Maybe nobody cares....or already knows this. But I used to have "troubles" when it came to putting up beaver. Knicks, holes, slices, and finally tearing as I take them off the boards.

Really trying to take my time this year....and I was bored the other night too.

Open to any and all feedback and criticism. Its a lot of work, and I'm open to anything that may help my put up.



SO.....here we go.

Skin some beaver and make sure they're dry....


Got a little behind on skinning, and this female was a bit warm by this time, if you can't tell by the fatty areas around the head and front legs. But it dried fine and no worries.

I hook the nose on the board first. Tried the whole "case skin the head out" thing, and it just seemed to slow me down. But maybe its worth it.


Guess I try and rip a little "relief" on each edge of the beam first, then clean up the middle of the back....like this....






And clean up the hind end in the process. Probably the worst of it in my opinion. But get it looking something like this...


I then put it nose down and clean up the head and cheeks. I have a feeling I do more than needed here, but I think it helps them dry better, and an extra minute or two helps with the look of the pelt, at least to me.


Then, keep the center of the pelt on the nose of the beam, and work the "easy" stuff out towards the edges. Seems to help keep things cleaner for me. Like this...




Finally, I hook the head back on and squee-gee off as much of the white, liquid fat "stuff" as I can. Also, cleans off any scraps.


Now....to shoot the thing onto the board. I guess I do it the hard way and eyeball it. I'm just stubborn and that's what I do...but maybe the equation thing actually works for some.

I shoot the bottom on first, then pull the nose up. Then work the sides out and make sure I picked the right line.

IMPORTANT....If a pretty girl is texting you, it is CRUCIAL that you keep your phone on the board



Then, kind of like the star pattern when tightening lug bolts, I work my way around the bottom 3/4 of the beaver. I usually do the head last, guess because it seems like that area would be the most forgiving if my skinning was a little off. Anyway, sort of like this....




Any little tags, I try to clean up like this. Also, I usually trim the lips and nose too. Not always, but depends on how the beaver shoots on. I think it does help the pelt dry and look nice.




Not sure if this is best, but I pinch, staple, and trim the leg holes, like this...

DONE.

Now time to carry the board in to dry with the rest of them... in the laundry room....right next to the clean clothes

They turned out very nice, thanks for sharing!

Awesome post MNCedar!!! Your put up job looks good! I flesh a touch differently then you do, but i think it all comes down to personal preference. Have you found that the staples are a pain to pull out when you pull the pelts off the board? I use nails myself and have thought about staples, but i am just too gun shy you could say to do it LOL.

Here is a tip for anyone making beaver boards, make sure that when you stenciling on your ovals, alternate the colors of each ring. This way it is a lot easier to follow.

looks like you get an A . Good to see its about taking pride in ones work and not about economics . I vote this post to the archives ...Tom

Thank you for the educational beaver fur put up. Great job

Very nice pics and descriptions...thank you.

Pulling staples is something you need to get used to at first, but its not that bad. Once you do a few....you get faster. I used to really rush this part, and the fur check would show it!

I use a screwdriver and a pair of sidecutters to pull staples. Sometimes I just lift the pelt loose and off the board with the flat screwdriver, and then grab one "leg" of the staple and pull it through and out.

I asked on here and with a buyer about the KB staple rake. He modifies them a little....but that thing is basically getting the snot used out of it too.

Oh, as far as the ring colors. My buddy did his last year, alternated between blue and black or red and black every other ring. He thought it was great.....

It just made me dizzy.

I count the "spaces" when I board. Like the beaver in this post, I see it as "one showing"....meaning one space. Maybe thats a little abstract...but thats just how my brain works.

Using your method,how long does it take to flesh and board a blanket?

I'm not an expert.

Oh geez....I don't know. Never honestly timed anything out. I just know the staple part of it goes fast, once you do a few it only gets faster.

One thing I wanted to try this year, but didn't, was to use a pneumatic stapler (soffit gun) and turn the air pressure way down. That would leave a large portion of the staple sticking out, and make it very easy to pull out. I was shown this by a buyer, and plan on it for next year.

What kind of fleshing knife are you using?

