SHEEP SKINS

[DOUBLELUNG]

I just got done butchering a couple of sheep and want to make rugs out of the wool and skins. Does anyone know how to get the wool clean and white and do you tan the hides just like you would a deer?

[Trany]

Lye might work, some 10% or less solution. Urine would work too, that is how in the days of old whites got white. Check the library or some decent internet sites on bleaching wool. I found this online, hopefully it helps, and always use in a vented area and take saftey procautions.

"I believe that all methods of bleaching wool will damage the wool if used for too long a time or in too high of a concentration, so it may take you trial and error to determine how much of any whitening treatment will have the desired effect without damaging the wool too much. Have you tried a higher concentration, or longer time, or warmer room temperature, for either the hydrosulfite (Rit Color Remover) or the peroxide? You already know that chlorine bleach will just destroy wool. Two other discharge agents are thiourea dioxide, or thiox, and sodium formaldehyde sulfonxylate, also known as formusol or rongalite, but they should be similar in results to the hydrosulfite."