Moscow Hide and Fur (home page)

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    • Taxidermy Information

    Contents of this page: Introduction | Stretching Capes | Ordering

    Becoming a good Taxidermist requires years of training and practice. Although anyone can buy from us, we urge people to consult an experienced, professional Taxidermist for their projects, rather than "doing it yourself". If you don't know what you're doing or aren't careful, you can ruin a valuable hide very quickly.

    Stretching Capes: (back to top)

    All capes need to be worked before they can be mounted. Capes come prepared three ways: frozen, tanned and salted / dried.

    Frozen Capes

    Frozen capes are the easiest to work with, because freezing doesn't shrink the capes. Frozen capes must be shipped by Express services such as UPS 2nd Day or Next Day Air so that they don't spoil in shipment. This increases the cost substantially. You can thaw a frozen cape by leaving it out at room temperature for several hours. Be careful not to let it sit too long, or it may spoil.

    Tanned Capes

    Purchasing hides that are already tanned saves the taxidermist the work of tanning the cape or expense of having it tanned. Capes shrink when they are tanned. Getting the stretch back out is a lot of work and requires a lot of skill.

    These are usually measured as the neck size behind the ears on the tanned cape. This is why the neck sizes listed for tanned capes are smaller than salted or frozen capes. A rule of thumb is to expect 20% stretch, but every cape is different and the amount of stretch you get out depends on the work you put into it.

    Getting the stretch back out of a tanned cape is a lot of work. Getting the full size back out, will require more than just soaking ("rehydrating") the cape. Most taxidermy supply houses offer special soaking or stretching solutions that will help you get the most out of your cape.

    Salted / Dried Capes

    Capes are salted and allowed to dry to preserve the cape and to lower the weight by removing the natural water from the skin. This saves shipping costs associated with shipping frozen capes, but it makes it more difficult to get the stretch back out of the cape. Capes shrink when they are salted. Getting the stretch back out is a lot of work and requires a lot of skill.

    These are usually measured as the neck size behind the ears before the hide is salted. The longer a cape has dried, the less it will weigh and the more work it will be to get the stretch back. Capes purchased during hunting season will stretch more easily, capes purchased the next spring will have dried harder and will take more work.

    Getting the stretch back out of a salted / dried cape is a lot of work. Getting the full size back out, especially after the cape is well dried, will require more than just soaking ("rehydrating") the cape. Most taxidermy supply houses offer special soaking or stretching solutions that will help you get the most out of your cape.

    A good way to think about this is that a cape is kind of like a piece of meat. You can dry a piece of meat to make jerky. You can spray a piece of jerky with water, but it won't turn into a steak.

    Ordering Taxidermy Items: (back to top)

    All taxidermy items have a tamper-proof identity tag attached - all sales are final once this tag has been removed!

    All dressed, raw or salted items which have been soaked down or relaxed in any manner cannot be returned.

    If you are purchasing raw, dried or salted items to tan yourself or by a third party, note that there is an inherent risk in the tanning process and we cannot guarantee the outcome of anyone else's work.

    We do not guarantee the neck size you will get out of the cape.

    We assume no responsibility for delivery condition of frozen items.

    For complete information on ordering, check our Ordering Page.