FUR TANNING
120-180 Days
Soft Garment Tan Turnaround Time
120-180 Days
Taxidermy Wet Tan Turnaround Time
OUR TANNING TYPES
*Light Fleshing and Shaving included in pricing*
Wet Tan
Wet tans are geared for the taxidermy industry. Our wet tans are perfect for anyone wishing to mount their hides, our wet tans provide incredible stretch for taxidermy mounts.
Soft Tan (Garment Tan)
This is our softest and best tan. This tan is perfect for everything from garments, rugs, crafts, and decorative hangers. Each fur is handled individually, is oiled multiple times, broken multiple times and fully washed and dried. It is our most labor intensive tan but no one can rival the fur when its finished.
CURRENT 2024 PRICING
Shipping to Middle Creek Tannery
Shipping to us is easy!
Make sure your hides are air dried or salt dried. All ears, nose, lips are split and turned, feet are split and deboned. There are additional charges if you need us to do these for you.
Package your dried furs into a box that will comfortably fit your furs without creating too much stress on the hides. They should lay in the box easily and not have to be crammed into the box.
Include a packing list of how many of what species are in the order and what tanning level you would like. You can choose different levels for different furs, that's ok. Just make sure we know which furs are getting what level of tan. Please also include your first and last name, phone number, return shipping address and email address. All correspondence including invoicing will be sent to your email.
Write on the outside of the box how many boxes your are sending for example if sending 3 boxes of furs write on the box 1 of 3, 2 of 3 and so forth.
If you are in the Speedy Delivery area they are the most economical and fastest shipping method, otherwise use UPS or FedEx. Use USPS postal as a last resort, shipping is much slower and packages may be prone to more damage.
Once your furs are received a customer account will be created and your furs will be assigned a unique fur number and will be uploaded to your account.
PLEASE SEND ALL SHIPMENTS TO:
MIDDLE CREEK TANNERY
1409 N 17th St.
Superior, WI 54880
Once your furs are completed, shipping in the most economical way will be added to your final invoice total.
DROP OFFS WELCOME, BUT BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.
All harvest tags and CITES tags are the responsibility of the customer. Please be sure if tags are required that they are attached.
Our Process
Our process of tanning furs at Middle Creek Tannery involves several steps to transform raw animal hides into durable and luxurious fur decoration or products. Tanning is the process of treating animal skins to make them resistant to decay and suitable for various applications from garments, wall hangers, to taxidermy mounts.
Firstly, the raw animal hides are received at our tannery or authorized receiving agent and is immediately tagged with it's own unique number and rehydrated back to a "just skinned" state . Any unwanted substances such as dirt, fat, or flesh are removed through a process called fleshing. This step ensures that the hides are clean and ready for further processing.
Next, the hides are salted to help lock in the fur at the follicle and to help draw out remaining bodily fluids, and prepares them for the next stage. ( If hides come in salted this step is skipped and we move to the next.)
Once again the furs are rehydrated from being salt dried.
After rehydrating, the hides undergo a process called pickling. pickling involves treating the hides with acids which will help eliminate bacteria and "plump up the hide for shaving and thinning.
The hides will go into a standalone degreasing bath to help remove body fats and grease that are locked into the dermal layers of the skin. They will go back into the pickle after degreasing.
Once the hides have been pickled, they are shaved and or thinned to bring the dermal layer down to a thickness that will help create a soft supple tan. After shaving and thinning the hides will go back into the pickle to ensure that it is treated all the way through the dermal layers.
The next step is tanning, where the hides are treated with commercial tanning agents. These agents penetrate the hides and chemically bond with the collagen fibers, making them more resistant to decay and improving their strength and flexibility. Tanning can be done using various methods, including chrome tanning, mineral tanning, or synthetic tanning.
After tanning, the hides are further processed through a series of steps, including neutralization, and fatliquoring. These steps help to stabilize the pH level and enhance their softness and suppleness.
Finally, the tanned hides are dried, stretched, and broken till finished to achieve the desired texture, appearance, and quality. This may involve processes such as breaking, shampooing, and blow drying. The finished furs are then ready to be used as you wish or depending on the tan type, mounted for taxidermy.
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