A family business established in 1983, Skyeskyns' tanning process has been created to reflect the remoteness of its Highland location and surrounding crofting community.
Today, visitors are transported back in time to witness how real sheepskins are made using time honoured methods of leather making - one of the oldest crafts known to man.
Our videos give an insight into how we carry out this process, a view of our showroom and some of our products, to see the process or see the full range either visit us or our web shop at www.skyeskyns.co.uk .
Hi Crystal, Our skins are tanned in such a way that we produce a washable leather. This is not always the case and it's one of the differences between ours and other manufacturers skins.
Ahhh! Lovely. I had to laugh when I saw the photo of the car filled with sheepskins. A few years ago I visited you on Waternish and bought 9 seconds blackface skins to sew into a bedspread for myself. I hadn’t quite remembered how full our car was on the way up for our holiday! Packing to go home was an adventure in itself. 😂 Scottish Blackface wool is famous for being very resilient in compression, so squishing it was harder than I expected. But we got home safely in the end.
Not easily, though it is possible to use knife blade to flesh, a barrel for tanning and stir it with a broom handle, nail out on a board to dry and the leather can be softend by working it over an edge in the old fashioned way. Finally they can be brushed by hand but it is even harder work.
Wonderful. Its a nice workshop. Im very impressed by seeing you buffing/sanding the skin. Does it make the skin thinner ? Which grit you use ? 60, 80 ? I wish you an eternal success. Thanks for the video.
Hi G.K. the buffing / sanding does make the skin thinner. We use a granite wheel made from Ailsa Craig granite, so not easy to say what grit it would be,
How about making a brand-name bag series? I am fascinated by the bags received by xrepbag.com It's hard to believe that I have been shopping there since 2018.
Hello, my name is Hakim, I am from Algeria, and I want to enter this field or profession, can you help me by answering some questions, if it is possible
We don't slaughter the skins ourselves we buy them from the local abattoir just outside Inverness where the majority of the lambs from the highlands are slaughtered. Lambskins are a by product of the meat industry, as long as people eat meat we would rather turn them into beautiful rugs than for them to go to landfill.
Hi The ones that we produce as in the video can be found on our website at www.skyeskyns.co.uk/sheepskin-rugs-and-throws/our-premium-range-the-mimosa-collection
I wish I had this lovely machinery when I tanned my sheepskins! Excellent video. So few people know about or appreciate what was a staple of our species for thousands of years.
