I suspect most of us do it this way. Guy on here asked if I had a video of it but I don’t. Anybody???

A Native woman demonstrated it here at a workshop.I prefer the conventional way for speed,but the skin was fairly free of flesh when skinned from the mouth.

I believe it was ATA & ADFG that made a video. Joe Mattie demonstrates it. Ive seen them available for loan at various ADFG offices. I had several copies but have handed them out to new trappers through the years.

Its called Alaska guide to fur handling, I found it online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2G7SUzWK3c

Thanks MP. I have an old copy of that in VHS. Glad to see it available to watch online.

I still do it "normal".

I tried it once, big bellies make it challenging. And pretty often they are fatty like a mink so I end up fleshing anyways.

I haven't tried the mouth method, I'm still too green, I guess.

I have done it but prefer the traditional way.

Skinned my first mink and marten by the mouth because that's how my grandparents taught me. Switched to the other way for some reason and prefer it now.

I have a Russian friend who skins marten from the mouth. I wonder if the Russians brought that method here?

My wife skins them the three ways, split, case and mouthed, depending on what she is going to sew with them. She will spilt or case Wolves, also depending on her end use.

No furrier involved, so commercial market isnt a factor.

Same for Marten as for the ways she skins Seals and the occasional Otter or Beaver , if shes needing a bag or the like.

I've tried skinning them from the back end but through the mouth seems faster and is much cleaner IMO.

I will do it either way .Through the back end or thru the mouth. Either way gets the job done.

I prefer mouth skinning them. They turn out very clean so there is no work to speak of as far as meat or fat left on the leather. To each his own though.

I'm tempted to try skinning from the mouth. The marten where I trap often have a significant amount of fat, however, if the mouth method causes the thin, saddle membrane to stay on the carcass that would make fleshing even easier. Does the saddle membrane stay on the carcass?

It does for me.

I remove fat and meat but prefer to leave the saddles on.
No fat under the saddle on marten here.

We skin through the mouth as described in AKDFG/Joe Mattie video. Works for us, nice and clean. Our Marten have little or no fat. I tried skinning a mink through the mouth once and it was a pain. Trickiest part for me is getting it started around mouth and jaw.

Just revisited this thread to pass the mouth skinning way on to a couple new local trappers.

Thought to bring it to the top. I still use this method, aside from docking the feet and bottom jaw most of my put ups. Also found that using screen along with four pins makes the tails quicker and easier for the leather out part, before flipping them to fur out.

Same thing I do

What do yo figure the benefit is in leaving the saddle in marten? I would prefer a ultra-light and dense fur presenting a grader.

I always just took off the little bit of fat under the armpits on a marten.

I took everything off. Pretty easy and don't think I ever got dinged.
I also didn't fool with flipping. I waxed my boards, and never had one stick. It did makes a nice tail a little more tedious.
Removing the saddle might have helped with drying, using that method.

I skin them from the feet like everything else

Thats how I have always skinned marten.

Figured I was one of the few oddballs that did them in this manner.

I will skin through the mouth up to the ears and then skin from the back legs to the head to finish off.

I skin all animals this way. (Wolf, Fox, Fisher,etc)

I’ve never done it this way but wanna try it. Do you use 1/4” ? I prefer mouth skinning

The mesh is galvanized 1/4” product, hardware cloth.

I like the hardware cloth for laying out tails as well.
Some 1x and 2x marten won't skin thru the mouth, that's a good problem
Seems I go back and forth between the 2 methods for marten

Done it both ways, seem to prefer the standard leg method.