Today I received a bag of goodies from a friendly taxidermist.
Offcuts from his work included pieces of Fallow Deer, Red Deer, Sika Deer, English Badger, English Fox, and even Antelope, Impala, Kudu, Blesbok, and Red Hartebeest!! (You can’t buy those in the shops!)
It cost me a very few pounds. A great bargain when tiny pieces of hide in the UK costs ?4 or ?5 pounds. My advice is to encourage such friendships.
My only wonder is how come he ends up with such offcuts?? His finished articles must end up much thinner than when they started!!
As for why he has these trimmings…Mostly because of the stretching process of the hides…also because most pre-Manufactured form’s for the bodies are roughly of the same basic proportion’s…and he fits the hides to the forms and trims away the excess’s…
I don’t have a taxidermist nearby, but I am fast friends with a local furrier. After he makes coats, stoles and such for people with more money than I, he gives me the left overs. Lots of good tying hair in the mix.
Hi,
Last time I was in the South Island I went to Glenorchy and stopped at a possum fur shop where I was able to buy a grocery bag stuffed full with off cuts for about $10.00 NZ (About $6.00 US these days I think). There were all sorts of great colours (dyed and natural), and the fur makes wonderful dubbing. Looking at some of the local fly tying shops, possum patches are about $5.00 each, so I was able to pick up well over $200s worth for next to nothing. I don’t think I’ll need to buy any more for a long time, unless, of course I absolutely need … that colour over there! ha!
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