![]() Sheep, goats and a few other creatures grow the hair type that’s considered wool. It’s essentially a form of undercoat hair that is soft, curly, and never stops growing. ![]() Wool is another covering on the skin of an animal. Hair is also a hollow-shafted skin covering, like you find on a deer. Generally, the word “hair” is applied to humans and “fur” is used for animals, though some tanners will say that fur is a solid-shafted hair, like you’d have on a furbearer. These skin coverings are one of the features that differentiate mammals from other creatures (like birds or reptiles). Hair, fur, and wool are all made from the same substance (keratin) and are chemically indistinguishable from each other. Wool The hairs that grow on animal skins may have some very different names and features. Leather: Used for shoes, bags, belts, upholstery, and many other applications, “leather” is a hairless animal skin product that’s tanned with various vegetable tannins or chemicals. Brains, egg yolks, fish oils, and other substances have been used to transform a stiff hide into a soft suede-like leather, though today, sheepskins that have been treated with chromate tanning chemicals are sold as “buckskin” (after dying them to resemble a smoked buckskin color). RELATED: How to Tan a Deer Hide the Easy Wayīuckskin: This is typically deer or sheep skin, tanned through a conditioning process and stripped of all hairs. ![]() Either way, this word can be synonymous with fur, or it can be applied to an undressed skin that will become a fur (leaving the hair, wool, or fur intact). It may come from the Middle English word pelett (meaning animal skin), or it may not. Pelt: The origins of this word are a little murky. Skin can also be a catch-all term that includes furs and pelts.įur: The word “fur” is usually applied to a processed skin that retains its hair, often from bears, feline species, and mustelids (minks, weasels, badgers, otters, and wolverines). If the creature had hair, it may be preserved or removed in the tanning process, depending on a lot of variables. Skin: The term “skin” is usually applied to smaller animals (think sheep skin or snake skin). Hide: We get the term “hide” from a Germanic word ( haut), which essentially translates to “animal skin.” The word “hide” is usually reserved for the skins of a larger animal, like a moose, cow, or deer. Here’s a basic glossary of the words used to describe an animal’s fur coat. Learn the Language There are some basic terms to know before getting into the specifics of hides and skins. So if you have ever felt lost when your taxidermist starts going into the specifics of tanning, here is a guide that will help you out. (And frankly, a lot of them are.) But there are some slight differences when you decide to get more technical. You’re not a fur trader, so many of the terms-hide, skin, fur, pelt, and buckskin-used to describe the outer coat of wild game animals may seem interchangeable.
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