What do yo figure the benefit is in leaving the saddle in marten? I would prefer a ultra-light and dense fur presenting a grader.

I always just took off the little bit of fat under the armpits on a marten.

I took everything off. Pretty easy and don't think I ever got dinged.
I also didn't fool with flipping. I waxed my boards, and never had one stick. It did makes a nice tail a little more tedious.
Removing the saddle might have helped with drying, using that method.

I skin them from the feet like everything else

Thats how I have always skinned marten.

Figured I was one of the few oddballs that did them in this manner.

I will skin through the mouth up to the ears and then skin from the back legs to the head to finish off.

I skin all animals this way. (Wolf, Fox, Fisher,etc)

I’ve never done it this way but wanna try it. Do you use 1/4” ? I prefer mouth skinning

The mesh is galvanized 1/4” product, hardware cloth.

I like the hardware cloth for laying out tails as well.
Some 1x and 2x marten won't skin thru the mouth, that's a good problem
Seems I go back and forth between the 2 methods for marten