Smaller gourds will dry in a day or two, larger gourds may take a few days of 12-18 hours per day, but they will be ready to craft in a very short time, later in the book we will explain how to use this method to get your gourd from the vine to the crafting table in 3 days or less. You will know when the gourd is dry, by hitting it into your hand to break the seed pack loose on the inside, once you hear the seeds rattle around, you know it is ready.

The inside of the gourd is cleaned the same way as mentioned earlier in the dry cleaning portion of this booklet.

Fig 5 - Using a Chore Boy copper scrubber with ligght pressure to remove any skin remnants missed bythe flat backside of the table knife. This insures a smooth even finish when the gourd is dry.