I'm reading about putting up furs, and with muskrat and mink the "saddle" is left on. This makes the pelts more valuable.

What, exactly, is it?

The saddle is a red membrane found on the skin side of a mink or rat pelt. When the hide is removed during skinning you will see it on the back of the hide. If your pelts are going to be dried on a stretcher then they need to be fleshed. To remove the fat and gristle on the pelts a scraper is used. An old timer I knew used a big spoon for rats and mink. The saddle / red membrane is left on the pelt. If it is removed the roots of the hair will be damaged and the hair will slip during tanning. Buyers don't expect the pelts to be 100% spotless on these 2 animals so just remove the major amounts of fat found under the armpit areas,belly and back.

There are occasions where a big buck mink will have a thick layer of fat under the "saddle" and that is the one exception where you would want to take it off. IMHO

The red membrane.

In that circumstance I do not remove the saddle but try and push all the fat out from under it !

* oh yay, Nicks on...*
Great pics Nick! Haha
Mink

2poor, do you mean like flesh everything out underneath it? Then lay the saddle back down on the pelt?

Nick

You can push most of the fat out from under the saddle with out removing it. A spoon would work well ! Just gentle pressure will force most of the grease out.

I use a hog scraper, must be my farm boy coming out !!

Nick.....why no pleated tails?????

Ok, so the saddle is a membrane: squish out fat underneath with spoon, if present. Check.

Now will somebody show me how pleated tails work?

Thanks for the replies guys.

Because Nick doesn't know how to properly put up mink pelts to get maximum results Vinke, that's why.