Has anyone used Quality Fur Dressing out of Texas? We used them upon recommendation of another studio and have had nothing but problems. This includes lost capes, poor shaving, false cuts etc.
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The first batch I sent them had a freezer burnt, head shot, blood clotted pronghorn, a road kill red fox, a green gut bobcat and a deer skin with 1/4 of hide holding the tail on - they all came back great. That is as rough a test batch as I could devise.
They have done lifesize Afican lion, my personal stuff from New Zealand and Australia and a pretty good selection of customer work so far. Good stretch, no bad shaves and the epidermis has been intact.
I have a few friends in some well known studios that use them as well. No problems that I've heard of yet.
There is another Houston tanner that I had problems with. All my elk came back matted with skin shavings in the hair and still had blood clots dried in. The mane would have curls in the hair that wouldn't straighten and when we wetted the capes they still had a strong "raw" smell and feel. I left trimmings on the side to dry out and they dried to almost a "rawhide" hardness. They sent a high dollar show steer hide back to me that looked like a screen door and then told me it was "skinning cuts". This tanner is much loved by some.
I think if you use any one tanner long enough your going to run into a problem eventually. Somebody new will be at a shaver or have a bad day or the ownership changes hands, someone doesn't hold their tongue just so ect. I had twenty caribou out at New Method (years ago for current or prospective customers) when they decided to try tieing the ears to keep them from exploding during the tumble. Surprise! I had twenty bald eared caribou! They tied them early and the tan didn't take or they didn't get neautralized or .....whatever - still bald. I've sent many other items to them since and have always had good results.
Anyway.....nothing bad with Quality Fur yet.
BudW
Who was the other Houston tanner you had problems with Bud W.? Nothing wrong with being honest Bud.
You can e-mail me if you're curious. Like I said there are those that still like these guys and I don't feel like dragging them over the coals. There are a couple of tanners I had real problems with over the years and they have developed into reputable businesses - I think I tried them in their start up phases and they were having growing pains. One guy scared the life out of me when he casually mentioned that he just had a bongo fall apart in his pickle and "I lost two longhorn steer capes last week" - yowser! Not something a prospective client wants to hear!
A former partner of mine still loves the other Houston tanner but he mostly deals with WT and thin haired gameheads. My problems involved long haired stuff or big shaving jobs.
Bud
This is in response to the complaint by Greg McBride on 12/26. For whoever is interested, Mr McBride has only used us four times. First, he stated that 2 boxes were being sent for his first order, then he called and changed it to 10, then 7, and finally 15. Seven boxes showed up, and when we called to let him know that the remaining boxes did not arrive, he stated he missed them & would send them that day. All skins looked as if they had been waded up and thrown in a corner (ei, pooly fleshed & salted). We had problems with all of his skins. I guess the old saying stands true, "garbage in, garbage out". We returned exactly what Mr McBride had on his packing list.
So I hope that taxidermists would make their own decision as to whether Mr McBride had problems with us or with himself.
We do not get on internet & slam anyone, nor have we had anyone do this until now. If anyone has any question as to our credibility, don't hesitate to call our customers references in our ads in Taxidermy Today & Breakthrough (incl'd Greg Crain of the NTA). We will not get into a confortation on the internet. Any problems should be directed to us directly. This will be our only response.