The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: shrekfeet on October 09, 2012, 08:42:59 am
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Has anyone else been struggling to get skins back from Devonian products? They have had mine for over 6 months now! eveny time I ring I get the same story 'we're really busy, they will be finished in the next couple of weeks, definatly before the end of the month' yet I'm still waiting.
Used to use Fenland who were great. Can anyone recommend anywhere else as I won't be sending them to Devon again that's for sure
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Nicki Port @ Organic Sheepskins (http://www.organicsheepskins.co.uk/ (http://www.organicsheepskins.co.uk/))
More expensive though, but they don't use any nasty chemicals and mine have always come back nice, and in good time.
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I am going to be brave here and make the statement;
I don't like how Devonia's skin turn out :-\ I used to use fenland and was always thrilled with the results. Having had a good look and feel of the Devonia skins at the show and sale I was not impressed :(
I think I will try organic sheepskins :thumbsup:
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Thanks colliewoman, I'm glad you said that. I've been tempted to switch to them because of the price, but now I definitely won't. :)
I suspect they are over worked now, perhaps that is affecting the quality of their output. :(
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I just spoke to Devonia this week about sending my 4 CM skins off. They said they had had a big backlog, that the process itself takes 14 weeks in any case, that they are currently down to about 18 weeks and on target for getting that down to 16 weeks.
If anyone has any up-to-date info on the Nicki Port one I'd be glad to hear it before I send mine off!
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Sally, not exactly up-to-date info but I was looking at some skins that had been done by Nicki Port at the Llandovery sheep festival last weekend. They looked lovely although I don't have anything to compare them with.
Sally
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I last used Nicki Port last winter. Cost was £35 per skin plus £10 postage (but that can be for up to about 5 skins I think, or however many will fit in their standard courier bags). I sent my last two in on 25th Oct, and they were ready by 20th Dec. I've been up to the tannery too, it's a small place, but I saw piles of lush sheepskins there which all looked smashing.
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I spoke to her an hour ago and so long as oil prices don't rocket it's £35 per skin. I didn't ask about postage as we will take ours up there! lovely friendly lady and looking at the pics on the website the quality is there too :thumbsup:
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so if you are paying £35/skin plus getting them there and back, how much do you charge for them?
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To be fair to Devonia, they rather had the sudden massive increase in custom thrust upon them when Fenland closed. They will have had to find a way to accommodate the increase without disappointing customers, so I suppose that takes time.
Fenland did a wonderful job and were very knowledgeable.
We had some Jacob skins done by Nicki Port a good few years ago - the skins were quite thick and the colours ran/faded, so the dark spots merged with the white and became brown, even though the skins were not exposed to the sun. That was in her early days, so I expect things have improved since then. She also did a deerskin for us and my OH had to go to the workshop whilst she finished it - but I don't blame her at all as it was a horrible, heavy job to do. I tried to persuade her to do some moleskins for me (we had LOTS) but she wasn't game ;D I don't know if this is still her method, but back then she used mimosa as part of the tanning method - which has got to be better than chrome :o :sheep: :sheep:
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shrekfeet, those I saw for sale at Llandovery sheep festival were between £55 and £70 pounds. The woman said there wasn't a lot of profit to be made.
Sally
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Shrekfeet, I doubt I will try and sell mine.
For me the ONLY way I can handle slaughtering is to not waste a scrap of the animal that gave it's life so profit or not I will send my skins away!
I use mine personally or give them as gifts ;)
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Yes, the cheapest way to do it is to keep them as long as possible so that they dry out (salted) as much as poss and are cheaper to send in (ideally in a bunch). But yes, you are talking £60 upwards.
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Always charge £60 upwards now....British skins are very sought after.....if anyone has any they want to sell, please get in touch as my daughter in Crickhowell can buy them from you, collect them from Nickie and sell them in her business...she has demand!
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Val,
Is there demand for any particular skin?
I wasn't sure if Ryeland makes a good skin or not so sent Nicki a mail last week. This was her response which may be interesting for others also.
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Ryeland lambs fine for sheepskins, coloured and white. As soon as they make weight, don’t leave them too long as Ryelands have a tendency to go fat and the fleece gets dense and bouncy being a class one spinning fleece, but a bit wobbly to stand on. They can even make baby rugs if they make weight fast enough which Ryelands can.
unquote
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I think I'll ask for mine back - my lambs are going away end of the month, I hope.
Anything I have to do in advance? Do I need a licence or anything? And what do I do with them once I get them back? :thinking:
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If you email Nicki she will send you the DEFRA paperwork (yes you need paperwork to get your skins ::) ) and instructions for salting them :thumbsup:
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has anyone tried doing their own.
I'm in the process of getting the licence. Very helpful AH lady doing by email to get it done in time for the sheep going on Friday.
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oooooh tell me more :eyelashes: :eyelashes: :eyelashes: :-* :-*
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I was put onto Devonia by a Cumbrian lady, who uses them all the time, and had previously heard of them as they had tanned the skins BH & I bought in Exmoor earlier this year - and they're lovely :) So I think I'll press ahead with using them. Will report back when I get the skins back next year sometime.
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Right...demand...which skins....
Well anything with colours, curls, tufts, back stripes etc
White skins need to be really special in order for them to be popular.
Breeds....Gotland, Wensleydale, GFD, Teeswater, D&C longwool etc....do not leave too late and certainly not after now otherwise the wool felts/tangles in the process! The thing to do if you need to keep them over winter is to shear early in may or before if poss and warm. Then grow until just lovely and curly and THEN slaughter. That way you get the best wool AND a skin. A long wool skin like this, esp if coloured is worth over £100 if good quality.
