Looking to get more out of your animal? Did you know I offer custom services for both hides & skulls?
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Pricing -
Sheepskins : $275
Skulls : $100
Sheepskins :
At drop off, there is a deposit fee of $75 to be paid. This cost will be taken off total cost at pickup.
Skulls :
At drop off, there is a deposit fee of $50 to be paid. This cost will be taken off total cost at pickup.
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Custom Hides
All my hides are tanned & worked on using traditional tanning methods using egg yolk and smoke. The eggs are sourced from my flock of hens, or local farms. As each hide is tanned with smoke and by myself, please expect a slight smoky smell to your hide, as well as some small imperfections.
Each hide takes me 2-6 months to finish and you will be contacted once finished.
I accept both long and short wool skins, with low amounts of VM. I only accept wool sheepskins for custom tanning, I currently don't do hair sheepskins or other animal skins at this time.
Prepping Your Hides To Bring For Tanning
When you pickup your hides from the butcher the day of processing, you will want to salt or freeze the same day within hours of the sheep being processed. This is done to preserve your hide so it does not decompose. The hides you bring to me will either need to be salted or frozen prior to their arrival of tanning. If your hide is not salted, the cost will be an extra $10/hide. Once your hide has been salted or frozen, please place them into a garbage bag or bin before sending my way.
Salting Your Hide
You can purchase the salt for your hide from UFA - (https://ufa.com/myUFA/Animals/Animal-Nutrition/Minerals-%26-Supplements/Livestock-Salt/Hi-Grade-Salt---20-kg/p/121031)
Please note that you ONLY want to use white salt on your hide, any other type of salt will damage your skin.
You will salt your hides using white salt, which can be purchased at UFA. You will lay your hide out wool down, skin up, and evenly spread the salt over the hide and into all the edges and folds. I don’t measure/weigh my salt, just estimate. You will want enough salt on it that the moisture is not coming through the salt. About 1/4 inch layer.
Freezing Your Hide
If you do not have access to salt, the less desirable option is to freeze your hides. Special care must be taken when freezing the hide so the skin does not touch itself because it makes the risk of skin tearing greater when the hide thaws. There are a few options you have when following through with freezing.
Option 1- Roll your hide “jelly roll” style, this is achieved by laying it on a clean surface skin side down, wool side up, and rolling the hide into itself.
Option 2- The other option when freezing is to lay the hide skin side down, wool side up, and folding the wool side over itself in half.
Once your hide is rolled or folded, you can place into a garbage bag and place into the freezer.
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Custom Skulls
All my skulls are hand finished and worked on for a few weeks in the spring-summer. My skulls are cleaned by the bugs in the compost/manure pile, and then finished by by pressure washing, boiling, as well as gluing on the sheaths/adding a finisher to seal the skull.
It takes me about 4-6 weeks to finish a skull, time varies depending on the skull itself as well as the environment (temperature, moisture, etc.)
Only sheep & goat skulls are accepted for custom services at this moment.
Prepping Your Skulls For Cleaning
On the day of processing, please tuck your heads into garbage bags individually, double wrapped, and put away in the freezer. This allows to keep them at the state they’re at, and to not rot. Once they’re bagged & frozen, you can bring them in for cleaning.
