Nice! Is that smoked and if so how did you do it?

We laid them on their backs to open them. The stretch was more rectangular than square. Used lots of 5d nails. Stopped that in '65. I don't recall how they measured or graded them.

tjm,did you cut out the front leg holes or leave them like a beaver leghole?

Did a few that way back in the late 1950s. Shipped either to Sears or F C Taylor.

Jim

Yeah that was the recommended put up selling to Sears in the late 50’s. Good times.

Makes sense to be square. Think how much easier it'd be to sew a blanket or etc.

The way I remember seeing it done down here was cut up the middle from vent to chin then out to the feet. When skint and scrapped we would take cane and cut slits along the edges of the hide.
We would then lace the cane through the slits on the side and take a piece and run through the slits on the top and bottom and jam them against the side pieces to keep them open and tight and to keep them
square. I wish I had one picture of Uncle Dob's big cedar tree in the front yard with a bunch of square coon hides up there swaying in the breeze...d2