Necker 600

cedar, i was thinking the same thing with a pnumatic staple gun. turn the air down low so the heads stick up 1/4 inch. also a brain fart and have never tried this but would the hide dry faster if you were to cut out a hole in the middle of the board. say a 10" hole or so??than stick a piece of lathe inside,to lift it abit.?? good informative post. and NO Lyonch. i ai'nt coming down to help you skin/flesh that pile you got

Hey bucs ray and I have a pile in dustys freezer for you to start on.

not a chance!! i'm alergic to them things and if i hadta flesh that many, my forearms would look like yours and i don't need hot chicks chasin me no more

bucks I use a pnumatic staple gun for mine and I rigged a block onto the saftey of mine which holds it off the board about a Quater inch as for the cutting a hole in the middle of the board it might work (cant say for sure as I use double sided boards) but back when I was hammer and nailing mine I would lift the hide up off the board after nailing and it would help with the drying time doing them that way

Would you be able to use a long enough staple with the pneumatic gun so that you can raise the pelt a little....?

Looks like a real nice job Cedar. It might be a little easier if you do make a size chart for yourself though. I just hang the fleshed pelt from a nail and measure from nose to base of the tail. Anything 42" or more is a blanket (XXL), 39"-41" is an XL, etc.

Cedar I tried it in my gun (now mine is a small cheap gun so others might be diffent) and it wouldnt shoot a long enough staple to make it worth the effort. I do custom fur put up for some fur buyers down here and my drying room has a a dehumidifier , air conditioner, heater and fans so I can really regulate the temp and such in my room and do my best to keep it 65 degrees with the humidity as low as possible (not easy to do down here most of the time) now with I staple and leave the hide touching the board I average 5 days on the boards (somtimes I can get them off in 4) on my boarded beavers and 4 on hooped ones, when I was hammering and pulling the hide off the boards I could probly take all of them off in 4 but when I nailed I would have at least an inch of space between the beaver and the board

Thanks Kirk. I can't imagine drying fur down there. Up here, right now, I've been getting by with 3 days bringing them inside. But that gets to be a lot of hauling boards in and out of the house. I must say that not everyone is as thrilled as I am with the laundry room being filled with beaver boards. But, you only live once.

Goldy, thats a good idea and I'm going to put it to use tonight.

Cedar the amount Im doing somone would have to have a heck of a big laundry room Iv been putting up 50+ each week Im working for a fur buyer down here and he has over 4000 to have put up right now Iv got enough boards that if I had time I could put 90 on boards and about that many on hoops (if my drying room was big enough that is

yeah.......I'd feel bad for any guy with a laundry room big enough for that.

That's a lot of dirty socks!

Great post thanks.

really nice post look good did you make your fleshing beam or order it from somewhere?

I got that one from Gerald Schmitt last spring (made the stand myself)...and its pretty hashed up now (my fault). I did all this years fur on that one...and 3 bears....and that rig has had it.

I need a new set up for next year.

How about them metal stretchers, the pros and cons as I havent put up a beaver but getting setup to chase them.

Not sure what would be more practical for you in Alaska.

Never used the wire hoops myself. I like the boards because I know exactly where I'm at, and can bump them up into the next size sometimes too.

Good job on the fleshing, stretching and this thread.

Some of the things I've learned over the years from Canadians are:

When fleshing do not try to flesh the whole length of any pelt be it beaver, otter or coon. Do it in sections-with beaver I put the center of beaver on end of beam and flesh outwards-from back to belly. Then work my way around-this way ones fleshing stroke is only 10-15" at the most and by working from the back to belly the toughest part is always closest to you except when doing the tail.

Would like to see a more oval stretch-yours look pretty round-I've used the Canadian patterns for over 35 years. To know what pattern to use on a specific beaver hang the fleshed beaver by the nose on a nail-measure the length. Add to it 1/2 the length + 2" on smaller sizes, 3" on mid sizes and 4" on larger sizes. So if hanging it measure 30" add 15" + 2" equals 47" so use the Medium ring. If 36" add to this 18" + 3" equals 57" which is the Large ring. If it measures 45" add 22" + another 4" equals 71" which is Super Blanket or XXL ring. All this said, I understand the sizes on bottom end have changed slightly so my patterns/familiarity are from the 1970's. At a recent convention where Greg Schroeder was demoing beaver he stated that now one should stretch them even longer by using the next size larger for length and the next size smaller for width.

I understand if one has many, many beaver to do that staples are the fastest for boarding but I've always been a hammer/nail(8 penny CC) guy because I can raise the beaver halfway up the nails which helps them dry faster, makes the fur/underfur feel fluffier-more loft plus the nails will bend inwards when leather drys if initially stretched too tightly.

