Talk to your butcher and let them know you will be saving the hide for processing. Ask them to punch your hide off the animal instead of using the knife through the entire process. This will give a clean back without holes. Once slaughtered have them lay your hide over something out of the sun instead of tossing it on the floor. Hides can degrade within an hour in hot weather. Salt them as soon as possible.

Check for Molt & DO NOT freeze your hides

MOLT—-> Molt is the process that happens in every sheep regardless of the breed. The animal will loose its coat (usually seasonally) in preparation of the next seasons wool growth to come in. They can also molt due to stress or giving birth. If the animal is slaughtered in the same year it was born or shorn it is usually ok. There are exceptions. Karakul lambs will often shed their lamb fleece at 3 months of age causing a matted mess of a hide at tanning time. They are best sheared once before tanning. To test for molt: With one hand (on a LIVE animal) hold the base of the wool where it meets the flesh. With the other hand hold the tip of the wool and pull. If you end up with wool in your hand it is a good indication the sheep has molted. Note that wool will always pull out once the sheep has been slaughtered until the hide is tanned.

Please do not flesh your hide. We will do that at the tannery. Do remove any large globs of fat that may have trouble curing. Just use some muscle and pull them off. Remove any tail bones and legs if left on. Some butchers will leave a hide caped when they pull it off. Open the hide up and lay it flat. Remove any big chunks of feces. If there is an extremely large amount of blood and mud you can spray it off but you risk adding moisture to the hide delaying curing and increasing your chance of rot.

Buy your fine salt in advance from the feed store in 50 pound bags. Do not buy granular or ionized salt. You will need approximately 5-10 pounds per hide depending on hide size. Lay wool side down on a flat surface. We use a pallet with a piece of cardboard over it. Do not let your hide touch metal. Any place where your hide has contact with metal will result in a stain once tanned with mimosa. Be sure to watch out for nails in the pallet. Cover your hide with salt to the point that you can just barely see the flesh through the salt layer. After roughly three days shake it off and replace it with a new layer of salt. This whole process should be done out of direct sun. It should take roughly 2-3 weeks to remove all the moisture from the hide.

After your hide is fully cured contact the tannery to arrange drop-off.

We DO NOT accept uncured hides. Shake the salt off your cured hides and place them in a bag and into a box. You MUST fill out the online form found HERE & include the printable form with your hides.

We are usually a few months out. When your hides start the process it takes roughly 3 weeks from start to finish. You will receive an invoice via email that includes flat rate shipping charges (1-5 hides $15/each), (6+ $10 each). Once your invoice is paid we will return your finished sheepskins.