Sorry about the rotation of the picture but i have not figured out how to rotate them, anyway this photo is from an old article from way up in Canada where the locals would skin the rats starting at the head and work to the tail then stretch on a willow hoop

Interesting, wonder if Boco has any insight on this.

Old days.Marten were skinned from the head too and stretched on a hazel gad like rats.A cut was made from the mouth down to between the front legs.The gad was bent into a hoop shape and inserted into the opening.It made a nice round shape to the skin being a couple inches wider at the top(rump) than the bottom.Piles of skins looked amazingly uniform .Much different looking skins than what we see today.
It was the old indian way picked up by the white trappers.back in the day trappers spent the winter in the bush and put up all their fur in the bush too.
Beaver were all stretched on hoops laced with the inner bark from cedar or a sliver pulled from birch or ironwood.Not often would they use twine when trapping in the bush.

You'll occasionally read guys on the Wilderness forum talk about skinning marten from the head. I've never seen it done, when caping an animal for taxidermy I will often start from inside the mouth and skin the nose and chin back to the back of the mouth that way and then skin down like normal until I meet up with where I skinned up from inside the mouth. I've seen guys skin clear past the eyes from inside the mouth when caping but I prefer to skin eyes and glands around them from the other direction.

To me, skinning marten through the mouth is quicker and cleaner. No cuts are made on the throat. The entire carcass can be inverted through the mouth, then, once the pelt is off the carcass, it can be opened up from heel to vent, and dried on a traditional stretcher, identical to a "normal" skin. For Alaska interior marten, along with these Idaho marten, works very well. On the other hand, I've had quite a number of SE Alaska marten that were simply too fat to invert through the mouth, and had to be skinned "normally". Sorry I don't have any pictures (never thought about taking any). This winter, I'll try to remember to do that.

Jack

Had a few native people demonstrate skinning marten thru the mouth at our workshops.

We skin the m’rats that get the heads ate up backwards. Then you can still throw them on a wire stretcher.