I was wondering what do you guys make your coon fleshing beams out of and how you make them?

weaselkiller,

I used my stretching board on my first fleshing job, worked fine for me! Of course Im going to buy a fleshing beam later, But I dont have the money. I say use your resources

you can make yourself a decent board out of and harder wood like yellow pine( not the best) poplar ( I like because it is medium tough and easy to work with) Oak, real tough but hardest to work with. I would select of board of about 2 inches this, lay the back side facing up and trace out a stretcher board or wire on this back side with dark marking pencil. Do one half at a time, the stretcher is probably wider than your board. ( for all round coon and fox I like a board about 6 inches wide) You can make the board any width works for you. Next you need to cut the shape, a jig saw will work fine, but a skill saw or chain saw could do the roughing work I suppose. After that you are going to need a hand or electric plane or even a heavy cutting rasp and start shaping the beam. Look at it from the i side and see your beam. I hope you have saw up close or pics of beam shape as this will help. don't over shape you want to make this beam fit your fleshing knifes curve or even be flat if you use something like a carpenter draw knife. Once you have the beam shaped satifactory to fit your knife give it a good sanding to smooth all up, I would use paper of 60 or 80 grit or use smoother rasp. I have covered mine with indoor outdoor type carpent and think that worked well for me even though I don't have it on my present beam. With proper tools you could make a beam in 20 mins or so. Most likely its gonna take half a day if your not a woodworker or making the first one. So take your time and make it fit you knife the mount it off the wall or make it long and extend it up out of a heavy box. In the end your beam will be an extension of you and how you like to work. I might have to get Blueridge to video the making of a beam as that would easier to understand I am sure.

Weasel, With a few simple tools you can make an efficient, ergonomic fleshing beam to fit your body height, arm length and choice of using either a push or pull technique.

Selection of wood for one is variable, but should be dry to begin with to avoid warping and splitting, durable, and as knot free as possible - clean pines, cedar and oak are desirable by most. PVC pipe is an option if you are handy to shape it and mount it.

This link may give you some ideas:

Fleshing Beams In Review - Complete Revision

Jonathan

If you can find it, ash makes a great beam. Might want to see if you can find an independant sawmill to cut you a chunk. You have all summer to come up with something and get it planed/sanded down.

Mine is made out of oak. Around 6 inches wide is about right, any wider and you will have problems with possums & etc. You will still need a boards for muskrats and mink.

I think my PVC beam is better than any wood beam youll find and alot cheaper and less work to make. Also if you cut it up to bad its quicker to replace.

anybody got pics of a pvc beam to show shape and what dia pipe would it be cut out of

^ I second that.

I dont have any pics of it but I use 4 inch PVC and cut it to an angle on the bottom side so the noce of a coon will fit the end of the beam,and I use a peice of 6 inch that I slide over top of that to flesh beaver.my 4 inch slides over a 4x4 that I trimmed the corners off till it fit then attached to wall. Ill never personally use wood again.

here's a ? about pvc fleshing boards. what is the opinion of a pipe that a stretcher board pattern would touch the 180 degree marks of the pipe and cutting the pipe to that patttern? just a thought to run by all of you.
i've got a length of 4" sched 40 pvc sounds like tomorows project

I make the nose of my beam bout the same as a stretcher I want the coon to slide all the way to the nose, and cut it back a good little bit. Its hard to explain but once you slide a coon over the beam youll know what you need to cut and you will like it lot more than wood.

i took a 2x6 pine and took the old fashion planer tool works great

I have a problem with my back so I had a friend of mine make this for me,it is 6' tall and the board comes off by removing 2 screws.I use it for everything but mink.

All you guys that want to see the options you have, check out Jonathan's link...

http://jayme220.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=archive6&action=display&thread=185

Pictures of PVC, wood, and several other variations that trappers have come up with. Tom