Sheep fleece Dressing Service

Dressing Service.

Geoff Woods                                                                                                     

Devonia Products Ltd                                                                                      

The Tannery                                                                                                       

Mardle Way                                                                                                        

Buckfastleigh

Devon TQ11 0AG

Tel: 01364 643355

Mob: 08818 575657

 e-mail: geoff@devoniaproducts.co.uk

We are able to offer a dressing service where you can get your lambskins made into sheepskin rugs. (We can also process deerskins, goatskins and other skins of a similar size.) We are prepared to process single skins or more.

1. Unshorn lambskins make the best rugs. Sheepskins generally yield very poor quality rugs and are

not suitable.

2. A wool length of 2 to 5 inches (50 to 125mm) is ideal for a sheepskin rug. We can (and regularly do) process skins with longer wool length but the quality needs to be good with the wool free (no knotting) or the customer may be dissatisfied with the outcome.

3. If at the time of planned slaughter the wool length is expected to be much longer than 5 inches then

it is recommended that the animal be shorn at the appropriate time to allow the wool to re-grow to the

optimal length. (We appreciate that this is not always possible.)

4. The skins should be well salted as soon as possible after the lamb has been slaughtered - ideally

within a couple of hours but definitely on the same day. This will prevent any putrefaction of the skin and wool slip. We recommend evenly spreading about one kilo of salt on the flesh side of each skin. Leave overnight to ‘brine out’ and apply about a further half a kilo of salt to ‘dry’ the skin out. The skin is not actually dry but any liquor will be absorbed. The abattoir may be able to help with this – it is worth checking.

5. Well-flayed skins, i.e. those removed cleanly by the abattoir without damage, are required. Skins

entering the dressing process with flay holes, however small, are likely to get caught in our tanning

machines and get damaged.

6. Under the Animal By-products Regulations we will require documentation to show that the skins

have come from an authorised source i.e. a licensed abattoir (or a home kill). You may need our Defra

licence No. 10/271/0108 for this and to provide evidence that you are planning to send the skins to us,

an authorised plant. I can fax, post or ideally e-mail a copy of our licence to aid with this process if

necessary. If you are unable to provide the official documentation then details of the abattoir and date of slaughter will be sufficient.

The cost of this service will vary with the amounts of skins supplied (please see price list) and is excluding VAT. An additional salting charge of £2.50 per skin will apply if a skin is received unsalted or is deemed inadequately salted.

You can either send the skins by parcel post or carrier (well wrapped) or deliver direct to us. The process normally takes about  12  weeks and we would contact you as soon as the skins are ready. We ask for payment on collection of the skins or before the skins are sent. An additional charge to cover carriage would apply when skins are sent. This charge would be confirmed at the time.

Please note:

·        Although we do our utmost to advise customers on the qualities required of a raw sheepskin to make a good quality sheepskin rug and we process each skin to the best of our ability, we can offer no guarantee as to the final outcome.

·        If payment is not received within 3 months of the customer being informed that the skins are ready then Devonia will take ownership of the skins in an attempt to recover the costs incurred.

This is a brief summary of the general requirements. Feel free to contact me direct should you require any further information