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.

I don't mind beaver at all.Hate fleshing otter

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

I like doing both.

I always left them on.

I predict your life will go well Mr Idaho. you got the right attitude,go get em and do it till it's done
don't worry about the nose

Just the way I learned to do it a couple years ago. Is there a reason for taking them off other than presentation? I don't sell most of my beaver with all the work I put into them. I tan them.

I actually much prefer putting up otter to beaver.

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

Clean skinning is not that hard. It might take a couple to figure it out. Once you do you will never look back. I fleshed one beaver one time. After that I taught myself how to clean skin.

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.

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

I can flesh the 20-25 pounders pretty quick, but those 40 to 50+ pounders kick my butt. With beaver price so lower I sell green , as I only gain a few dollars more for finished beaver pelts.

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.

Yep I leave the nose and whiskers on for the ones I tan and hoop also.

And I keep coming back to look at your pic Boco. That is some seriously nice put up. None of mine are nearly that clean as you can see

Once I got one of Lee Steinmeyer's fleshing knives, I never minded fleshing beaver, in fact I enjoy it now.

One of those is on my list of things to buy to make life easier.

fleshing beaver is all about a sharp knife , if you think your knife is sharp its not ,you have to know its sharp , I take mine to a knife shop before season starts an have them put a edge on it ,

Get yourself a beam and a good knife and beaver and otter both flesh easy. I also leave the nose on. I have tried to clean skin and I don't like it for one reason, you still have to scrape them to get the oil from the hide. On a beam that is pushed out as it is fleshed as I doo very little cutting, mostly pushing.