I know that having them slightly frozen makes life much easier, my question is how much do i let them thaw before i have a go at them? And also what is the best way to go about them, start in the middle and work to the edge?

So I had a Go at it.
It went ok at best, I am having a lot of trouble above the shoulders.

Bottom half


Top half


Help? I cant get that crap off above the front legs!

I usually start a little higher up the neck than between the front feet and work back and off to the sides, then run the back feet over the nose of the board, then the front feet, then forward over the head.

I think a good board setup and a decent fleshing knife make all the difference.

same as above

i prefer to have the pelt fully thawed when fleshing, the fresher the better even. slicing off meat and grizzle is easier when its soft than when its frozen hard imo.

Why not skin thawed then put the hide outside to freeze a bit and harden the fat before fleshing?

Actually, I find that they dont even need to freeze. just let them set somewhere cool for couple hours before fleshing and that fat will set up some..

I do them either way. However, if I have the chance and my timing is right ... I like them still partly froze. The hide must be pliable, but I like to have ice crystals on the flesh.

Just the way I prefer to flesh them ... it works for me.

I like them cold but not frozen but will do them like that if in a hurry

I do one side then the other then the middle then touch up any left over fat

Update, i added some pics...

Hook the front leg on the nose of the beam, then turn the pelt to get the angles you need.

To answer your question, I make a stripe down the middle of the body, then work angles from the stripe to the edges. The video "Practical Fur Handling" was loaned to me by a friend and explains the technique perfectly. Check out the video. it's the worth the watch.
Oh, and don't worry about the face too much and the pelt overall doesn't look bad if it's one of your first few.

You need a very sharp knife on the gristle areas and a dull knife down the belly areas. You actually shave the gristle and fat from the hide.

Can we all say "skin clean"

looks like you dufid a good job to get the stuf off the front legs let it dry for a couple days then carefully cut it off

i take and cut a strip from the ears between the legs off the tail. push the sides. if it's a small beaver i can generally push the whole thing.as for clean skinning i believe it is for someone with to much time on there hands. or not enough beaver to do.

LOL, I've put up more than my share of beaver over the last 35 years. Clean skinning is the only way to go.

I am not a masochist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I clean skin in about 18 minutes. Alone. That includes popping the castor

doing your own you might be alright when your working for a fur buyer there is a reason they skin flesh and stretch.

Are you saying that three guys went start to finish, skinning, fleshing, and boarding, 240 beaver in one day??? If so, my hats off to you!

You are doing the right thing. The top end towards the head and shoulders takes time and a sharp knife. The back is the toughest so just go slow and learn. If you have them I would learn on the small ones and freeze the big ones till I had a pretty good grasp on what I was doing. Beavers are work and there is no miracle way to get to the finished product. Someone telling you I can skin, flesh, remove the castor and cook my dinner in X amount of minutes is more worthless than an opossum. What difference does it make to you and what you are doing? It isn’t even relevant to your question. Don’t worry about what amazing claims of speed some of these folks are capable of, it is what you are capable of that matters. The first three years I skinned all my beaver with a beaver skinning knife, I cut every scrap of fat off with a knife. It never dawned on me to use a fleshing knife on a beaver. We all started on that first one and we all put eyeholes where there were no eyes, take your time, ask the questions and learn. Later on when you answer a question on here think about which answers were helpful and which were pointless and pass on the favor by being helpful.

Well put.