How to Assess Tannery Quality for Your Taxidermy Shop
Shops that formally evaluate their tannery switch providers 50% more often, and improve outcomes when they do. That statistic reflects a simple truth: most taxidermists use whatever tannery they started with and never systematically check whether they're still getting the best service available.
Your tannery relationship is one of the highest-leverage variables in your shop's quality and profitability. A tannery that returns hides with hair slip, inconsistent softness, or months of delay is adding cost and customer disputes to your operation. A tannery that delivers clean, consistently tanned hides on schedule is a production multiplier. Knowing which one you have requires tracking the right numbers.
TL;DR
- A professional tannery should respond to inquiries about specific specimens within 24-48 hours.
- Shops that formally evaluate their tannery switch providers 50% more often, and improve outcomes when they do.
- tannery that says 6 weeks and delivers in 6-7 weeks is predictable.
- When you have a question about a specific specimen, can you get an answer within 24 hours?
- A good tannery should have a damage rate under 2% on properly prepared capes.
- A tannery that says 6 weeks and delivers in 6-7 weeks is predictable.
The Five-Criteria Scoring System
Evaluate your tannery on these five dimensions. Score each from 1-5 at the end of each season, then total the scores to get a composite assessment.
1. Damage Rate
This is the percentage of specimens you send to the tannery that come back with tannery-attributable damage: hair slip, over-thinning, holes, or chemical burn. A good tannery should have a damage rate under 2% on properly prepared capes. If you're seeing 5% or higher, you're absorbing customer liability that isn't yours.
To measure this accurately, you need to document the condition of every cape at intake and at tannery return. If you're not doing this, you have no baseline. Documentation of tannery damage rate over time reveals patterns that are invisible to memory alone. You might think one cape was damaged last season. Your records might show it was eight.
Score: 1 (5%+ damage rate) to 5 (under 1% damage rate)
2. Turnaround Consistency
A tannery's quoted turnaround is only useful if it's actually consistent. Track the date every shipment leaves your shop and the date it returns. Calculate actual turnaround versus quoted turnaround across all shipments.
Variance matters as much as average. A tannery that says 6 weeks and delivers in 6-7 weeks is predictable. A tannery that says 6 weeks and delivers in 4-11 weeks depending on the season makes your customer communication impossible to manage.
Score: 1 (consistently late or highly variable) to 5 (within 1 week of quoted turnaround consistently)
3. Communication
When you have a question about a specific specimen, can you get an answer within 24 hours? When there's a delay, does your tannery proactively tell you or do you find out when the return date passes without a delivery?
Good tannery communication means you're never left guessing about where your specimens are. Bad communication means you're making awkward calls to customers about delays you can't explain because you don't have information either.
Score: 1 (unresponsive, no proactive communication) to 5 (responds within 24 hours, proactively communicates delays)
4. Pricing and Transparency
Is the pricing consistent with your initial quotes? Are there frequent surcharges for "extra fleshing" or other add-ons that weren't mentioned upfront? Do you understand exactly what you're paying for on every invoice?
Hidden pricing at the tannery level erodes your margins because you can't pass it on to customers after you've already quoted a price. Transparent, predictable pricing lets you build accurate cost-per-mount calculations.
Score: 1 (frequent surprise charges, unclear invoicing) to 5 (consistent pricing, no surprises, clear invoices)
5. Species Capability
Does your tannery handle every species you take in? A tannery that does deer well but struggles with elk, bear, or exotics will be a bottleneck as your species mix grows. Confirm specifically that your tannery has experience with each species type you regularly send.
Score: 1 (limited to common species only) to 5 (proficient across all species you regularly submit)
How to Track This Data
You need records to score these criteria accurately. If you're not currently logging tannery shipment dates, return dates, and damage rates, start now. Even a basic spreadsheet with each shipment's send date, return date, specimen count, damage count, and invoice amount will give you a scoring baseline within one season.
Taxidermists using job-tracking software can log tannery submission and return automatically and pull damage documentation from intake photos versus return photos. See wildlife compliance software for taxidermy for how digital tannery tracking works in practice, and check the taxidermy shop management software overview for the full tannery shipment tracking feature.
What to Do with Your Score
Total your five scores at season end. Interpret the results:
- 20-25: Excellent tannery relationship. Focus on maintaining communication and monitoring for drift.
- 15-19: Good tannery with identifiable improvement areas. Discuss your concerns specifically.
- 10-14: Underperforming tannery. Start sampling alternatives.
- Under 10: This tannery is costing you money and customers. Switch.
Evaluating Alternative Tanneries
Before committing to a new tannery, send a test batch of 5-10 specimens before deer season. Evaluate the test batch on the same five criteria. Don't make a full-season commitment based on reputation alone.
Ask specifically about:
- Their chrome tan versus bark tan capabilities (bark tan is preferred by most professional taxidermists for softness and stretch)
- Deer cape damage rate from their last season
- Their maximum volume and queue time during November
- Their experience with the species types you send most often
A tannery that can't answer these questions specifically hasn't thought systematically about quality. That's a signal.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I measure my tannery's damage rate over a season?
Document the condition of every cape at intake using standardized condition notes and photos, noting any pre-existing issues. When specimens return from the tannery, compare the return condition to your intake documentation. Any new damage, meaning hair slip, holes, or chemical burn that wasn't present at intake, is attributable to the tannery. Divide tannery-damaged specimens by total specimens sent to calculate your damage rate. This only works if your intake documentation is consistent and detailed enough to distinguish pre-existing damage from tannery damage.
What communication standards should I expect from my tannery?
A professional tannery should respond to inquiries about specific specimens within 24-48 hours. They should proactively notify you when a shipment will be delayed beyond their quoted turnaround, not after the due date has passed. When damage occurs to a specimen during tanning, they should notify you before return rather than letting you discover it at the box. Any tannery that leaves you routinely guessing about specimen status or regularly surprises you with delays is costing you customer communication time and credibility.
How do I compare multiple tanneries before committing to one?
Send a test batch of 5-10 specimens to each tannery you're evaluating, using the same species and cape preparation standards across all test batches. Track the five criteria (damage rate, turnaround consistency, communication, pricing, species capability) for each. Ask each tannery directly for their damage rate statistics from the previous season. Check references from other taxidermists in your region who use that tannery. Evaluate the quality of the returned hides on stretch, softness, and consistency. Make your decision based on measured data, not reputation alone.
How does this apply to solo taxidermy shops?
The principles in this guide apply to solo shops just as they do to larger operations, though the scale differs. A single-person shop may have lower absolute volume but faces the same documentation, compliance, and customer communication requirements. The practical advice here scales down to any shop size.
What is the most common mistake taxidermists make with taxidermy shop tannery quality assessment?
The most common mistake is treating taxidermy shop tannery quality assessment as an afterthought rather than building it into the standard workflow from the start. Shops that encounter problems in this area typically did not establish clear processes before season, which means every situation becomes a one-off decision rather than a standard response.
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Sources
- National Taxidermists Association (NTA)
- US Fish & Wildlife Service
- Small Business Administration (SBA)
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