Coloured Ryeland is going to be much more desirable than white due to the way they tend to be mottled. Shetland such as the katmoget types with 2 colours are very popular. Jacob or anything else that has spots also very popular!
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Thanks Val :thumbsup:
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I always used Fenland in the past... have had jacob and white commercial skins back which were VERY NICE. We had quite a wait as we gave them in late Nov and they were bombarded with customers wanting before Xmas...that was fine.
Devonia were longer but, as reiterated above, they had taken on bulk customers ex fenland so to be expected... however I was VERY unhappy with some of mine. Some were very uneven odd shapes, a fair few had holes in despite us using the exact same salting process we always use with great success and the courier cost to return them finished was twice what we paid to send them WET AND HEAVY.
I guess beggars can't be choosers and better than having them wasted but I was embarassed as a customer bought my skins and sent them off to be done by Devonia after he saw my Fenland ones and was pretty narked at the random non-sheepskin-rug-shaped rugs and a wierd staining on the hide/underside. Also they STANK really badly of chemical. REALLY badly.
It was commented on at the recent RBST show and sale that all the winning fleeces were Fenland fleeces.
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has anyone tried doing their own.
I'm in the process of getting the licence. Very helpful AH lady doing by email to get it done in time for the sheep going on Friday.
I'm sure Blinkers was going to have a go at doing her own skins a while back. Might be worth a message if she doesn't see this thread.
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Now I was just thinking about this other day, looking at my tup lambs who need to go to the butchers in the next month or so. One of them is a very pretty grey katmoget and I'd like one of the black ones done too.
If they're taking that long, they're not going to be back by Christmas are they :-\ (I'd hoped people might buy them for giving as pressies)
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When I dig out the kit I was given later I'll put up details though I've not tried it yet so can't say how good it will be.
There are various methods if you do a search.
I'd just like to say a public THANK YOU to Anne Steele at Caernarfon Animal Health.
I phoned at 4.45 on Monday to ask about the licence, she emailed the form, I printed it, fill it, scanned and emailed back. By 5pm Tuesday I had the approved form emailed back to me. 24 hours for something 'official' I'm amazed after all the other hassles I've had over the last few weeks with government departments. Just have to phone the abattoir later to tell them I've got the form and want the skins and horns back.
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How were your abbatoir about it - I haven't asked mine yet.
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Just had a senior moment, why would you want a sheep to have a tan :thinking:
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How were your abbatoir about it - I haven't asked mine yet.
Too big to want my business, the sheep are now booked in elsewhere who had no problem with the idea.
Why bother with smallholders when you deal with thousands of sheep.
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We have just started the process of tanning our Sheepskins ourselves.
Can't afford the luxury of paying to send them away, so just like Colliewoman, we wanted to try and use every last big of our lovely lambs. They were Zwartbles and a lovely chocolatly brown so thought it would be nice to try.
We are currently curing them for a week with a bulk load of food-grade salt from Bookers.
We are then going to try tanning them with Oxalic Acid. We found a good website explaining it all, but not sure if I am allowed to post links on this forum.
Have no clue if this is going to work, we accept it is going to take alot of hard labour to get any results, but as we cannot afford to send them away, I feel we have nothing to lose.
Fingers crossed. Maybe I will report back in a couple of weeks and let you know how we got on.
xxStephxx
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"Fleshing Out" and Curing the Hide
1
Position the sheepskin on a flat clean work area with the wool facing downwards. Spread the skin out so there are no creases and folds.
2
Scrape any flesh and meat from the skin with a sharp knife. Lift the meat from the skin with a scraping motion. Pull the meat away carefully so as not to tear the skin.
3
Place the scraped hide in a plastic tub. Cover the entire surface of the hide with non-iodised salt until there is approximately a half-inch layer of salt over the hide. Allow the hide to cure for four days. Clean the hide with a wire-bristle brush to remove the dried salt.
Tanning the Sheepskin
1
Put on rubber gloves to protect your hands from the tanning chemicals. Fill a 5-gallon bucket with 1 pint of salt and 59.1ml of oxalic acid.
2
Place the sheepskin on the work area with the wool facing downwards. Dip the paint brush into the solution in the 5-gallon bucket and paint the bare side of the hide. Fold the hide in half to keep the hide moist from the solution. Repeat the procedure daily for four days in total.
3
Fill the washtub with warm water and 2 cups of sodium bicarbonate. Place the hide in the mixture and allow it to soak for approximately 1 hour.
4
Put on the rubber gloves and remove the hide from the mixture. Empty the washtub and fill the tub with clean water. Mix in a scoop of washing powder and submerge the hide in the mixture.
5
Run your glove-protected hand along the bare side of the hide to rinse the hide. Rinse the hide thoroughly to remove any sodium bicarbonate.
6
Place the hide in a sunny location to allow it to dry completely. Hold onto one end of the hide while a helper holds the opposite end. Pull on the hide simultaneously with your helper, in opposite directions, to stretch the hide. Repeat this procedure daily until the hide is completely dry. Be sure to stretch all four sides of the hide.
7
Apply glycerine saddle soap to the hide. Rub the soap in thoroughly.
I found this. Doesn't sound too hard......?
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Read with much interest Jaykay till No 6 - Place the hide in a sunny location - could be a bit of a tough one at the moment!! :innocent: :innocent:
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I found this. Doesn't sound too hard......?
No it doesn't! Has anyone tried it?
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What do you do with the fleece side? Is it just a case of brushing, brushing and more brushing until its nice and fluffy?
Sally
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I found this. Doesn't sound too hard......?
No it doesn't! Has anyone tried it?
I think that point 6 uses very few words to describe a whole lot of work :thinking: :D
To get your skin soft and supple it needs to be 'worked' and worked and not allowed to get crispy. I think there are various ways to do this, including using a rounded stone, but I haven't done it myself