I have a couple of questions, how far will a bear skin shrink when made into a rug, That is, is it common for a 79" nose to tail measured bear skin (green) turn into a 73" bear skin rug?
Lastly when I recieved by bear rug there are thin hair spots on the hide where you can see to the beige/tan skin, can this be air brushed black to help cover these thin areas?
Thanks

David,

A couple of suggestions on the "shrinkage". When you measured the bear and got 79" was that a relaxed measurment? The reason I ask this is that often times I have clients pull the bear taught for the nose to tail measurement. Because a bear can stretch, the bear appears to be longer than it really is. By pulling it longer, you lose some girth. When it comes back from the tannery, most times you have to stretch the bear to get the width back and by doing so, your bear appears to lose some length. In reality, youre just getting your bear back to normal. Also when you salt and hang your bear to dry it will stretch in terms of length. Just the weight of the bear's own skin can make the bear stretch from a few inches to not quite a foot(for really big bears).

When making a rug, the head is dampened so that you can fit the rug shell. Then I let that dry. After drying the remaining hide is dampened and stretched and nailed to a board to get my width as wide as possible. Once that dries, then you go to finishing the rug out.

While 6" seams like alot its either the bear was streched when it was measured green, or the taxidermist didn't do a good job stretching it, or the tannery doesn't have a good tan that has alot of stretch.

As to the thin spots, they are probably in the flanks and arm pits. You can purchase something call "Never Say Dye" or something like that from a taxidermy supply company. It will dye the hide to the black your looking for. You can get a ton of catalogs on Taxidermy.net.

Hugh

Hugh, I thought the "never say dye" stuff was for the preservation of plants, to keep green habitat materials green etc..

I think the dye for hides that you are talking about is called Flank dye.

Hionis makes the leather dye in the aerosol spray can that is good for dying those bare flanks and armpit areas. Comes in black and brown.

You guys could be right, I was going by memory.

I did a search on a couple of taxidermy sites an could only turn up Hionis in "whitetail white" this looks exactly what I was looking for, however do any of you know who sells just plain ole "black"
Your help is much apprecated.

David, McKenzie (www.mckenzie.com) has Hide&Hair dye and LifeTone Skin Dye in the color you need.