Frequently
Asked Questions
Do your
prices include V.A.T.?
No,
and there is no V.A.T. to add on, for the simple
reason that we are a very small business and our turnover is such that
we do not have to register for this tax. So we can pass on
the benefit
to our customers in the UK and EEC. However there is
nothing to deduct
from our prices for non-EEC countries. Sorry.
Is there
any way I can pay using my Visa card?
Sadly,
not at present. Again, being such a small
concern and situated in a remote area it really isn't practical or
economically sensible for us to arrange to take plastic (credit / debit
cards).
Who should I make my cheque payable to?
Please make cheques payable to "Carbisdale Deerskins & Lambskins"
How much
does it cost to send a stag deerskin
within the UK? How long will it take?
By Inland
(UK) standard Royal Mail parcel post
£8.00.
Parcels
are
usually delivered within 3 to 5 working days.
What
would an order for 4 or 5 deerskins cost to
send?
The
Royal Mail standard parcels post will take up to
20Kg, all parcels over 10Kg will cost £15.00 so it is quite
economical to
send heavy parcels in the UK. We are only limited by the
logistics of
parcel size. More than 5 stagskins will usually weigh over
10Kg.
What
about a parchment hide?
This
is much cheaper as it generally goes by first
class letter post within the UK. We make a small additional
charge to
cover the protective tubing required for parchment, vellum and
single drumskins. A single hide of parchment or vellum
would cost
£5.00.
Can you
export your skins to USA?
Yes.
All our skins are cured, including parchment and
drumskins and we state this on the custom declaration.
What is
the cost of postage and packing to
USA
and how long does it take to deliver?
Because
of the great variation in size of our
products, even within the same category such as deerskins, we try to
charge
our customers the approximate actual carriage plus packaging cost, rather than making a
standard charge. It is therefore difficult to give an exact
general
figure. At airmail prices a single parchment currently
costs around
£8
two, £9 and three, £10. Hair or wool-on skins are
rather
heavier. A lambskin costs about £18 and a large
stag deerskin would be in the region of
£20.
It is interesting to note that it is cheaper for us
to send two parcels under
2Kg than one weighing up to 4Kg, as parcels over 2Kg involve another
carrier! It
would be cheaper by surface mail for heavier items, but the delivery
can take over 2 months.
Airmail usually takes about two weeks after we
despatch the goods, although the post office say they aim to deliver in
5 days!
Do I
have to pay in sterling (GBP)?
No,
but if you are paying by a cheque/check in your
own currency you will need to add £15 sterling(GBP) to the
price
before converting it to cover UK banking charges.
How can
I work out how much your prices are in my
currency?
We
have a link to XE.com's
Universal Currency Converter,
a web-site with the latest (mid-range) exchange rates, so that you can
work out roughly what your order will cost. But see the next answer to
explain why we can't be more precise.
Can't I just send you a cheque
with my order?
We are a small business and tan the skins
continuously, so our stock is
never constant. Therefore we ask that you email
us or phone with your requirements and we can
a) confirm that we can supply,
b) give you a date by which the skins can be despatched and
c) weigh the skins and estimate the carriage charge.
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The abattoir want more details about you. What do they need to know?
Our Technical Plant Approval Number is
91/767/8002/ABP/TEC
I want
to send you some sheepskins to tan. Are
there any special requirements?
The
skins MUST be properly prepared.
See essential
salting treatment for full
details, but basically it is
essential
that the skins are spread out and
cooled as soon as possible after flaying.
Bacterial action in the hair
follicles will start immediately and if not cooled within 4 hours the
wool will start to "slip" - ie come off, when we start to process them,
and there is nothing we can do
later to stop this.
You
will need a good supply of salt on hand when the skins are returned
from the abattoir. "Dairy salt" sold by farmers' suppliers is
ideal. Do NOT use road salt which has grit added and is
likely
to be contaminated with salt-loving bacteria. These will damage the
skin and hence the leather. Do not rely on the abattoir to salt
the
skins adequately as most hides go to
make leather when the hair or wool will be removed anyway. You
MUST
apply
salt within 10 hours of slaughter. If there is
insufficient salt the
wool will slip.
It should be possible to pick up the hide by the wool if it is properly
cured with salt.
Rub
1
to 2 Kg salt - you cannot add too much! - into the flesh side, making
sure that it reaches the edges and that there are no folds or creases
in the skin. Then after 1 to 2 days
SALT EACH SKIN AGAIN.
The
salt will draw out moisture so let the skins
drain for a couple more days. When thoroughly drained they can safely
be folded down the spine and rolled up, packed securely in thick NEW
polythene bags and sealed with parcel tape to make sure there is
absolutely NO leakage.
Do not
send us any skins without first contacting
us to make sure there is someone here to receive them.
Can I
simply put small skins in the freezer to
await tanning?
This
is not very satisfactory unless the skins have
already been salted as described - in which case they really don't
need further preservation measures such as freezing! If they have a thick coat of hair or wool and are folded without salting this will act as a layer of insulation and they may take several days to freeze thoroughly, during which time the bacteria will get to work and loosen the hair or wool. Also, if
they have not been salted there is the problem of getting them to us before they start to
thaw. Even if this is possible then we have the problem of
getting salt on them before deterioration starts. It is difficult to
unfold them adequately until some thawing has occurred, by which time bacterial
action will have started, again leading to wool or hair loss in the finished
product.
