The use of gambier as a tanner for fur-tanned rabbit skin

Faculty of Animal Science, Universitas Gadjah Mada, 55281, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: artiwi@mail.ugm.ac.id

Abstract

Rabbit fur skin is an exotic skin group and a by-product of slaughtering animal houses. The tanning process is a process for processing. This vegetable tanning can be used as vegetable tanning materials derived from materials obtained from nature. examples of vegetable tanners are gambier and mimosa. The material used for research was rabbit fur 15 pieces and gambier. The research used in this experiment was a completely randomized design with 5 treatments and 3 replications, and there were significant influences would be tested by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test Method. The treatment of this research used mimosa 4% (T0), gambier 3% (T1), 4% (T2), 5% (T3) dan 6% (T4). The result showed that using gambier as tanning material has a significant effect on tensile strength, tear strength, thickness, and flexibility. The best result of this research was T4 using 6% of gambier as a tanning agent. The tanned skin had 34,43 N/mm² tensile strength, 8,25 Kg/cm, tear strength of 2,33 mm thickness, and 77,09% flexibility. The conclusion of this research is gambier can be added as a tanning agent for rabbit fur and gives good quality.