I am new to fleshing critters. I have done five raccons so far and not sure if I am doing it right. I use a fleshing board and a necker knife. When I flesh the coon I take the big hunks of fat and meat off first. Then it seems like there is another thin layer of fat below the skin thats left. I tried taking that off and I end up with a goo of fat on the blade, but I get the hide to thin in a couple places and I can see little hair tips. I know thats not good. What I need to know is how clean do the pelts need to be? I am drying the ones I did on strechers now. I can see the hide is turning yellow brown where it is drying but mixed in with that is the skin with what looks like fat under it. Is that bad? Please help. How clean does the hide have to be.

hard to tell much without seeing what you have if you can post some pics of what you have done the experts on here could tell you exactly what need to do.

Go to the archives, under furhandling are a few videos showing you how to flesh and put up the fur. Tom

http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/14/1/Fur_Handling_Archive

Your close but it sounds like your leaving some fat on the hide.
From the ears down the neck and around the tail are a pain in the arrss that is were the thin layer of grisel is hard to get off the hide. And yes there is fat under that grisel, but everwhere else the meat and fat should come off pretty easy. Just slow down and take your time and you will get better with each one, and if you need to walk away for awhile and then come back to it.As far as thinning out the hide and seeing hair yes you went to far. Once you get to the skin thats it there is no more fat left to take off. It will come out as it drys then just wipe it off with a paper towel. In a couple days you will see the spots of fat that you missed if any was missed it will be a yellow bump on the hide. When working on the neck and tail use the sharp side of the knife and the dull side on the rest of the hide. Just be careful not to cut the tail off and taking chunks out of the neck by pressing to hard go slowly until you get the pressure right. Also make sure you get all the burrs and clumps of mud out of the fur or you will cut right through the hide when you hit one. Hope this helps

Here are two examples from T-man members "Gregg," and Phil Brown that should be helpful references for you.

Gregg:

Scraping Raccoon


Phil Brown:
Fleshing A Raccoon

As Tom suggested, there is additional support information in the Archives.

Jonathan

That should take care of all questions Jonathan very cool video thanks cause that helped out me to.

When scraping a coon , you must have all the fat and gtistle off of the hide. It must be scraped to nothing but leather. If you keep scraping over and over in the same place time after time, you will cause the hair roots to come through the hide.
When scraping a coon if you will scrape the coon on the side first, it will be a lot easier to do. I start with one of the front legs facing me on the side of the coon. Once I get that done I turn the opposite side up. Once both sides have been scraped , you will end up with a thin strip down the belly to scrape and about an inch or so on the back left to scrape.
The gristle on the back starts easir if you already have a portion of the back scraped.
I most generall start me scraping around the cheak area on both sides, then make my run all the way down the coon to the bottom. At this point I push all the fat and gristle off of the hide.

ttt

I have been having problems with my coons too. i scrape what i think is most of the fat off and then i leave it and it turns watery. then i try to scrape it after its watery and it rips. i have thrown out coons because of this. how do you tell when all the fat is off. i scraped as hard as i could and nothing came off so i was thinking it was done.WRONG! never dried.. and last how do you guys scrape inside the tail?

Just scrape a little on the belly and look at how the leather looks. When you know how that is supposed to look, then you get the whole coon just like the belly.
As far as doing the tail. I just make a couple light swipes down the tail and it is good to go. Just get the lumps out of the tail, there usually is not that much fat in the tail.

Thanks for your help on this, I think I will get the hang of it. Its not as easy as it looks in the videos I have. Finding the right texture layer in the hide is what I need to learn. It seems like the order is big hunks of fat and meat (easy to get off with one swipe), then the tough layer of skin with fat under it (this is where I get to the roots when pushing hard), then whats left is a grey/clear layer that has the hairs rooted in it. The belly is the easiest to clean for sure. ITs the the back closer to the tail that seems to be hard to get that second layer off. Anyways, thanks Don and Tex A. I really liked the show you did on fur handling. I have listened to it a few times. This is my first year trapping, and I expect a learning curve. Its just frustrating when $ are invovled in my errors.

Don't bother scraping the big chunks off first. When you do that you push some of the grease from under the last layer of fat. Once you do this, it gets harder to scrape coon. If your pelts are a little gray looking , that is probably the reason you are having a bit of hair root problem . Once the coon prime, they will actually scrape easier. Practise, practise, pracrise is what makes a good scraper out of a person. Also while your scraping, watch what is going on near the knife.