What does a commercial tannery do to hide that makes it so soft and pliable. I do my own tanning using Saftee acid for a pickle and Lutan F for the tan. What are the advantages of using commercial tanned capes for mounting VS do it your self tanning? I have mounted a couple hundred that i have tanned but have never mounted a commercially tanned cape.
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Tanneries have quality control, in that they can stay quite consistent in shaving, recipes, etc. Doing it yourself allows you to do them one at a time if need be, like when you have to babysit a loose cape, for example. Tanneries can do them while you do other types of work, to save time. Tanneries have become the extra man working for you. Both methods have their strong points.
It takes a few hours each of personal handling plus the set up and supplies to tan you're own capes. Most commercial tanneries charge less than 30.00 to tan a deer cape. What is you're time worth? If the answer is more than minimum wage, send them off.
i've done it both ways, but now have gone back to doing them my self.
there is a misconception out there that if you send your capes out to get them tanned, when they come back you just mount them up. wrong.
they still have to be finished fleshed down for mounting, any NEW EXTRA holes that are now on the cape have to be fixed. and if by chance something goes wrong, guess what..never their fault.
Jim, the things that you are forgetting to mention, skins have to be dry salted and fleshed, you need to figure at least a 1/2 hour for that, and boxing and shipping there and back. so that $30 cape now costs, $50 -$60 each or more.
I can flesh my capes the first time in less than 20 minutes, second fleshing 10 minutes. then they're almost ready to mount, don't leave my shop, and they're on my schedule not theirs.
but when you run a large shop like mine you can not afford to be dicking around tanning you're own capes.
cost is the same whether you are doing 10 capes or a 1010 capes.
Ive been there, and know what you are saying. The majority of my stuff travels...and Im not even a big studio, far from it.