What does the white mean?

Kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like it's been boarded a couple days? If so, the white is where you got it fleshed properly, the red needed a little more taken off

I've seen white places when some hides have been overstretched. Not sure if that's the case here though.

usually see that on the sides nearest the nails.

White usually means over stretched. Never saw one that red before

You can't OVER stretch a beaver hide.

Yes you CAN.
That beaver looks to be poorly handled
And overstretched in the worst possible place where the grader weighs the pelt with his hand.

I used to pull to much on the nails to try and grab that next line. That usually causes more problems than what it should. So I don't do that anymore. Better looking pelts.

Like they said, over stretched probably. All the red around the head looks like trauma before it died. Hard to see the BG mark, caught and dispatched in a FH maybe?

This. Stretch marks are acceptable around the legs or perimeter, but if you see marks between the shoulders, you went too far.

You can avoid the dark leather by scraping out the liquid grease right after nailing.
Blood in the skin can also be removed after boarding by applying cold water or snow to the skin and rubbing it in.This will break up the blood corpuscles and it can be scraped out same as the ;iquid grease.

if the pelt is dark from hair roots in the leather(unprime) that is a different story.

Right on the money.

Actually both Beaver and Boco are right on the subject of over-stretching. For the hatter market (which is our market these days) you can't over stretch. A lot of the buyers pay per sq inch so the bigger you stretch that pelt the more money you make. On the other hand, if you're trying to get shearing grade beaver over-stretching could be an issue. Best to leave the pelt a tad loose so that when it dries the fur is as dense as it can be.

Good explanation.

When a furrier blocks out a beaver pelt he will pull a prime beaver a bit more than an semi hvy pelt.
Pulling out a semi hvy beaver too much when blocking will give you a weak pelt.
Same when stretching a raw skin to dry.

When I start making some articles in april I will take two pieces of tanned fur from the same pelt in the same place I will block one out to the max and the other I will pin natural-I think you will see the weaker one (overstretched) easily in a pic.

good read thanks guys