Deer hides

[David T]

Guys

Just back from an afternoon of misery in Edinburgh with the boss. Noticed in one shop, however, that they were selling hides for £80 a pop. Got me thinking as to how and go about it myself. More time, effort and cost than it's worth ? If not how do I go about it ? If so can anyone suggest someone who could do it and how much would they charge ?

Cheers

David

 

[dave1372]

Do you mean portable hides?

 

[David T]

No, skins mate.

 

[stalker.308]

http://www.devoniaproducts.co.uk/

They are a tanners and when I asked for a price for doing fallow skins they quoted £22 plus VAT, plus £11 for return postage, but this postage would cover 3 - 20 skins!

Hope it helps.

 

[Monument veiw]

Sounds like it could be lucrative especially as it generally a by product .

 

[jack]

It is a waste to chuck the skin away. Does tanning produce a leather which can be used for products or is it decorative only?

 

[stalker.308]

I have done the home tanning with products from Snowdonia Taxidermy Services, they sell a white tan, that tans it as the colour it is and it has worked fine, but the time and effort that goes in to it is immense, scrapping every last bit of sinew and meat and fat off the skin. It is leathery. The problem I had when I did a couple of skins was the time, the white tan was expensive and after a while the hairs started to break down and just snap off, which is not great if you wanted a floor rug that you wanted to walk or or even worse in my case it was on the back of the sofa and I kept getting itchy hairs in my clothes! I am told from a friend, who also uses this site, that deer leather is a little brittle/not as strong as normal leather, and although is nice it is not worth the effort of using it as leather compared to the same price cow leather!

I wouldn't ever do it myself again I would use a tannery and intend to get a few done this season as well as a goat or two. Someone on this site sells treated hides so maybe do a search on their prices. I would imagine you wouldn't sell a lot all the time, bit too specific/luxury item. Might be sitting on a bit of stock for a while. Lots go on ebay very cheaply. For very little effort though worth a go!