Pelt dressers, tanners and fellmongers

Pelt dressers, tanners and fellmongers trim, scrape, clean, tan, buff and dye animal hides, pelts or skins to produce leather stock and finished furs for making garments and other products.

Tasks and duties

• Sorting and grading pelts, hides and skins according to colour, shading, size and density
• Scraping particles of flesh, fat, or protective tissue from skins or pelts to clean and soften them
• Removing hair from skin or hides soaked in lime water
• Preparing hides by curing them with salt
• Removing long, coarse hair from pelts and trimming underlying hair to even length
• Tanning and dressing pelts to improve lustre and beauty or to restore the natural appearance of pelts
• Preparing bark and myrobalan liquor for treating hides or skins
• Treating hides and skins in tanning solution to convert them into leather
• Tinting or dyeing furs to enhance natural shades of fur
• Removing wrinkles and setting grains on wet hides or skins
• Dressing and applying dyes and stains to leather
• Stretching and smoothing dressed pelts
• Seasoning leather by applying chemical solution or oil evenly onto the surface by hand brush and allowing it to dry in open air