tannery

[kodeman]

Hi,
Which tannery do you michigan guys prefer;
The Wildlife Gallery or H&H Fur Dressing?

Im probably going to start sending hides to a tannery and im sure which one is better.

thanks
Kodeman

[gab]

I'm not from Michigan,but i've used both.Mark at H&h is easy to deal with,but wildlife seems more consistent.I had stretch issues with both.People on here rave about Modern,which I think is also in Mi

[Brian Jones]

The Wildlife Gallery

[Moosabec Taxidermy]

I'm thinking of sending most of my hides (I usually keep a few to tan myself) to the wildlife gallery because I've head so many good reports about this tannery, but has anybody heard any bad things about them? And usually how long is the return time? I'm in Maine so I expect (guessing?) to wait at least maybe three months or so before I get my hides back(?)... And to those of you who have a tannery do their hides, do you have them do a dry tan or a wet tan? Is one more expensive than the other? I understand that if you're having say, a bear hide done for a rug you'd probably have it dry tanned, but would you have a deer head done (dry tanned) and then just re-hydrate it in order to save more space in your freezer? Would this be the way to go, or just have it wet tanned since it would save a step prior to mounting it on your form, and if you do choose to have it dry tanned from the wildlife gallery, when re-hydrating it, would you use water and salt to re-hydrate it, since we salt the hides before we send them to the tannery anyway, and they do use salt in whatever method they tan with, right???

[Brian Jones]

Moosabec, I have had zero problems with them. As with any tannery the return times vary. They keep there website up to date on there return times. Generally around three months. I have them wet tan my hides. I am within driving distance, so shipping cost is not a concern of mine. If I were to have them shipped, I would have them dry tanned to save on shipping cost. The price of a wet vs. dry tan is the same, around $40.00 for a deer cape. They also have a pricelist on there website. Go here and check it out.  www.thewildlifegallery.com

[Moosabec Taxidermy]

Thank you nibjones! I have had things tanned in a tannery before and I wasn't totally satisfied with what came back, shrinkage, stretching, too thin, or too thick in places, etc, so I was always rather Leary of what I sent out to get so called "professionally" tanned. But, knowing and believing in what you wrote to be true will take a mighty big load off from my mind, and I'm sure my customers will be well satisfied with what this tannery seems to offer, though they may never know who actually tanned their hides, because I keep some here in my shop to tan myself in order to keep up with the flow of incoming and out going and by the time I'm done with the ones I keep, the ones I shipped to the tannery should be in by then, well, hopefully tanned, or on their way back to me. I'm sure you and many others in here may do the same than to wait for all of it to come in at once and this can become overwhelming at times. Anyway, I went to their web site that you listed and was amazed as to how professional they run things, wow, they mean business don't they. I'm going to use them. Thanks...

[Brian Jones]

No Problem!