I skin and leave the feet in the skin and freeze.
That takes about 40 to 60 minutes depending on size of wolf,and how stiff it is.
When I freeze the skin I roll it up with the feet on top,then when I start putting up fur the feet thaw first in the cold room,and I skin out the feet toes and clean up the pads while the rest of the skin is thawing out.
Takes about 5 minutes per foot.I use toe hooks to quicken the toe skinning.
Then I put it on the board and put it out to freeze so I can frost scrape it next morning.Usually while my vehicle is warming up to go trapping, Smetimes I will turn the ears and split the lips before I put it out,or sometimes i do that after frostscraping.Takes about 10 minutes to put it on the board and put it out.and about 20 minutes to do the ears and lips
Next morning I frost scrape it clean-takes about 15 minutes,including the head and legs.Then I bring it in the cold room to thaw.Later on that day or next day I do the final pinning,and stuffing the toes,ears etc.about 15 minutes for that.
Then it will dry overnight,and next morning I wet down the leather and turn the feet,toes ears and rest fur out and re pin.I leave it on the board fur out for two days then take it off and brush all in about another 20 minutes.Then I roll up the dried skin and store in the freezer.
None of this is done all at once,except the skinning,each step is done whenever I have a bit of time to kill over a couple days or while watching a hockey game etc.So it doesnt seem like a lot of work at all.
All added up about 2 to 3 hours for a wolf.
Last edited by Boco; 12/31/23 01:12 PM.
