recommended tanneries

If you don't like grunt work I don't think taxidermy is what you want to be doing.

Steve M.

 

if you raise your prices you might start enjoying the grunt work. i do know that unless you live driving distance to a place where you can deliver capes, etc, to be fleshed turned and salted you are going to be paing pretty good for shipping. you might have to find a local taxidermist near you that may be interested in doing prep work.

 

SNAP-ON Taxidermist
If your not interested in prep work you already HAVE the wrong attitude.
As a professional studio, that's we do, Prep and salt is part of it.
If you want a GOOD JOB you should be doing it yourself.
Tanneries are just that TANNERIES not taxidermists.

 

Wildlife Gallery will do it. But like * said, it is part of your finished product and you will learn much from doing it yourself.

 

East Coast also offers turn and tan service. But if your going to go throung the trouble of taking the cape off the head spend the extra 20 minutes to finish up.

 

The prep work BEFORE tanning is too important to trust to someone else. That's just one of the many things I learned the HARD way. If it's done wrong, there's no way that it can be corrected with the final prep work.

 

It all Boils down To product control. The more of the process you keep within your hands. The better you are in control of the outcome. and the bigger portion of the profit you can put in your pocket. prep work is the foundation of every mount. Although a good taxidermist is capable of making any mount look good. there are limitations. In the past when I have gotten busy. I have tried some of the guys who turn, flesh, and return tanned. I have yet to be satisfied with any I have tried. IN the end I am staking MY reputation on the quality of work done by someone else. If doing the work part of Taxidermy is distasteful to you. Buy prepped hides, mount to your satisfaction and sell them on Ebay. stay away from customer work. The world really does not need another Hacksidermist

 

I'm sorry you didn't like some of the answers you got but in my opinion those guys were right on. I skin, turn/split and salt all of my animals and then send to a tannery. For me the skinning, turning/splitting, and salting are probably the least enjoyable part of taxidermy but I still do it anyway because I'm in control and it makes economical sense for me. I don't do a lot of mounts and it still doesn't take that long to do and by me doing it I know it's done right and I have only myself to blame if something goes wrong (other than a poorly cared for cape or hide to begin with by the customer). If you can find someone to do it for you that does a good job and it's economical for you that's great. You got responses from some very reputable taxidermists on this thread and our work speaks for itself which I believe is a product of doing the skinning, turning/splitting, and salting ourselves.

 

" resorting to name calling and negative insuations is unneccessary and unwanted"

Welcome to the Taxidermy. net!!. A great place where everyone knows everything.

 

Theres a guy in Carolina that offers it. I will see if I can find that flyer. But the money spent on having it done, I am along with the rest. Its in your best intrest, In my opinion to turn those lips and stuff yourself. And I am just making a comment here. So dont get to bent up on it. BUT.... I found that the more I did the faster and eaiser it got like most things. So if you are having a tough time with it the best thing to do is get some capes and start working them. Even doe capes will teach you. Just my opinion...

 

"You go in the water, Sharks in the water" Your first bite? Seriously though, The Wildlife Gallery offers that service, look under tanneries. Though, you will find it to be more cost effective to do that yourself, in time you should have it down to 20 minutes, I use razor blades, a small dowell rod and ear turners.

 

Well I see we now have another new member who feels they need to be catered to in just the manor they like. I am going to explain this one time for you and one time only. This is the Taxidermy net. It is free anyone can come here and get free information and advise from professional taxidermists. Information that some of us who have been in this industry for in excess of 45 years have worked very hard to attain. and have bore great expense investigating. we often offer it up with little prying from the Thousands of beginners who come here. and weather you get it from us directly. Or from someone else who did. you get it from those old timers who paid their dues. You may not get it exactly how you want it. but what the heck it's free.
No one called you names. you simply have a thin skin and want everything not only handed to you. you want it gift wrapped. You were given sound advice. if you depend on others to take care of what you should do yourself you will end up doing a lot of repair work. like cut lip corners. such a repair will only last for so long before it degrades and in time your accumulative work will begin to look bad.
You know a few taxidermist who do 600 heads a year. Name two. Here is a thought why, Don't you simply go ask them where they have it done. that way you don't have to worry about name calling and negative insuations. what ever that is!

 

Sam - call David Patton at Lonestar Wool and Fur. They offer what you are looking for and at a good price. You can Google him or go to the tanning section and find him on there.

 

If oldbuzzard hired someone to do the turning and fleshing, and the rest of the tanning process.... that would come to his shop.....everyone that criticized him would have nothing to say. So what is the difference if he sends them to a tannery that does that part of the process there. You are still hiring out the service and that part of the process is still out of your hands. The bottom line is that you are paying someone else to do something for you. If you guys are going to criticize him for that, then you better not have any employees doing any part of the process for you either.

With that said. I flesh and salt all my own capes before I send them to the tanner. I learned the hard way too that the turning and fleshing is too critical to trust to anyone else. So even though I disagree with the way many of the guys approached your comment. I think you should put alot of thought into how much you like to sew. Because if you send them somewhere to have them fleshed and salted....you will be spending more time sewing holes that you didnt even make. On the bright side, you will become much much better at repairs. You will even learn to fix things that you didn't think could be fixed. I know I did.

 

Sam, The Wildlife Gallery is where I send my capes to. But like others said, when you send capes out to be prepped by someone else, it's out of your personal control. I always prep my capes, salt and dry before sending them to the tannery. Anytime you send a green frozen cape out, you are taking the risk of having the hide spoil. You can not always trust the mail, no matter what shipper you choose. Raise your price and pay yourself well for doing the extra work you don't care to do. Have a Merry Christmas and welcome to this site.
Chuck

 

Sam, Maybe instead of being the one who owns the shop (even if its just a hobby) you could find another shop locally and work for them. Just put mounts together. Does'nt sound like your in it to make alot of money, but you definitly enjoy doing some of the work. Just a thought!

 

Grand Slam Taxidermy and Tannery

I have worked with several tanneries some good some not so good. At Grand Slam I got accomidating service with a quality product.

Call Chris at 208-746-0729