I am not a flat skin person but really love the color and texture of an Impala so I elected to have that flat skin tanned.

Question. It is not nice and flat. It looks like it needs to be ironed. It is not wrinkled or creased but does not lay flat either.

Is there something I can do to make it lay nice and flat?

Was it tanned in Africa?

Tanned here in the states. A place in Montana.

These pictures are not great but might give you an idea.

To be made flat it will have to be re-hydrated, stretched flat , let dry and then trim the edge.

Thanks for the info. To much hassle for a back skin I think.

You might make a pillow out of it

Not sure if this is the same problem or not, but when I got a couple of flat skins tanned they arrived very wrinkled from being folded and packaged, and they looked pretty much like the photo above. I spread them out flat over the backs of the seats in my SUV, left the vehicle parked in the sun for a couple of hours with the windows rolled up, and the skins came out soft, flat and beautiful. They even lost the slight chemical smell left over from the tannery.

ALL tanned flat skins look like that back from a tannery. No matter what tannery, no matter what animal. Like Jerry said it has to be soaked, stretched out flat and let dry again and then it will stay flat and also be larger from the stretching.

As Jerry and James stated, re-hydrating, stretching and allowing it to dry while stretched is the way to flatten any back skin.

Here are a few pictures of an AR member's African back skin's I re-hydrated, stretched, dried, leather bordered and carpet backed.







Regards,
Mary

Those look great Mary. Yeah, like they said, either have them finished/rugged as shown or live with the wrinkled look.

Never had any flatskins come back wrinkled from being tanned in Africa. I chose to have the work done over there where it was cheaper. They were packed in with my unfinished capes and horns. Had some done with a felt backing. Others just the back skin after being caped. All came back flat as a pancake even after being stuffed in the crate.

Thanks for the input everyone. I will just leave as is. Not really into back skins and will let me kids let their friends touch it, etc. The rugs I care about are off limits.

I would use the back skin to re-cover the seat of an old wooden chair.

That's what I plan to do on 2 chairs.