So I've been doing this for a while now but I consider myself FAR from experienced. While I'll never put up a hide as nice as Boco I would like to get better.

My question is this: When fleshing the hide is there a preferred size beam? I currently use a 45 degree (ish) beam with a tapering fiberglass cover. It's about 2 inches at the point widening to about 10 or 12 at the bottom. I use the same thing for all the critters and it takes quite awhile doing a beaver hide. I won't say how long - it's too embarrassing I'm forced to do narrow strips because of the curvature of the cover. Would a wider cover be better or would it not?

Any help is appreciated - thanks much.

Learn to clean skin then the only fleshing required will be a minimal amount that is easily accomplish on the drying board using a small fur pelt scraper.

Take the hide and place the point of the beam dead center In the middle of the hide. Now the weight of the hide Is evenly distributed so you have better control. Now with the dull side of your knife push off all the belly fat. Just keep rotating the hide as you go. When your done you should end up with about a 4" strip right down the center of the hide. Now you can hang the hide with the head end over the end of your beam and flesh off that center strip.
If you are having a hard time on the beam the learning curve to get good at clean skinning will really test your patience.

I've done beaver all 7 different ways and am fairly proficient at all of them. The best for me is a fast semi rough clean skin and frostscrape.
Its the fastest,most flexible timewise,and turns out the best finish by far.

Now I know not everyone lives in an area where its conducive to this method.
The other method I use when the conditions are not right for frost scraping is BC tomcats method.

I might add that when "cleanskinning" beaver you can take the time to skin it as clean as a whistle,or just clean enough to make scraping with a one hand scraper on the board easy.