You must get all the fat and gristle off of the kneck. If you don't, the coon wqill be graded a slt. damage at the auction houses. Ifin ya leave to much, it could be a damaged or low grade. I am rescraping coons at this time that had to much fat and gristle left on them,. these are coon that I bought from trappers and hunters. I see some every year that is either completly ruined or damaged by not scraping good enouigh.

Can you scrape them after they have been on the stretchers? If so, what's the process?

You would have to resoften the pelt I would imagine. From past experience if you scape fat off the pelt after its been dried, it leaves a white mark where the fat was .

So assuming a decent fletching and stretching job.....how much more do you get for a stretched/dried coon compared to selling green? This is also assuming that you didn't stretch it into the next size range. Don't know how often that would happen.

Check out Matt Jones after the catch video.That is the only one I have seen I am sure there are others out there. IF you have some in your area that does it ask them to show you.

dead coyote is right on, for you daniel the trapping is fun, but also i like to get the most out of my fur's, i would much rather have 50 coon that avg. $30 than 60 coon that avg.$25 it pay's to do a nice job and do it right.

When I said trapping time is valuable...I meant $$ not fun.

5 minutes is plenty to cleanly scrape any coon I have ever caught...if I take any longer than that I'm wasting too much time.

rescraping coon is a very common occurrence for the country fur buyer. the process is basically the same except most do not get restretched. but its by far better to simply do a proper fleshing job to start with. it will gain you $$$$

some of you guys that are good at fleshing coon if you would like it would be nice if you would post video of you doing so i never watched any one do it before i kinda just figured it out for my self. it would be nice to be able to compare and contrast.
thanks.

Get a good knife and keep it sharp, whatever kind of beam you are using make sure it is solidly braced and at a comfortable height. No reason to take more than 5 minutes on any coon except maybe a few tough old boars.

Just because your a speed demon dosen't mean you can't do a A1 job. I put up fur for other trappers and I'm fast, you have to be to make any money but I'll put those skins up against any ones. I just love to work up fur It gives me great satisfaction and I do It right. I put up 80 coon for a guy and he had them on the Jan sale he averaged $28.76 he had good coon but the put up took him over the top. 80 coon took two days and I didn't work at It all that hard. But just remember I have been doing this for 50 years.
Take your time learn from someone who knows what there doing and practice and practice and then practice some more.

So a good flesher in a regular work day on a regular work day week on a regular season can flesh 12thousand coon. Thas alot ofcoon. no wonder im behind most the season, imagine if the feller stayed late and went 7 days a week, plumb boggles the mind.

When groney was haveing his coon done by Manuel labor There were guys that could flesh 200 or more coon In a day He had to cut them off after that since they were getting wore down and making a few mistakes.

I also go along with what Gary said. You can put up top notch coon in 3 minutes. Like he said also, I would not be afraid to match my coon with anybodys coon in the country. It takes no longer to do it correct, than it does do it sloppy. It is all in the procedure you use.
Understand this fellas, the question was asked, how fast can a coon be scraped? We do the coon that fast if and when we want to. Probably get closer to 4 minutes when figuring in goof off time etc. I pay my scrapers 1.50 each to scrape coon and I board them all myself, with the help of my wife when needed. The fellas that scrape for me work on a piece work basis.ya don't work, ya don't make any cash.
One other thing you must look at here is this. The grader will spend less than 10-15 seconds or less looking at your coon. all the nit picking you do will not get you any more money. If you do it correct, that is all that need to be. there is such a thing as over working a product.

Why is wire not as good as wood? will there be a difference in price at the major auctions?

The price difference will be one of two ways. 1 st, coons retain their shape and don't cause wood to shrink in at the base or shoulder area, there fore you don't get docked for having to narrow of a steretch and 2nd, you will gain length on a board every time you use one.

I know this thread is about the time it takes to scrape a coon but there has also been a few questions on scraping technique.
Here is a quick video that I had put together and thought I would share.
Hope this works.

Greg

Thanks Greg....that was very helpful.

Good job!

Thanks Don and kfin.
I have been wanting to put some short videos together on pelt handling from skinning to boarding and this was a trial run so I thought I would throw it out there to evaluate.

Greg