Giraffe hide as bedspread?

[Fredrik]

Hi all!

I'm looking into a giraffe hunt for 2025 and I had the idea of making a bedspread of the giraffe hide (something like 2,4x2,4 meter which seems doable from what I could find regarding sizes of skins).

I'm thinking it would be a pretty cool way to ise the skin, but, will it be to hard and/or heavy? I'm never come across a giraffe hide in the past. I had this idea with my bison skin and that one is a bit on the heavy side but mainly the bison I shot was a tad to small to make it work properly.

Any thoughts?

 

[K-man]

Hi all!

I'm looking into a giraffe hunt for 2025 and I had the idea of making a bedspread of the giraffe hide (something like 2,4x2,4 meter which seems doable from what I could find regarding sizes of skins).

I'm thinking it would be a pretty cool way to ise the skin, but, will it be to hard and/or heavy? I'm never come across a giraffe hide in the past. I had this idea with my bison skin and that one is a bit on the heavy side but mainly the bison I shot was a tad to small to make it work properly.

Any thoughts?

I have a giraffe hide that is tanned I purchased. The hair is a bit too coarse for me to want as a spread next to me. Looks great on the stair rail!

 

[375Fox]

I wouldn’t. Possibly nice for a rug on the ground but definitely not a bed spread. You’d also likely need to hunt a cow or younger bull that still had a nice hide without too many scars instead of best trophy.

 

[Goat416]

I have a couple bull giraffe flat skins. The main body is roughly 2.25 meters square plus the neck that is approximately 1.5 meters long and ranges from just over a half meter wide to a little over a meter. They look great and love mine as a flat skin. The hide is double the thickness of my zebra flat skins at just shy of 4mm thick. It might be a little thick and stiff for a blanket. I would discuss the tan with the taxidermist and make sure they keep as much size as possible when they skin it. It is my experience they trim quite a bit when skinning and tanning.

 

[buck wild]

Will be stiff and possibly a little heavy for bedding

 

[Fredrik]

Thanks for all the input. The picture is of a print blanket but you get idea of what I had in mind. I'm not to worried about it being coarse as I'd remove it every evening but it seems it will be a bit stiff to roll/fold and to "fall" nicely over the bed and with a 4mm thickness I guess it will be quite heavy as well.

And thanks for the advice of ensuring it's not being trimmed too hard.

I'll discuss with the taxidermist but from what I could read up, full flat skins are very hard to make properly flat and "always" have some "wrinkles" so it's not suitable as a rug as it makes a great trap for tripping. Is that something you have experienced @Goat416 ?

Regarding the hide I'm very much aware and the offer I got was related to a specific bull that's not too old with a good quality hide so that's why I was considering to use it as a bead spread.

 

[Ridge Runner]

@Fredrik

Not sure about the gariffe hide, but seems plausible, as with cowhides. Not sure if 4mm is thick enough, but see if you can have the gariffe split and soft tanned. It will make the hide more pliable and lighter. Then use the split for other projects.

 

[Huvius]

I have a couple bull giraffe flat skins. The main body is roughly 2.25 meters square plus the neck that is approximately 1.5 meters long and ranges from just over a half meter wide to a little over a meter. They look great and love mine as a flat skin. The hide is double the thickness of my zebra flat skins at just shy of 4mm thick. It might be a little thick and stiff for a blanket. I would discuss the tan with the taxidermist and make sure they keep as much size as possible when they skin it. It is my experience they trim quite a bit when skinning and tanning.View attachment 642808

What are the measurements on that skull?!!

 

[Goat416]

Thanks for all the input. The picture is of a print blanket but you get idea of what I had in mind. I'm not to worried about it being coarse as I'd remove it every evening but it seems it will be a bit stiff to roll/fold and to "fall" nicely over the bed and with a 4mm thickness I guess it will be quite heavy as well.

And thanks for the advice of ensuring it's not being trimmed too hard.

I'll discuss with the taxidermist but from what I could read up, full flat skins are very hard to make properly flat and "always" have some "wrinkles" so it's not suitable as a rug as it makes a great trap for tripping. Is that something you have experienced @Goat416 ?

Regarding the hide I'm very much aware and the offer I got was related to a specific bull that's not too old with a good quality hide so that's why I was considering to use it as a bead spread.

I have one of my flat skins in my reloading room. Not a lot of traffic, but mine lays fairly flat. When it was tanned it looks like they pressed a fold into each leg that makes it lay much flatter than I think it would without the fold. I have mine positioned so the folds are not in the line of traffic. I will try and take a couple pictures if it is helpful. it rolls up similar to an area rug with a similar flexibility.

Given a large enough piece of skin to work with definitely possible, but might make a better rug.

 

[Goat416]

What are the measurements on that skull?!!

The skull is almost 3 feet long, I have it wrapped awaiting the right project. At one point I thought of doing some sort of European mount, but that's probably a different thread.

 

[Rimbaud]

You either (1) live alone or (2) have the world’s most understanding wife or (3) have a man cave with a bed. I’ve seen skins used by various clothing designers over the years so maybe check with them to see what they can do, or what they have done. I wish I had some pointers in that direction, but I can recall seeing animal skins turned into “fashion” or household items in the homes of many non-hunters.

 

[Goat416]

You either (1) live alone or (2) have the world’s most understanding wife or (3) have a man cave with a bed. I’ve seen skins used by various clothing designers over the years so maybe check with them to see what they can do, or what they have done. I wish I had some pointers in that direction, but I can recall seeing animal skins turned into “fashion” or household items in the homes of many non-hunters.

I was thinking the same thing. I get one room I can do anything I want, and in the rest of the house I need to get the blessing of my better half.

 

[Rimbaud]

I was thinking the same thing. I get one room I can do anything I want, and in the rest of the house I need to get the blessing of my better half.

I live in the same world, my brother