Do I
send the money for tanning with the skins?
No!
Sometimes there are unforeseen problems, or the
hides may not be suitable for processing. We will always
discuss this
with you before continuing. When the skins are ready we
will contact
and quote you the total price. If you require them to be
posted back to
you we can calculate the carriage charge. This is usually
much less
than that which you have paid to send the raw skins.
We will send the skins to you on receipt of your cheque.
How
long will it take?
It
depends on very much on the time of year and the weather (temperature
and humidity)
as we dry the skins naturally. The actual process takes
some 10 days,
add drying time and a day or two to finish them (this varies depending
on the number of
skins sent in). We usually find it all adds up to 4 to 6
weeks.
Naturally if we have a backlog of skins it can take longer.
Most
sheepskins are sent in in the autumn and early winter. As we do
not process skins in December, January and February, it takes us
most of spring to work through them. The bulk of the skins
will be ready by the
early summer.
Individual deerskins and small skins are handled
separately, so they are usually ready 4 to 6 weeks after being sent
in. Always check with
us.
Are
there any problems with tanning sheepskins?
The
quality of the finished sheepskin depends on the
quality of the raw material of course.
If the
skin is a lamb under 12 months old the
leather and wool will generally be excellent. The older the animal, the
thicker and greasier the skin (i.e. leather) will be.
If the
wool has been clipped it is usually
coarser. We do not recommend,
and often refuse to
handle,
lambskins slaughtered after
January as the wool will have started
to rise (although breeds vary a great deal as to when the clipping
line develops) and there are many problems with this.
From our point of view
they are incredibly heavy when thoroughly soaked and backbreaking to
move about from one part of the process to the next. Loose
wool
contaminates the solutions in our vats. The wool is too long to
go
through our carding machine for the initial brushing, and would be
incredibly expensive should we charge you for the hours it can take to
card the wool by hand!
From
your point of view, the sheepskin will not
look good as the wool will break off at the rise or weakness in the
staple (if
it hasn't already with carding) leaving patches of very short
wool. There will be tangled vegetation in the matted wool, which
we can't
remove before processing (we would just pull out the wool) and which
becomes even more entangled during the
process of tanning. Even if the wool doesn't break, the finished
rug never tends to look good and is very difficult to care for.
They have little practical use. They will also cost much
more to transport before
and after tanning. So please arrange to have the
fleeces clipped if necessary
before sending as we don't have the facilities to do this.
Also
remember to mark your animals with the
recommended marking fluid and use the bare minimum. Follow the
instructions carefully. Even so, some
colours, particularly red, don't wash out easily.
We have
wild boar skins. Have you experience in
tanning these?
Yes,
we have tanned quite a few. They have a thick layer of fat
and this is very difficult to remove
and time-consuming, but the results with skins of younger animals are
quite encouraging. Because of the hours they take to
process, our charge for boarskins is £60.
Can you
tan Highland cow hides?
No!
Sorry, we have no facilities to handle such large
skins. Also the thick hide needs to be "split", and we do not
have the
machinery to do this.
What
about fox-skins?
Yes.
There is a lot of individual handling with
smaller skins, which is reflected in the higher cost of tanning -
£45
currently. We will NOT
under any circumstances handle protected
species such as seals, badgers, wild cats and otters.
Can you
tackle more exotic species?
We
have experience of a wide variety of skins and we
suggest you phone to discuss more unusual hides.
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Do you in
fact sell smaller, cut sheets of
parchment/vellum?
We
have to date only sold our parchment in complete
hides, as our customers can then cut what they require from the
skin.
It is difficult to know exactly what people want, as every skin is
individual, with markings which some might
want to cut around, others keep, so it would be preferable if you cut
your own parchment to size.
What type
of drums are your drumskins used for?
Our
customers usually use the deerskin drumskins for
Bodhran and other "folk" drums. We have supplied skins for
Taiko
drums, which require thicker skins, and the red deer stagskin was
adequate for that more vigorous style of drumming.
You say
the skins are damaged by bullet holes,
flaying and warble fly. Can I be sure that there will be sufficient
undamaged area for my drums?
We
always advise that prospective customers contact us
by 'phone or email to discuss their requirements.
We can then select a skin with an undamaged circular
area of the size
required from our stock. We will probably need to
prepare a selected skin for you. We will, of course, always replace any
skins found to be unsuitable or refund your money if we cannot satisfy
your needs.
How long
will it take to prepare a
drumskin/parchment?
Curing
drumskins does not take as long as chrome
tanning of hair-on skins, as the drying time is much quicker. Usually
it will take between 2 & 4 weeks.
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Can I
contact you during the winter?
Yes.
We are usually available by telephone or e-mail
all year. We have a neighbour who often takes our 'phone calls
when we are on holiday. If we have goods in stock we can
finish and provide them, but
we cannot process skins between the end of November and end of
February. The difficulties in keeping the process going in the
frequently freezing temperatures mean that the results are poor,
expensive and demoralising! We will of course take in skins
and re-salt
them ready to process when we re-open in March.
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