Looks pretty clean.Any reason you left the nose and whiskers on?

Looks pretty clean.Any reason you left the nose and whiskers on?

we can trade.I'll send you my otter green if you pay for shipping

Thanks Boco and I didn't know that. But I will definitely start trimming off the nose and whiskers if I start selling the hides if prices come up. The tanned pelt I gave my woman this Christmas she commented how much she liked that the whiskers were attached.

Never could get the hang of clean skinning. It takes me about 10 min to beam flesh one.

i get asked a lot "how sharp is that knife."--i've had to give myself stiches and superglue twice from barely bumping it by accident.

No problem leaving them on for your own use.Standard handling procedure is to remove the nose and whiskers/lips an inch ahead of the eyes.
That is where the beaver are measured from even if the nose is left on it wont gain you anything and could lose you a size if boarding to the size lines.
Takes longer for that thick stuff around the whiskers/nose to dry so if you need your boards to meet a deadline etc you can get the hides off a day or two quicker.

first 1000 are the hardest.guy watched me do one the other day and when i gently went right down the center and 2 in wide piece came of perfect from neck to tail with almost no effort he about passed out.if your working too hard-your workin too hard.

I'd sooner skin and flesh a beaver than a coyote any day. Too much fussing around with a coyote. Besides that, some of them stink like a dog that rolled in something rotten. I like the smell of castor.

It comes down to what you're comfortable with. Once you learn to do it a certain way any other way will seem clumsy. I always felt like skinning and then fleshing was redundant. Clean skinning does both things at the same time. I no doubt would feel differently if I had learned to rough skin and flesh on a beam.

One can argue about which is more time efficient but I don't honestly think there is that much difference for those that are experienced in either way.
I average about 15 minutes to clean skin a blanket and about another 15 minutes to board it. I'm sure there are lots of guys faster than me.

It is an unfair world where diseased, parasite infested long legged opossums are worth 5 times as much as beautiful well groomed beavers.

So are you clean skinners doing a bunch of touch up when you board?

Most of my beaver trapping was done away from home and clean skinning wasn't feasible. So I got to where In most cases I could rough skin a beaver In 5 min flat.

Years ago when testing our body grip setter with my buddy Robbie in Canada we had a pile of Beaver at the bottom of a steep portage. From his pack, he took a set of sharpening sticks, a Victorinox skinning knife, a utility knife with hook blade, and two large fish hooks with barbs pinched down and light wire attached to eyes. He flopped a Beaver on a fallen log and made opening cut with hook blade. He wired the hooks to brush behind the log and used them to hold the carcass where he wanted as he worked his way clean skinning around the Bev. I watched in amazement as he finished the first one. He looked over his shoulder and said, "I can undress these girls if you wanna get our gear up over the hill". I made one trip with the canoe and one more with the gear. When I got back he was done with all but the castor removal. I think it was 5 or 6 Beavers, I couldn't believe how simple and matter of fact he made the task. A task that at the time would have consumed most of my weekend to do rough skinning and fleshing. LOL When I told him how I rough skinned he said " why would we wanna pack all that extra weight up the hill?" Over the next few days I learned to clean skin and never went back to rough skinning.

To each his own. I think the biggest lesson I got at the time was to not make to big of deal out of the skinning. He did it just as matter of fact as if he were setting a 330 in a run, it was just one more step. No more or less important than any other in the process. Before that trip I dreaded the task, since its no big deal.

Here's a pic of a pile of clean skinned Bev's.

So are you clean skinners doing a bunch of touch up when you board?

I love setting for, catching, skinning and boarding beaver. But man do I hate fleshing them. One of these days gonna have to learn how to clean skin. Not sure why this one was so troublesome but it took me an hour to flesh it. Saddle just didn't want to peel off. Also tried my hand at boarding without stencil lines for the first time.

Yes I believe most "clean skinners"do a bit of touch up when boarding the pelt. This picture is an example of what I consider a clean skinned beaver ready for final 2-3 minute touch up and trimming.

So are you clean skinners doing a bunch of touch up when you board?

Most of my beaver trapping was done away from home and clean skinning wasn't feasible. So I got to where In most cases I could rough skin a beaver In 5 min flat.

If you want weight dry them with the saddles on.