How to flatten giraffe rug

[Chago]

Hello everyone. Received my giraffe rug finally. It was all wrinkled and folded during shipping. I have laid it flat on the floor now for about a month. Some areas have naturally flattened out which is nice. But I still have a couple questions from those of you who already have one of these beasts.

1. For the more stubborn creases that don't want to let gravity correct them. What do you do to flatten them ?

2. This part I'm not sure is a taxi error or if there some creative way to correct this. But an animal is obviously not a flat surface. The skin wraps around the body. So in some areas like the arm pits I guess is what you'd call them. There is naturally a clump of hide there. How do you ever get this to lay flat? Or was hide supposed to be cut off by the taxi? Basically where the front legs meet the neck. And in between the front and back legs. I have these ripples of quite a bit of hide. All bunched up. If you pull the front leg back to tighten it up at the neck. You only triple the problem between the front and back legs. Any help here ?

Thanks

 

[buck wild]

Without pictures and my best guess, you could try laying a wet towel over the areas for about 30 minutes. Then lay a board or small piece of plywood over the areas with something really heavy on top of them. Let dry that way for several days and remove. WARNING if the hide is “glued” to a backing material this could loosen the glued areas.
If it were me, I’d try it

 

[ActionBob]

Wow a full giraffe rug! How do you flatten that? Set a house on top of it

I'm curious if it has felt backing glued and/or sewed onto the back of it? I'm under the impression that is typical along with perhaps some strategic trimming? If there is a good competent taxidermist around with extensive African animal experience, I'd pay him a visit.

Or if you make it to any of the bigger shows there are lots of experienced people to visit with.

 

[gizmo]

Is it an actual rug or a flat skin? There is a huge difference in how to go about that depending on what it is. By the sounds of it it is a flat skin. If so you can take some warm water and wet it a little on the flesh side and put a piece of wax paper down and stack weight ontop of it. Now, in your “stubborn areas” you were talking about they will likely never lay all the way flat. A flat skin is simply a tanned hide that has been fleshed and tumbled soft. They don’t stretch them as they would for a rug. With a rug the whole hide is fleshed, tanned, and tumbled, then it is stretch super tight and left for a while so that it will lay absolutely flat before they back it etc….

 

[Chago]

Is it an actual rug or a flat skin? There is a huge difference in how to go about that depending on what it is. By the sounds of it it is a flat skin. If so you can take some warm water and wet it a little on the flesh side and put a piece of wax paper down and stack weight ontop of it. Now, in your “stubborn areas” you were talking about they will likely never lay all the way flat. A flat skin is simply a tanned hide that has been fleshed and tumbled soft. They don’t stretch them as they would for a rug. With a rug the whole hide is fleshed, tanned, and tumbled, then it is stretch super tight and left for a while so that it will lay absolutely flat before they back it etc….

Ah understood. Can this be rugged now ? Yes it is just a flat skin.

 

[gizmo]

Ah understood. Can this be rugged now ? Yes it is just a flat skin.

Yessir it sure could. I can get you a quote if you’d like. I need length and width at the widest point.

 

[Jettech]

just out of curiosity I had my giraffe back hide and a few others tanned over in SA do they come Soft (broken) or do they need softened when I get them?

 

[gizmo]

just out of curiosity I had my giraffe back hide and a few others tanned over in SA do they come Soft (broken) or do they need softened when I get them?

So the question really is about the quality of the tan. Dry tans will be broken after tanning. It’s how good of a tan and break they do on it. It’s about 50/50. Half of those I’ve had to work with (I do a lot of work with client’s hides like making pillows, furniture, bags, luggage, etc….). About half of them are what I would consider usable in that I can make whatever out of them. Some better than others. The other half of them are dang near worthless. It depends on what company and who is doing it that day at that African taxidermist as to what you’re going to get. It also depends on what it is. I generally recommend hair off tans (leather) be done over there as they generally do a really good job. Their dry tans are pretty worthless half the time. They are cheap though so you get what you pay for. It’s no different than their taxidermy. The best taxidermists over there generally fall in the mediocre category compared to American standards. The average and sub average over there are absolutely atrocious. I’ve visited many studios in RSA, some very well known ones at that, their commercial work is unimpressive but it’s cheap. Their standards are different than ours are. That’s fine, some clients are ok with mediocre taxidermy and feel like they got a good deal. Great! Different stokes for different folks. Others wouldn’t use them for any reason because that person’s standards are higher than what can be obtained over there. Some of the differences have nothing to do with artistic ability and more to do with the quality of materials available over there. There are some very talented people over there that if they were to have access to our materials, supplies, and equipment would absolutely knock our socks off. They don’t have that luxury though. Also the guy that owns the company doesn’t work on your stuff and likely in some instances hasn’t mounted anything themselves in many years. It doesn’t make since for that person to. Their time is better spent in sales and marketing as surplus unskilled labor is abundant and cheap. Taxidermists over here don’t have that luxury. There is a whole lot of things that go into the issues of here vs there. I rarely get involved in these debates but this is my 2c. I tell people what my studio can offer them, show them examples of my studios work, give them a good faith estimate, and answer any questions they have for me. From there the decision lies with the hunter. It’s been my experience that at the end of the day I almost always get the work. I have no interest in getting in a poo slinging match with anyone here or there. I prefer to let the client make their mind up for themselves.
Sorry I got on a bit of a rant but that isn’t really an easy question to answer without background information to go with it.
I’d be willing to bet that your hides will be acceptable, if they aren’t give me a shout I’ve got a ton of surplus stuff like that, that I have very little in and may be able to replace it/them inexpensively. There are also likely many members on this forum that have piles of backhides and such laying around either tanned or untanned that may be able to help you as well.
Truly, don’t loose sleep over it. It will be fine, if it’s not it can be fixed but I doubt it will be necessary. Basic tans aren’t that big of a deal. Giraffes, buffalo and other really big thick skinned animals are the ones most susceptible to poor tan jobs as they are the most difficult to flesh, split, tan, and tumble.

 

[TOBY458]

Step 1....flatten a Giraffe. Lol!

 

[ActionBob]

Step 1....flatten a Giraffe. Lol!

Haha, that generally makes the skinning job much easier

 

[TOBY458]

Haha, that generally makes the skinning job much easier

They do tend to stay a little more still that way. Lol!