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These hand-tanned fleeces are from our Tunis and Tunis-cross sheep, born and raised here on our small farm in Tennessee. We love this rare breed for many reasons, including their soft yet sturdy wool. These fleeces are hand-processed start to finish - we retrieve them from the meat processor and then scrape, stretch, pickle, break it, and sand it soft and smooth entirely by hand.
We use a sulfuric acid and saltwater bath (technically this is “tawing“ rather than tanning) so there is no chromium or any other metals used in the process. We wash these as well as we can, but they are not scoured (de-greased) - the natural waxy lanolin is still on the wool, so it is actually very water-repellant. These make wonderful changing pads for infants - any escaping pee can be wiped right off and it’s like it was never there (I used one for all 3 of our boys and would never use anything else!).
The full Tunis hides tend to have shorter, denser fleece with well-crimped blunt-tipped locks, while the crosses (1/4 Romney) are longer, fluffier wool with tufty locks and a looser wavy crimp.
There are, of course, occasional small scrapes and nicks in the leather side from the butchering process that we can’t eliminate in the finishing process. The photos will show any holes, cuts or tears, and the price will reflect a slight discount accordingly. We use a pumice stone to hand-sand the skin side to a soft suede finish. These sheepskins are stored with cotton balls dosed with Cedarwood essential oil to prevent any moth damage - they do love natural protein fibers so we strongly recommend doing the same if you store a sheepskin. They do smell like Cedar oil, just an FYI if you are sensitive to scents!
The sizes and fiber length will vary hide to hide (specified below) - we measure at the “waist” not the widest part of the bottom “feet”, and also at the armpits, and give both the max and min width.
Current sheepskins available:
#1 - 35” x 25.5”/21”. Tunis x Romney cross, fine and soft with great lock formation, buttery-cream color fleece, 3-4” staple. 1 small hole on upper right (see photo).
#2 - 32" x 25"/21.5". Full Tunis, with the typical blunt-tipped locks, with disordered crimp - more "fuzzy" than "shaggy". 1.5-2" staple length. 2 holes, left armpit and right shoulder (from leather side)
#3 - 37” x 27”/18”. Full Tunis, typical blunt wool, more cohesive (fuzzy) than shaggy individual locks. Main fleece has Tunis’ signature red kemp hair throughout, making fleece light tan with darker depths. 4-5” staple. 2 small holes in center of leather side, and faint stain line across the hide from being draped over a chair. We have sanded it well, but there is a faint horizontal line from that, this hide had a slight price discount for that cosmetic imperfection.
#4 - 37” x 25”/20”. Tunis, possibly Romney cross or just really nice lamb fleece - good distinct lock formation and very soft, buttery-cream color wool, 3-4” staple. No holes, nice white leather side.
We almost always have several sheepskins nearly ready, so if you're curious if there are more options, or you're looking for something in particular (specific size/shape/texture, one with no edges trimmed, etc) please message me for the most up-to-date options, photos and descriptions.