Thanks for the post Kelly....

I agree on the fleshing. Started doing the opening stuff down the middle, and then working from the center to the edges and my fleshing really improved.

Those are NAFA pattern boards.

wolf the metal hoops work good to me they are slower to put beaver one but they dry faster and you can put a beaver up on them with the hide totally wet I use both when i have a bunch ready to put up and in my room I can hang 3 strait up and down off each other most of the time they dry faster but its harder IMO to get the oval shape and board probly 3 to each one I put on a hoop (but iv using an air stapler on my boards also and Iv got a table i build just to board beaver on so basicly all I have to do is take a step back when I get to the corners of the boards and step back up when the corner is past me)

First I will say I have only handled a few beavers so I am still learning MNCEDAR those hides look really nice. I use a two handled fleshing knife on a beam as you do. I was advised to put a towel under the hide to give it a little cushion to protect against damaging the gaurd hairs. As I found out even with a sharpp knife the fat near the tail takes some elbow grease to get off and the first few I did I aparently got a little too agresive on the beam and damaged some gaurd hairs.

Not sure about the towel thing....sounds like that would make more problems than it helped.

But I'm not an expert. Maybe keep your beam a little wet?

Sharpen your knife more. I never push hard enough to damage the hair, even late caught beaver don't or shouldn't shed while fleshing.

All a towel would do is make you cut the skin just like hitting a burr or something in the fur

Great post...Archive Material....Thank You. Tom

Looks like you have It down pat.
You might try and start at the middle of the hide. Just center the hide over the end of the beam. Then that's all you have to do is keep turning the hide as you flesh. I find It a lot easier to control the hide with this method.
No need to to raise the hide off the board.

Nice job

Nice looking beaver put up. Thanks

Guys there was a question asked earlier regarding...would a hole in the middle of the board accelerate the drying process? Any thoughts?

Thanks for the post!

Couldnt hurt probably but its easier to lift the hide up the nails to allow air to circulate between the hide and board.

MNCedar,
Great job. Great post.
This past season I drilled a series of 3/4 inch holes around the center of one of my boards. I use staples. Pelt dried faster. I am planning to do that to the rest of my boards this year.

TTT

Thanks for the post MNCedar. I have been struggling handling my first couple of beaver and this gave me just what I needed to work through my toubled areas. Great post!

Do you double board them....one on each side? Would it still speed it up that way?

Excellent Job!

i have a "crown stapler" that i use at work, it shoots an inch and a half staple.they are pretty heavy guage....might work well for beaver to slide the pelt up off the board

Can someone tell me the advantage to using staples vs nails.

As to the hole in the center of the board, I have one board with a hole in the center, I wish I could put it back. It does make the pelt dry faster, but I clean skin my beaver, then nail them on the board or sew on a hoop. Then I scrape them with an old ice cream scooper (don't ask, its what my dad used and what his dad used, it works good is all I'll say) to get the milky fat out of the hide and any spots I missed while skinning. The edges around the hole (I put the center back in to scrape but there is still an edge) you have to be careful of when scraping or you can rip a hole, especially if there happens to be a scar right at the edge. If you are doing all your fleshing on a beam and not scraping once on the board the hole in the center wouldn't be a problem, and like I said it does make them dry faster, though still not as fast as hoops.

cedar have you ever noticed little white lines in the leather esp around the leg areas?
Have you ever noticed guard hair coming out while fleshing?

I beamed a lot of beaver but now I just run them across my knee with a sharp knife
Does a very nice clean job
A guy up here can do a full size beaver this way in 6-7 minutes(I cant but he can)
He uses electric stapler too with a table that holds the board and spins round and round

I think that's the best option. Don't think you'd be able to slide them up. But they would board quick and the staples would PULL quick too.

Lots of mink,

I've seen that "spiderweb" looking white areas....some pretty big....especially around the front legs. Usually when I'd really stretch one tight.

Never got docked for it, yet. Didn't notice anything in the fur either.

But I'm not an expert....just made this post because I thought I could learn something.

And I have!

Those look dang good to me! I know the feeling on the laundry room. lol

TTT

Just boarded the first beaver of this spring

if you would grind down the driver in your staple gun they will stick up a little/ they will be easier to grab.??? take the top off and pull out the piston. and take a little off

Depending on the air stapler you can hold back the safty pull the trigger and hold it. The driver should stay out as long as you hold the trigger in.