Hello everyone,
I have been following this board but haven't posted anything yet, some great information, thanks Saeed for an excellent resource.

I am the manager of The Wildlife Gallery Custom Taxidermy Studio, we receive animals from all kinds of outfitters, and in many cases these are excellently prepared. In other cases, well...!!

I thought I would help by posting a few tips from time to time regarding some measures you could take on ensuring that your primary prep is done properly in Africa, resulting in great skins for your taxidermist to work with... and thus better mounts.

Good hunting
Regards
Dan Catlin

Hey Dan,
How's things going
Glad to have you
DENNIS


The Artistry of Wildlife

Dennis,

Things are going great! Thanks. We are getting very busy. Hope all is going well with you.

DAN

Dan,

Hope your tips are better than your tan ! We had way too many problems with a very large order of skins from your tannery!(Many other taxidermist colleagues have voiced the same concerns). When we approached the company with the dilemma we were simply told "Sorry, nothing we can do"!

Looking forward to the measures you are refering to,to reveal so "the primary prep is done properly in Africa". Unless one is a taxidermist/hunter I don't believe one has too much control over the skinning, prepping and handling of the skins in Africa. If there is something we are all missing I am anxiously awaiting to hear it. I would think if there is so much control to be had, every taxidermist sending a client to Africa would be giving the same 'tips' to their clients.

Is there a hidden agenda here, similar to the contoversy on taxi. net, that I heard and read bits and pieces of, not too long ago. JMHO

Regards,
Mary

Mary,

I'm sorry about the tanning troubles. I don't have any control over that part other than input from my guy's in the shop regarding the quality of the tan.

We haven't encountered any major issues. Now I say that but, we do complain about the small stuff like any other taxidermist does. As for major issues, we haven’t had any that I'm aware of. When shaving thousands of skins we deal with the occasional false cut or skinning whole like everyone else. Part of the job is fixing problem areas of the skin. If there is anything I can do from my position to help you I would surely do what I can.

To address the hidden agenda...Yes there is a hidden agenda. We are currently working with several operations in Africa trying to get a better product back to all of our shops and certainly we are trying to further our business. Our company employ's over 100 men and women and in this day and age we feel blessed to have a good job and we continue to pursue additional business. So for me to tell you there is no agenda that would be false. I think you'll find that I'm a straight shooter and very honest.

Dan

quote:

Originally posted by Wildlife Gallery:
Mary,
I'm sorry about the tanning troubles. Dan

Dan,

Once again, I am sorry just doesn't cut it with the amount of skins we had problems with. One could certainly overlook a 'false cut or skinning hole' here and there, but not the major issues we had with 75% to 80% of a whole season of skins. That is certainly water under the bridge as we have returned to Tom at South Texas and are back on track with great quality tanning.

I am curious as to what operations in Africa are willing to work on getting a better product back to all tanneries here in the states, or is it just your tannery and shop you are going to bat for? Please fill us in on the details of how you are cracking this nut.

We are a smaller shop that produces big quality work, no where near 100 employees, but that allows us to stay on top of quality control. We also feel blessed to have a secure business, but you know as well as I, a quality product provides that security. I also am a straight shooter and very honest and I appreciate your responding.

Regards,
Mary

They set up a deal with Safari Nordic to receive and transfer caribou antlers and skins from canada to the U.S., back to their tannery/taxidermy studio.
It MAY be they same type of deal in the works for this "African" operation.
But Since skinning and salting takes place in the most out of the way places in African I can't see the salting skinning process being improved on. I've hunted with 6 different outfits in Africa and have given pointers to the P H and skinners when needed and that was rarely done as they were very good. Overall nowadays they are on top the prep service they provide.
I deal with 100's of african skins capes and life-size every year and loose maybe 1 out of 100.
Most African P H's have been taught and over the years and have had many taxidermists contact them and HUNT with them and it's very very few number that do not properly prep skins anymore.
You'll still see the Zimbabwe problem once and while, bad salt, and then up north farther in the humidity of the forests it's a tough prep.


The Artistry of Wildlife

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Artistry of Wildlife:
They set up a deal with Safari Nordic to receive and transfer caribou antlers and skins from canada to the U.S., back to their tannery/taxidermy studio.[QUOTE]

Dennis,

We taxidermists are well aware of the Safari Nordic deal they have set up, that is part of 'one' of the controversial threads on Taxi.net.


[QUOTE] Artistry of Wildlife
It MAY be they same type of deal in the works for this "African" operation.
But Since skinning and salting takes place in the most out of the way places in African I can't see the salting skinning process being improved on. I've hunted with 6 different outfits in Africa and have given pointers to the P H and skinners when needed and that was rarely done as they were very good. Overall nowadays they are on top the prep service they provide.[QUOTE]


I can't agree with you more on this statement as we rarely lose any African skins either.

That is why I am over this statement:

[QUOTE] Wildlife Gallery:
"I am the manager of The Wildlife Gallery Custom Taxidermy Studio, we receive animals from all kinds of outfitters, and in many cases these are excellently prepared. In other cases, well...!!

I thought I would help by posting a few tips from time to time regarding some measures you could take on ensuring that your primary prep is done properly in Africa, resulting in great skins for your taxidermist to work with... and thus better mounts."[QUOTE]


You Dennis are a taxidermist, and as I stated a taxidermist/hunter knows what to say or do to improve the treatment if need be of any skin being worked on in the field. Dan's statement made it sound like he has great insight on what the client needs to be doing to ensure proper care of their skins that their taxidermist doesn't have knowledge of or isn't telling them. Just how I read it and it looks like I had a few who agreed. We as taxidermists deal with field care issues whether it be here at home or overseas, just part of all of our jobs!

We have all made our point, let's move on, but I still am looking forward to hearing those 'primary prep tips'

Regards,
Mary

quote:

Most African P H's have been taught and over the years and have had many taxidermists contact them and HUNT with them and it's very very few number that do not properly prep skins anymore.

I've hunted Africa 5 times myself , About 1/2 of my volume is African, I rarely have any problem with skins. Hunters can give them all the tips they want and I promise you they will do it the way they always have, you'll be wasting your breath. It's also a bit arrogant going into a hunting camp and telling a professional skinner how to do his job.

Dan, If you think your going to go to Africa and start telling them what to do, your in for a shock and a big waste of time. You must think we are idiots to believe that your going to do this for the benefit of all the taxidermists out there

I use Wildlife Gallery tannery on some of my NA skins, and generally they do a good job. But they are not flawless by any means,They cut over 200 holes in a pair of Elephant feet for me and when I asked him if his taxidermy studio could repair them for me he said they don't do very much African work so probably wouldn't know how to do it, so all they could say was sorry we won't charge you for it. Having a large taxidermy studio in competition with the tannery customers has been and always will be a huge conflict of interest.