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.
Skill level: Semi-skilledCheck your pay
- Salary range for the majority of workers in Pelt dressers, tanners and fellmongers - from R6 281 to R25 050 per month - 2026.
- A Pelt dressers, tanners and fellmongers typically earns between R6 281 and R11 167 net per month at the start of the job.
- After 5 years of service, this is between R7 293 and R14 557 per month for a working week of 45 hours.
Salary Check
Duties and tasks
- 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
