to my persistent problems battling frozen fingers during the winter. The fur mittens worn by explorers like Ernest Shackleton have always captured my imagination, and I thought that they’d be just the job for keeping my digits warm. After a couple of evenings’ research, I found a suitable pattern and ascertained that with some creative trimming I’d need just four good-size rabbit pelts for the mitts; I opted to use a more supple pigskin for the palm and cuff trims.

PRESERVATION