How to go about having a fallow skin made into a rug?

[Pine Marten]

Hello everyone.

For some time now, my sister has been suggesting that she'd like a fallow skin rug, so that he twins can play on it and damage it with vomit and so on, or maybe she'd put it to a more glamorous use. My brother-in-law would hate it, so it would be a good gift at some point. So I'm pretty clear on how to obtain the raw materials, but I don't propose to tan a skin myself. I don't have the skills, and I certainly don't have a space to do it in as it's a pretty unpleasant process. I'd need to have it done for me by people who know what they're doing. I believe there's a tannery in the West Country that will take care of this if you post them a salted or frozen skin. I have no idea how long the process would take though, I daresay a fait bit of time. I also suspect that she'd like a rug made from the summer coat, so when exactly would I be looking to go stalking? No later than September? I suppose it's dependent on weather.

Anyway, if anyone else has done this, I'd appreciate you sharing you experience.

Finally, has anyone had a CWD skin tanned? They're spectacularly fluffy, and I expect it would be a very fine leather, but then their hair seems to fall out when you blow on it like a dandelion...

 

[tackb]

I have a fallow skin and very nice it is to but be aware that they are not good as rugs because the hairs are hollow and just wont take the traffic walking on them all the time.

 

[Archer]

Devonia at Buckfastleigh will tan the skin and tackb is spot on about the durability as a rug

 

[Pine Marten]

That's the one, Devonia. I don't think she'd use it as a carpet in a main area, more as decoration.

 

[tackb]

it'll be lovely then , summer coat is awesome !

find a nice looking beast and examine it(powerful binoculars are good for this) then shoot it in the head and skin it really carefully ! (you always damage the best skin you want to keep , it's the law of sod!)

 

[Pine Marten]

When do they generally start to change into the winter coat? Early Autumn?

 

[norma 308]

Had a red skin done and it was done very well but they moult it's now on the shoot room wall !!

 

[Tackleberry270]

It is really important to get the skin off as soon as possible as the longer you leave it the less chance there is of it holding on to the hairs. As soon as it is off you will need to remove any meat and then cover it in salt. It will draw moisture out of the skin so allowing it to drain off and reapplying salt is an advantage. Other obvious considerations I think have been mentioned already. I did this myself before sending off two Roe Doe pelts to a company near Taunton (they have closed now). Even having done this process they still are not great at holding on to the hair so if you walk on them you can expect to be vacuuming up loads of pins from the carpet.

 

[AN DU RU FOX]

army surplus in ormskirk does reihndeer skins allready for rugs for a couple of quid, i dont think your sister will tell the difference, thats if you dont want the luxury of a nice quiet stalk away from the humdrum of modern life,

 

[Pine Marten]

army surplus in ormskirk does reihndeer skins allready for rugs for a couple of quid, i dont think your sister will tell the difference, thats if you dont want the luxury of a nice quiet stalk away from the humdrum of modern life,

I'm obviously not interested in a solution that doesn't involve me procuring the skin... She doesn't just want a deer skin, she wants to tell he children that it's Uncle Pine Marten's deer skin!