Starting A Business To Tan Hides?

Tnrandy · Jan 7, 2020

Not sure where to post this, so move if needed....

My son has been doing euro mounts for 2 years now. We live in a small community and the only skulls are whitetail. Even though we advertise we can do any skulls, here is mainly whitetails, so we know our market is going to be real limited.

My son loves what he's doing, and one day might even become a full fledged taxidermist. But until then we are wondering if there is a service, such as tanning hides, that might give him more work, without a LARGE investment on the front end. Is there a huge need for someone to tan hides? I see post from time to time about tanning. If not, is there any service that taxidermist really need that is currently not being met, that someone should look into providing?

Thanks for any advice you can share.
Randy

joeym · Jan 7, 2020

You'll make more money fleshing, salting, drying them and shipping them off to a tannery. There is way less time, supply, and infrastructure investment. Take the tannery prices, and build in a profit. Moyle, Mink & Tannery does work for prices easy to capitalize on. I'm the only taxidermist in my area who fools with tanning. The downside is a 6-9 month waiting time from the tanneries. Make everyone pay a 75% deposit, and you'll be OK. It's good to have a variety of tanned skins on hand for people to see what they are getting upon return. It's almost impossible to sell something off an empty wagon!

Frank E. Kotula · Jan 8, 2020

Tanning is not a simple process as many think as you’ll hear . You’ll need proper equipment, lots of storage and or freezers. Good insurance to cover up any mistakes made and capes need to be replaced.
Plus a real good knowledge on different types of tans pickled and issues you can run into. Plus a few mistakes in not thinning properly, holes, slipping can ruin it quickly

WILD BROOKIES · Jan 9, 2020

Frank E. Kotula said: ↑

Tanning is not a simple process as many think as you’ll hear . You’ll need proper equipment, lots of storage and or freezers. Good insurance to cover up any mistakes made and capes need to be replaced.
Plus a real good knowledge on different types of tans pickled and issues you can run into. Plus a few mistakes in not thinning properly, holes, slipping can ruin it quickly
Click to expand...

Frank is right if you think wholesale tannery is cheap up front costs you are wrong

Tnrandy · Jan 9, 2020

Doesn’t sound like that’s a good route for my son. Maybe he just sticks with euro and horn mounts. He really enjoys it just not a lot of business.
Thanks for replies

Tanglewood Taxidermy · Jan 9, 2020

You might want to look into whole sale antler mounting and/or euro mounting for local taxidermists.

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