Why does taxidermy take so long

The taxidermist works towards ensuring the animal remains as natural as possible. Taxidermy is your best alternative. Once the taxidermist receives the animal, the first step is to skin it and then send it to the tannery. After it has been returned, the taxidermist will start fixing it on the mounted animal ready for display. The time taken by a professional taxidermist to get the animal back to the studio may be extended and tiring.

But why does this process take so long? Before diving into the why question, it is essential first to understand the industry. Most of the taxidermist studios are tiny, with one to five taxidermists. Lack of enough human resources makes it challenging for completing the process fast. Besides, many taxidermists start the industry to love for hunting and fishing. However, non-of these outdoor activities contribute to having necessary business management skills to run an efficient operation resulting in delays.

It may take several weeks or months to gather enough skins to be sent to the tannery at the taxidermist studio. At the tannery, it may take quite some time before it is returned to the dog taxidermy or cat taxidermy studio. Once they are returned, they are stored until the project that is ahead is complete.

The limited financial and human resource makes the waiting period long and tiresome. A lot depends on their suppliers, drying times, touch up times, and time availability to work on a particular mount. It mostly. I know several. Another is retired and still does some on the side because he enjoys it, his price is 2x or more of a normal taxidermist rate.

But people still line up because his work is living art. Always look at a taxidermist work, I stay away from large shops as they show the masters work but thats not what your getting, instead you get a apprentices work. They take in a huge amount of work but I always have concerns of quality control!

So there are many factors to how long it takes, but you can find great work and great turn around if you try. I would never use a taxidermist that wet tans a hide The mount may look fine initially, but will not hold up as well over the years I'm not saying a good taxidermist can't do a great mount using wet tanning I'm saying the mount won't hold up as well over time.

I always believed the tumbling a hide was just part of the process of wet tanning. What type of time factor are you talking Joe? We have mounts that were wet tanned 20 years ago, that are not smiling yet. The mount still looks great. You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Paste as plain text instead.

Only 75 emoji are allowed. Display as a link instead. Clear editor. Upload or insert images from URL. By johnplav Started 2 hours ago. By grampy Started March Why does Taxidermy take so long? Share More sharing options Followers Reply to this topic Start new topic.

Recommended Posts. ApexerER Posted February 25, Posted February 25, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options Replies Created 5 yr Last Reply 1 yr. Top Posters In This Topic 8 14 9 8. WNY Bowhunter January 3, WNY Bowhunter January 2, Posted Images. ATbuckhunter Posted February 25, Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. The Jerkman Posted February 25, You Can't Beat My Meat!

Galliform Posted February 25, Belo Posted February 25, Trial Posted February 26, Posted February 26, My guy usually starts calling his coustermers in July August And while he is waiting for the deer to come back he is doing ducks and small game. The Jerkman Posted February 26, Posted February 27, Dry preservative. Just flesh, clean and rub it into the hide. Steve D Posted February 27, G-Man Posted February 27, Posted February 27, edited.

I know several Part. Edited February 27, by G-Man. Skinning,fleshing, waiting for tannery, and of course the actual mounting of the animal takes time. I started doing fish replica mounts a couple years ago and it has taken me a couple years to complete 3 fish! I put a lot more detail into my fish than any fish taxidermist could afford but it takes a lot more time than you would think Obviously you get what you pay for and if a taxidermist doesn't take time to put in all the details you may get something back that you are embarrassed to show family and friends!

Comment Post Cancel. Brian M. If a reputable taxidermist was taking much more than a year, I'd start asking questions. There's a lot of different types of taxidermists.

Some are hobbyists running a one man band as a side gig. Some are money making production shops complete with hired help. Some of the wait is just process time- tannery, salting, drying, etc. Some of them are just crappy businessmen who couldn't schedule their way out of a sack Looking at finished pieces will tell you if the quality is there. I'd be leery of dropping work off to a guy with a 3 or 4 year backlog- I just wouldn't do it The world, as it is, is vexing enough Stonehill, True Grit.

I've never waited longer than a year for a mount. The one guy that I really respect for both his quality and his business sense, guarantees under a year. That being said, Now you add that up times the or so pieces that some of us take in each year, In my case , I have 2 studios so Double that number. Anouther thing is some guys waiting till they have a whole pallet of skins to send to the tannery, This will automaticly put them behind the ball. The other thing to remember is that we are family people that experience the same problems as any other business people, such as our relatives dying or being hurt ourselves by stupid accidents in the shop that bring production to a halt for a little while.

Do your homework before you drop off your animal. Does the taxidermist have a show room with work THEY have done themselves?

Do they send their skins Out to a tannery or do your skins stay in their studio the whole time? Is there a Website or Facebook or what ever page where you can look at their work before you even visit their studio. Custom Taxidermy, Experience the difference!! As a taxidermist myself I will second what protaxidermist said.

If I had only your mount to work on it would be done in weeks mainly dependent on species and "dry" time. Quality does build a reputation and the quality taxidermist will have clients and be booked out a minimum of 6 months.

If I was a customer I would be wary of the taxidermist that was offering rush service. This can be an important question for you as the consumer to know what you are getting, If they do it themselves like my shop, are they doing a commercial grade job of it like it should be done, if they send their hides out to any of the commercial tanneries this typically adds months of wait time for the hides to be returned to the taxidermist which adds additional cost shipping This is why I try to educate my clients, show them the process and equipment we use.

There are a lot of great taxidermists out there, and then there are some that are hobbyist, fly by night Interesting info. Thanks folks. Once received the rug I was horrified tail was hacked off, several nasty slip marks, piss poor stretching and it honestly looked like an novice attempted to do their first rug.