Well i've been playing with putting up my first year's fur the past week or so, and i've done decent on most animals i think. I started my first beaver yesterday, and after about 2 hours of working on it i'd gotten most of the fat/gristle off of half of it and manages to cut 2 holes through near the edges. i have a double-sided MB knife with the "necker" portion sharp enough to cut me. i can't get the thing to push fat off for anything, it's like it's either slicing sideways or it isn't moving at all. this beaver fat is nothing like a coon's fat that's for sure. i mean, this gristle stuff is so hard i'm not sure when i hit the leather cause it all feels the same under the knife. is this normal? maybe my knife is too dull, but i'm not sure.

RP

I don't know what double sided MB knife you're talking about. My MB has only one useable side...and as fas as I know...it's the only one they sell under the "MB" brand.

Either way...don't get frustrated. Holes happen sometimes.

When shaving...just get it started then lay the knife almost flat against the pelt and slice if off in large pieces. Using the MB, I take off about a 3" wide strip at a time from behind the ears to as far as my arms can reach in one fluid motion.The sharp edge should go directly between the flesh and leather naturally.

You can only use the sharp edge down the back. On the small ones you only need to take about a 6" wide strip of flesh off with the sharp knife, but bigger the beaver the wider the strip you can take.

On the belly (edges)...you have to push with a dull edge.

Oh, and watch the "teats" around the front legs. They like to rip as well.

trust me i am no expert at fleshing beaver, have learned the techinique from one of the best though, have your knife really sharp and shave (cut not push) from the ears and over 2" each way and shave that to the base of tail. then turn sideways and push off the side belly fat. the biggest trouble i have is not cutting around the legs beacuse it wants to bunch up when pushing or cutting. i use a 14" round beam (log with conveyor belting wraped around, i think this works better than a traditional beam. takes me 30 - 40 mintues per beaver. the guy i learned from 10 - 15 but has done over 5000. he says a sharp knife is the key.

Welcome to the crowd.

Ron,

Just a suggestion, but on a reg beam you can stretch the leghole over the rounded end and push the fat off easily all the way around. You may be missing out on that part using a log.

sorry Daniel, not a MB knife (thats how tired i am), just a basic 1.5" wide X 12" long knife with the single bevel edge on the outside curve and the dull double edge on the inside curve. i think my outside isn't sharp enough. how do you like your "dull" side beveled? and just how dull do you keep it? thanks again.

RP...I use a similair knife for pushing.

What angle for the "dull" side? No idea. I've never touched the edge except to wipe the slime off.

I reckon it's pretty darn dull. Play with the angle you're holding the knife at, and you'll likely find the "sweet spot" for pushing.

Is this a large beaver? Them big ones can be real tough...the real time saver on them is shaving! You'll kill yourself tryiong to push the entire pelt.

Do this:

When the back is completely shaved, the leather is bare. There should be nothing to be pushed (on the back).

Now turn the pelt 90 degrees and push from where the clean leather stops and the fatty belly starts. If the fat doesn't seperate from the leather relatively easily, turn the pelt back the way it was and shave a wider strip down the back.

Here's a pic for you:



I don't know how well you can see....but the back is pretty well shaved about 8" or so wide, with only the tail gristle remaining. As soon as that is gone, I'll turn it 90 degrees and switch to my dull knife for pushing the belly fat off..

Now that's not a big beaver....on a big one I would shave MUCH more off the back.

Daniel,

On average how long does it take for you to flesh a beaver. and how many beaver did it take for you to achieve those averages.

Looks like the wife already tried it out on your head there bub!

I've got one suggestion (after having trapped over 3000 beaver) Clean skin. No redundancy and you're done from first touch to beaver on the board in 40 minutes or less after you get the hang of it.

Ron,

1. 10-15 mins max...it varies a lot with size...so it's hard to say an average. I can skin under 10 consistently.

2. Quite a few, but no where near 5000

I don't think I know you that well....

Thanks DE, the pic helps. this is a decent sized (50 lb) beaver. guess i shoulda started with the smallest one, but i didn't label the bags when i froze them. . .

beaver peeler,

i am no expert but the guys that put up hundereds that i know always flesh, and when you compare to 40 minutes it makes sense, 6- 15 minutes to skin. and 10 - 20 minutes to flesh. i am no expert just my thoughts

It's mostly a matter of finding what works for you. I tried to do everything the way my "teacher" taught me...and couldn't. I did better by mixing the methods to come up with the method for me.

lets say 15 minutes to skin and 20 minutes to flesh... 35 minutes

40 minutes to clean skin

if i'm going to have a "woops" and put a hole in a hide, it's always when i flesh. i've never made a hole skinning. when you clean skin you also eliminate problems with things like scars, nipples, burs, etc. that can mess you up when fleshing. i prefer to clean skin if i have just a few to do for just those reasons. now if i have a huge pile, i get lazy and rough skin them and deal with fleshing later if i'm required to.

there are merits to each method.

I have skinning down to about 5 minuites once the feet and tail off but I was diong 75 a week and my buddy fleshed them but it takes me at most 25 mins to flesh one I've played with alot of fur though espacialy this year so once you get a pattern and you know what each cut will do you can take considerable time off so in this case practice makes better (not perfect)