Before the invention and mass production of the Lester Mills mink fleshing machines in the late 1950's early 1960's mink were fleshed by hand. This "saw horse" style fleshing setup was the most popular. The person fleshing sat on the sawhorse and fleshed the mink on the pole with a curved fleshing knife. The poles were all maple and were made by a company that I believe was in Vermont. A small finishing nail was driven in the top of the pole and the eye hole in the skin was lined up with the nail to keep the pelt from sliding down the pole. The fleshing pole was milled out at the bottom so the last 18 inches or so of pole fit (not snuggly but also not too loose) into a 2 inch galvanized pipe. The pole could be then rotated by hand by the fleshing person to flesh all sides of the pelt. Tail fat was fileted off with a sharp knife. At our mink ranch we had about a dozen of these rigs set up in the skinning/fleshing room. Many an hour I fleshed mink on one of these in the late 1950's from when I was 5 years old to about age 10 when we switched to machines,
This is the last one left. In the early 1970's when wild fur prices started to rise a friend of my father's made this pole for him for fleshing skunks, possems, small coons and gray fox. The original milled poles were all lost in a fire about 10 years ago. In the pictures are a gray fox fleshed a few days ago. As I get older I really appreciate being able to flesh without leaning over a beam. Some of the old ways were not so bad!

A dairy farmer /mink rancher near me had a few of those beams. He would pelt 300/400 mink a year. Not a big operation but kept him busy.

I like that, Do you have dimensions for the beam, and what type of knife is used? I know you said curved, but everybody's definition can either be close or a mile off! Thanks for sharing, nice to see things as they were in the older days.

Thanks eric, brings back memories of the old methods !

Thanks for sharing this Eric. When we were teens my trapping buddy bought a fleshing set up similar but with a board instead of a pole. I couldn't get use to the "pull" style fleshing but would use it standing and fleshing.
Do you know the diameter of the pole used in your picture?

When the system shown in this thread changed to the machines that is when women began fleshing big time in our area. There was a mink ranch called Silver Moon about 10 miles from our house that raised several thousand mink but also custom put up several hundred thousand mink each year for other ranches. It was good seasonal work for dozens of mostly women and they would work for 2-4 months during the winter.

Bryce

An old trapper I trapped with had fleshing beams like that-two sizes a small one for mink and small animals and a bigger one for fox cats and otters.
he called them his "Bats".
Another fellow at the workshops had a round bat hooked up to a motor and a footpedal to turn as he fleshed otter-He called it his Ottermatic..

You must be near New Holstein. Silver Moon Processors handled a LOT of mink pelts & did a nice job.

Yes New Holstein is about 9 miles from my house. Silver Moon (what is left) is about 10 miles. Two of the women in our little village worked there every winter for over twenty winters. They called it their Holiday and vacation work funds. Several also worked in the canning factories in the area during the summer as well.

Bryce

Fellow at work gave me one of those mink poles when we were still working together.

The pole in the picture is 2 inches in diameter at the top and 5 inches diameter at the thickest part. Poles for domestic mink were smaller, about 1 inch at the top and maybe 3 inches at the thicker part. Both were about 40 inches long not counting the part that goes in the 2 inch pipe. I will get a picture of a fiberglass pole from a Mills fleshing machine and post that later today. All of the original fleshing knives were destroyed in the fire, but I use it now with the same one I use on my bigger fleshing beam and it works just as well.
We also had women doing the fleshing and stretching of pelts. Most of them were farmer's wives. These women cooked everything using lard. I remember one lady named Evelyn decided to take home a pail of mink fat. She cooked it down to oil and then cooked donuts in it. Everyone working in the pelt room agreed that they were the best donuts we had ever eaten. After that many of them took home mink fat and tried it out with their recipes. We ate like kings, pie, donuts, fried chicken, each women tryin to out do the other.
Another lady named Willa always made a big tray of brownies with peanut butter icing. The brownies were great but the icing would kill a buzzard.
When she was not looking we would scrape off the icing into a fat barrel and eat the brownies. She didn't mind if I did it but one day she caught her husband, Gary doing it and a huge fight ensued. She was a big women and he was not a big guy. If my grandfather had not stopped her she would have drowned him in one of the barrels full of fat. I can still see her holdin his head in the barrel and his feet just a flyin in the air. He came out with peanut butter icing stuck on his face and all in his hair. Good times and great memories.

Eric, I believe I met your grandfather years ago when I went to your place with my uncle. His name was John Wells and be belonged to 2 or 3 hunting club for bear/deer and live in Milford PA. I remember looking at a gun collection and the buildings. I was 6-8 years old.

Here is a fleshing pole from a Mills fleshing machine. It is fiberglass, 1.5 inches diameter at the top, 5 inches at the bottom. Bottom had 3 clamps on sprig loaded cables, one for each back foot and one for the tail. Screw on the upper end to slide an eye hole over to keep the pelt from sliding down the pole. Machine had 2 of these poles that rotated on a rack so one person fleshed as another removed the fleshed pelt and put on another pelt to flesh. Fleshers originally had a vibrating knife that was on a carriage that slid on the frame on wheels. Squeezing the handle put the knife against the pelt as you pulled the carriage toward the base of the pole. Later models had a hard rubber impeller that spun against the pelt for fleshing.
An online search shows that Lester Mills died in 1993 at the age of 80 and the Lester Mills Fur Farm Supply business was dissolved in June 2006