Our natural process requires our farmers to partner with us in this very first step.

Chances are your butcher will not return the hides to you in the condition we need them to be in. You must remove flesh and fat to less than 1/8 of an inch thickness.

The cleaner the fleshing the better the tan.

Too much fat and meat will prevent the hide from properly curing and could lead to hair slippage. The fat and meat will cure under the salt, the hide will not.

This affects our process in the following ways:

Physical strain: During the washing process, the fat will start to dissolve in the wash water and it will take us longer to get the fiber clean. The hides are heavier causing more personal strain on staff when we are moving them through the process.

Waste: The fat and meat will make our pickles dirty increasing the frequency in which we need to replace them. This is not only wasteful, the extra materials cost us money. The extra fat/meat needs to be disposed of.

Finished product: When the hide is improperly cured, the tan will not react to the fibers as it should.

We appreciate that these animals live on the land and need to eat hay. We accept that ⅛ of the hide will likely have some amount of vegetation to contend with. Anything beyond ⅛ of the hide will incur charges.

Extra vegetation affects our process in the following ways:

Physical strain: During the washing process we have to work hard to brush and rinse out the vegetation as it tends to bind the dirt and grime in the fibers. Much of the vegetation will not come out during our wash process and will need to be brushed out in the final stages of our finishing process. This is done primarily by hand. The repetitive stress of brushing these hides causes undue strain on our staff.

Finished product: As much as we brush and brush (see above: physical strain), oftentimes we are unable to get all the vegetation out creating a less than ideal finished product.

We understand how difficult it is to manage burdock in pasture once it becomes established.

We accept hides with less than 6 burrs in them. We will charge for anything more. Any hide with above 15 burrs, we will not accept.

Burdock affects our process in the following ways:

Improperly cured hides: Hides with an excessive amount of burdock bunch fibers together trapping moisture near the hide. This often results in hair slippage underneath the burr because bacteria was able to colonize and destroy the hair follicle during the curing process.

Physical strain: During the washing process we have to remove each burr by hand and then brush and rinse out the spurs left behind. Many of the spurs will not come out during our wash process and will need to be brushed out in the final stages of our finishing process. This is done primarily by hand. The repetitive stress of brushing these hides causes undue strain on our staff.

Finished product: As much as we brush and brush (see above: physical strain), oftentimes we are unable to get all the spurs out creating a less than ideal finished product.

There are two main causes for greasy leather: improper cure and an older, fatty sheep. The former can be avoided, the latter cannot and may not become evident until the last stage of our process.

We have had some luck using cornstarch on these greasy hides. The cornstarch draws the fat up and we are able to then scrape it off. We have to repeat this process several times. This process can take hours, and the results are not as complete as we would like them to be. Oftentimes the grease eventually comes through the leather once again. It is near impossible to remove it completely.

That said, we have decided instead of absorbing the cost in man hours, we need to pass that along to the customer. We will be charging an additional $30 for the service. If you send a hide to us that turns out to be greasy, we will contact you before moving forward. We don’t want to pass on unwanted charges unless the client wants us to try our post tanning, degreasing method.

This is where we need you to work with your local butcher.

Please educate them about the importance of these hides. Let them know they have value.

When we receive hides with too many butcher holes it affects our process in the following ways:

Time: Hides can tear during the washing process causing extra time and attention to be paid to each hide. It takes us more time to remove membranes when we have to work around holes as the hides tend to tear around the holes. When we are oiling the hides we have to take extra time to make sure oil stays on the hide where we want it and it doesn’t leak through to the fiber side where we do not want it. Additionally, our finishing process is held up by having to use caution around holes when we buff them.

Finished product: Hides with an excessive amount of butcher holes create a less than ideal finished product as we have to trim off more than we would normally and the hide may end up with a bit of a funky shape.

Certain breeds of sheep are more difficult to clean in our process which is void of harsh chemical detergents and degreasers.

Breeds such as Merino, CVM, or Rambouillet and other super fine wool breeds often have a very high lanolin content.

This causes the dirt and grime to really hold on to the fibers.

If these hides come in full of grassy vegetation, it is impossible to get it completely cleaned out of the fiber and the result will be a less than perfect hide.