To cure a rabbit skin, it must be fresh flayed and cleaned of all fat and particles of flesh by scraping it with a blunt knife whilst stretched, fur inwards, upon a rounded surface such as a baluster rail. Then steep it in a solution made by mixing thoroughly together when dry 4 parts alum and 1 part common salt, and then adding as much warm water as will dissolve the mixture. The quantity depends on the size of the skin. To ascertain when it his soaked long enough, squeeze the liquid from it. Then double it, with the skin side outwards, so as to make a crease, and when the line shows white the soaking can be stopped. The soaking usually takes about forty-eight hours. Make a paste of Hour and water, and, having rinsed the skin, dip it for a minute in the warm gruel. Then wash it clean with cold water, and dry it. When about half dry, stretch again on a board, and rub with pumice. Small skins, when freshly flayed, can be cured by being soaked for a few days in a solution of tan. This can be made by boiling oak bark or oak galls in rain or distilled water, or by dissolving tannin in soft water. Fill a pot with oak bark, and boil it in twice as much water for three hours.

Use the solution cold and take out and rub the skin as often as possible during the process.