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bucks did you get that beam made already? I was curious how it turned out if you did.

hav'nt done anything with the oak yet. that'll be a 6-pack summer evening thing i did make a quickie out of some 4 inch heavy duty plastic pipe for now. that works pretty well

Good deal!! Plan on making that beaver look like swiss cheese when you flesh it LOL. The outer edges you can use the dull side, and the center of it, you will need the sharp side the whole way. If you need practice, i have a 27 cubic foot freezer full of beaver pelts right now HINT HINT

Bucks a nail board is say a 1 by 2 ft piece 1/2 in plywood with 6-8 16d nails sticking out of it at a slight angle, after you have skun to the front legs and pull them through and pull upto the ears.. you just slap it on the board thru the belly area and you can pull and cut the head area hands free!

T, i don't follow that at all got any pic's??.
well heres the damage i created today . the beaver sucked but i think (know) it would have been easier with a decent beam. even though i know i butchered it, i still took the time to board it just for the experiance. overall it seems to be ok cept the beaver. Chris, i'd be happy to come down and practice on your beaver. swiss cheese to the max

Well bucks, where do we begin You did great for your first time!! The fleshing on the beaver actually looks pretty good. the nail job on the other hand is something else You want to make your beaver into an oval when you stretch them. If you bring down a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" plywood that is 32" x 48" i can put some lines on the boards for you to follow when you nail the beaver on. On your muskrats, i would take some clothes pins and place them on the sides of the muskrat to help hold the side down for more length. It looks like you did a good job with the mink! The only way to get better at this, is to practice just like you are!!

Here is a link bucks that you should do a snooping on. It has a lot of great information for a begginner to sit down and digest

http://www.furharvesters.com/pelthandling.htm

bucksnbears wrote:T, i don't follow that at all got any pic's??.
well heres the damage i created today . the beaver sucked but i think (know) it would have been easier with a decent beam. even though i know i butchered it, i still took the time to board it just for the experiance. overall it seems to be ok cept the beaver. Chris, i'd be happy to come down and practice on your beaver. swiss cheese to the max

Is that a beaver or a manta ray?

yeah, the beaver is purty ugly. . oh well, first one. all the fur was road kills cept for the rats so there are a few holes and blood/bruises on the beaver,mink and coon. everything is drying nicely. will be fun to get my first fur check even if it's only 10.00$

LOL, sorry bucks, if i knew sooner i would have mailed you a NAFA Beaver outline diagram, all you do is nail the outlines, remove nails and ink the lines in.

Thanks Bucks, you made my day.

I'll talk to you later,
Deano

Bucks sorry it took awhile to post these just got a new camera.. the old fell out of my waders and went for a swim This is the board I was telling you about for skinning rats on I'm alot slower than I used to be I did 53 in an 1. 1/2 hours and heres a pix of a training dog learning about muskrats

Good post Terry! I like the board idea. Have you thought about using a side cutter, or a small lopping shear and just cutting the back legs off? I have noticed that my knife stays sharper longer because i am not ringing the legs with it. I have been using a bench vice myself (on the tail) to do all the holding for me. Sounds like you still have the touch and speed

Chris I don't ring the back legs just the back foot to tail cut on each side, and the next cut is the ears ...its hard to explain but just push the rear leg up into towards the back and just peel around the knee then fold it like a sock inside out and pull the front legs through. If I did a video of a couple maybe you could post it for me or tell me how, We're going out again on Sunday and skinning as we shoot so see what I can do?? will a video off a camera work??

Terry - just use the video function on your camera. After you are done, download it to your computer and email it to me. I will get it posted for you If the video gets too big size wise and won't email it, give me a call and i can walk you through it lyonch34@hotmail.com

thanks for the pic's T. that makes sence.. i've been helping out Dusty skinnin scrats and he has a vice grip nounted to a table. one hind foot in the clamp,one pulled hard towards the skinner. cut from ankle to ankle. ring the back legs at the feet. the only other knife work is the ears/eyes,face.takes about 1-1.5 minutes per rat. unless their shot

You can just pop the the hide off the back legs too. Once you slide your finger in between the leather and leg and seperate it you can put your thumb in there and if you "roll" your thumb away from the foot while pulling towards the foot the hide will just pop right off at the point where the nasty little 'rat foot starts.

Used to just "pop" the hide off the back of the tail that way too on early winter kits, big adult spring 'rats you usually end up with a couple inches of nasty 'rat tail hide on there, so I would always cut the tail part with the knife.

The nail boards a good idea if you table skin. I always opened em on the table, peeled em in my lap, than flopped em back up tabletop to squeeze out the head.

Peelin slimy ole 'rats is one part of growing up in a fur shed I DONT miss.