I have a few flatskins that I would like to felt and wanted to know if this was something I could do myself. From thise I have seen, most appear to have been glued. I have only seen one example of a sewn felt backer.

I have a Kudu, Blue Wildebeest, and Gemsbok skin that I would like to felt. I didn't think about it when I was having it done..

So what do you think? Is it do-able by a rank ameture? or should I just bite the bullet and send it out?

I would not recommend felt, it get fuzzy, dirty and doesn't wear well. The very best way to back a short haired flat skin is with a carpet backing and a leather bound edge.
If you really want felt you will need to re-hydrate the tanned skin, stretch dry and trim it before you try to sew on your felt or it won't lay flat. You will have to have a commercial upholstery type sewing machine to sew it, a home-dress makers type machine work on leather that thick.

Jerry,

I wanted a felt backed zebra backskin after my last trip as my son wanted a zebra skin to hang on his wall. They messed up and did the usual leather-trimmed carpet backed rug on the zebra. It's heavy and I just don't see how we can hang it.

Going back in the next few months. What would you recommend for a wall-hanging zebra hide? I'll need at least one for bait.

Thanks for your advice.

If you are going to hang it on the wall a light carpet backing will give the skin stability and keep it laying flat. Cloth or felt backing will tend to buckle unless you use oodles of hangers or nails when hanging.

I use a light weight carpet yet firm enough to keep a skin flat. D-rings sewn on with an industrial sewing machine. Take a look at safari-lawyers leopard rug I just finished. It has the light carpet backing and d-rings for hanging under a short scalloped leather border so the hangers are not visible. You could go with the leather binding but it would be difficult to add hangers without some thread being visible on the skin side as the hangers would need to be sew a little deeper off the edge due to the way the binding is sewn on.

Felt is such a loose woven, porous material that it has a higher chance of snagging which would misshape it plus it attracts dirt. Leather does make a much more attractive border for African skins. IMHO

You could hang the carpet backed skin you have but it would take many tacks or head pins to run through the leather and carpet to hang it as heavy as you say it is.

Kind regards,
Mary

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Jerry,

I wanted a felt backed zebra backskin after my last trip as my son wanted a zebra skin to hang on his wall. They messed up and did the usual leather-trimmed carpet backed rug on the zebra. It's heavy and I just don't see how we can hang it.

Going back in the next few months. What would you recommend for a wall-hanging zebra hide? I'll need at least one for bait.

Thanks for your advice.

The best way to hang it is with sewining needles. Go to a fabric store and buy the largest hand sewing needles they have. Needles are hard still and are difficult to bend. Drive then through the skin and carpet into the sheetrock at an angle ,use as many as it takes to stabilize it. Leave just a little sticking out and you will hardly see them. It will do minimal damage to the wall and the skin won't show the holes if you have to move it.