Coonman, GFW has a couple fleshing machines. They are basically the same type machines used to flesh cow hides. They work on open skinned items. That is why GFW open skins the carcass raccoon and opens the green skinned raccoons. The machines have two rollers, one is a drive roller and the other is a cutter with spiral blades similar to old reel type lawn mowers. The space between the rollers is adjustable to control the depth of cut and the thickness of the finished product. They open the gap and put a pelt half way in the rollers, close the gap to the preset depth and feed the pelt out. Then they open the gap, reverse the pelt, close the gap and feed the pelt out. In about 30 seconds, an open skinned beaver or raccoon are fleshed and ready to stretch and dry.

Their stretching and drying operations are just as efficient. Probably less than a minute to stretch a beaver pelt or a raccoon pelt. The fleshings are funneled into an auger that feeds them into a container. They are handling thousands of pelts and have to be efficient.

They had an Open House when the NTA was in Pecatonica IL a few years ago and those of us that went got a tour of the facility. It was at night and and not actually operating but we saw the machines and they explained their process. It was well worth the time spent in my opinion.