Yes, great tied around waist when fleshing to keep hide from slipping on beam and getting a good grip when pulling/skinning. Sawdust great for fleshing greasy coons.

Oh and I keep a five gallon bucket lined with a small garbage bag right by the scraping station. I can toss globs of fat into it easily right from where I stand at the beam. Then afterward just close the bag and toss it in garbage place a new bag in the bucket and ready for next round.
Jim

One of the handiest items in the fur shed is a piece of burlap. Great for keeping the fleshing beam clean.
Burlap keeps hide in place when fleshing...
When fleshing, place a piece of burlap between your apron (your stomach) & point of beam.
Burlap placed in this manner, keeps hide from slipping down beam with pressure from you stomach (& piece of burlap) against beam.

If you're saving skunk essence, use a plastic/unbreakable jar and don't put it up high where it can fall and break on the floor. Don't ask how I know.

Amen brother, preach on!

When I freeze pelts to be fleshed and stretched later, I roll them up tail first...nose last. When I thaw them out, I hang them up hanging by the eye hole...and they unroll by themselves as they thaw.

I like magnets! I have a magnetic strip by the bench to hang knives, steels,and other useful tools when done using them. I also have them on my skinning machine to hold knife when pulling legs out so it's not in my hand where it could be dangerous. You can make your own very easy, just use some construction adhesive(caulk) and glue them to a board, I like the magnets that are about 1×2×1/4' thick.

Good tip.

I glued a piece of carpet to my skinning apron .
I can lean harder on there tip of my beam and gives a better grip on the nose of the critter being worked on.

Probably goes without saying but,I sand down the edges on all my beaver boards,even before marking the size lines.It only takes a couple minutes,and will prevent some nasty slivers.

Any kids hair detangled spray helps on those really tough bur messes.

Ttt

This is archive worthy

If you turn your boards sideways you can get a bigger patterns on a smaller board

Note to self.... Try to remember all these ideas.

Thanks everyone!!

Brad

I always have a scale hanging in my fur shed. Seems a lot of us trappers are always guessing and curious at how much the critters weigh. Kind of fun to guess the weight of a coyote, bobcat, beaver, or whatever I've caught while out on the line and then see how close my guess is when I get back home.

I wish I would have known this, I just made 6 boards (3 double sided) last weekend!

I've learned a few things on this thread. Am always looking to save time. Thanks folks.

I mark the width of boards with permanent marker (both sides). This saves time when looking for the right size board or one gets mixed with another size.


I mark Coon boards for length of pelt. This gives me a gauge on size of Coon when boarding.



I mark my lure & bait caps with permanent marker. I use a simple code to what's in the bottle.
Trappers are always looking at the cap of a bottle or lid of a jar. This saves fumbling around, looking for lable at set or re-stocking at home.
Storing lure & bait in the fridge- Placing lure & bait bottles in cardboard boxes will keep the fur shed fridge a bit more organized and bottles easier to handle.

When your neoprene waders are ready to be tossed cut them off at the thighs and wear them when fleshing. It keeps the hide In place and will save your apron. And gives you a little padding against the beam end.

Man, I love this site! Really hope this goes in the archives! Lots of tricks and experience in this thread.