Do make sure your skin(s) have been properly skinned, fleshed, and salted according to our instructions. Dried out skins or skins that require fleshing will be double charged.
Do make sure you have a CITES tag on the skin. If your tag does not have the word ‘CITES’ on it, you only have a state tag. Please contact your state to obtain a CITES tag. We will not accept skins without CITES tags.
Do ship via Fedex Ground or UPS Ground. The US Postal Service will not deliver raw skins, and we have had instances where the Postal Service has thrown skins away.
Do include all paperwork with your skin. We receive over 1000 hunters’ skins each year, and skins without paperwork can get easily lost in the tannery.
Do put your paperwork in a ziplock bag so that it does not get wet.
Do be sure to include an email address on your paperwork. This is how we contact you with updates and tracking information for your shipment when your leather is ready.
Do be patient. It takes 8-12 months for us to turn your trophy into a beautiful piece of leather. We do not cut corners, and making quality leather takes time. Trust us, it’s worth the wait!
Do understand we cannot work miracles. If you nick your alligator during skinning, that small cut (even if it did not fully penetrate the skin) will open up to a hole during tanning.
DON'TS
Don't ship any skin pieces without a CITES tag attached to it. We do not tan backstraps. Skins may not be cut into pieces. We have no way of tracking those pieces in the tannery.
We cannot enter skins into our tracking system without all of this information and we have thousands of skins here to keep seperate that are tracked by this system. There will be no exceptions to this rule.
Don't ship frozen skins.
Don't ship skins that are unsalted. Be extremely generous with salting. You cannot over-salt a skin.
Don't forget your paperwork with full instructions, color choices, and deposit. We will charge an additional $50 for skins that arrive in our tannery without paperwork and deposits.
Don't send skins with excess flesh on them. Your skin should be nearly white on the back. See our skinning and fleshing instructions.
DO NOT ALLOW SKINS TO DRY OUT. DRIED SKINS CREATE DIFFICULTY IN DESCALING. THE THEN OXIDIZED NATURAL FAT IN THE SKIN CAUSES UNEVEN TANNING AND UNLEVELNESS IN DYEING. YOUR SKIN WILL BE TANNED WITH OTHERS THAT ARE PROPERLY HYDRATED AND PREPARED. IF YOUR SKIN IS DRIED OUT WE WILL CHARGE AN ADDITIONAL $1.50 PER CM FOR BELLIES AND $2.00 PER CM FOR HORNBACKS TO RE-HYDRATE THE SKIN. ALL SKINS IN A TANNING PACK MUST BE SIMILAR IN HYDRATION.
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