I just put up my first beaver pelt. Just curious if anyone can advise me for future. I feel like this is pretty clean but I did have alot of difficulty with fleshing the face area. Also curious on whether or not I need to salt this or just let it dry.

Thanks in advance.

That is very good put up especially for the first time. You should have seen my first one back in the sixties. The fur buyer must have felt sorry for me to buy it. Lol You can be proud of your work.

Looks good to me. Just let it dry you don't want to be using any salt.

Let it dry no salt, some folks trim the lips off. That’s not bad for a first beaver my first one looked like a diamond shape. I like wire hoops it shapes the beaver for you never had any complaints on them that way.

Looks good to me. Just let it dry you don't want to be using any salt.

It looks like you trimmed off the lips; that's good. Another thing you might want to do is cut off the ears. I just grab the ear cartilge on the back side with a pair of needle nose, give a little tug as you cut it, then nail hole shut with one nail. This will eliminate any taint smell that might come from the ears.

Next time you'll probably want to follow the lines better. If you're selling to a local buyer or state auction, you might lose a size. I think FHA uses a scanner so it might not matter as much there.

You can get a bit more stretch than what you think on beaver. If you starting getting the white stretch marks on the edges your good. Don't need to go further. As long as there's still some looseness in the neck area and the rest of the hide it's hard to over stretch them.

You have the nose stretched out to the LM oval but the rest of the pelt on Medium. Tack out your next one on just one of the sizes. Other than that pretty decent for first go. Like waggler, I trim out the ears as the pelt dries faster that way. No salt ever for regular fur market stuff.

Thank you everyone for the advise. I do not plan on selling my furs, I want to make a beaver blanket. I did end up cutting off the lips and nose and i cut off the ears.
I do need to make sure I stick to the lines better but I had laid it out and thought I'd be able to stretch it further but it felt way to tight so i loosened the staples from only one side.

I like to get the face real clean if I can but it's not necessary you can leave some of the thin meat. Make sure you take off the big chunks and heavy fat and that's good enough on the face
You did a nice job. Keep at it and they'll get easier

That is a pretty common thing and even gets some of us that have put up thousands of 'em. No worries. After the first 8 nails you should see how it's going to stretch if there was some question to start with.

Since you're not planning on selling your fur just cut off the whole face right up to the ears no need to flesh the face. I sell to a craft person and that's the way I sell my beaver.

Looks pretty darn good, especially a first attempt.

looks great for first try, like said above watch line and don't over stretch

Something else to consider. If you decide to have one tanned and lace it up on a wooden hoop, you might want to leave the nose and ears on. IMO, the pelt looks much better. This hooped pelt had nose, ears and lips left on. I'm going to ask the customer if he wants the lips removed or left on. But as is, a nice looking pelt on the hoop.




Another thought: IF . . you're going to display your beaver pelt on a wooden hoop, be sure that initial cut from chin to base of tail is exactly down the center. No straying off to the left or right. You might even snap a chalk line and follow it closely.

Here's a pelt that has that initial cut from chin to butt real close along that center line. Blocked up it looks like this. A little trouble in the butt end, but that can be trimmed up.



Another one. Looks like the nose is gone so you get a rounder top end on the pelt.



Now, what happens when you stray off course near the front legs? If you follow the black line around nearest the front legs you'll see it's off. What you'll have on the hoop without trimming will be an asymmetrical pelt. Might not be noticeable, but it's there.



Stray off course somewhere in the middle? Now you could trim that mid section up and it might not ever show.



And now off course down near the hind legs. This one started off center somewhere in the middle.



Anyway . . . just something to think about. Again, nice job with your pelt.

Great info Muskrat. Thank you.

I appreciate all the advice. Thank you.

My next question, is drying time. How long do most let their pelts dry for? Ive had the one in this post up since and it feels dry but also greasy still.

When you stack them...put fur to fur..or leathah to leathah.

Never put fur to leather ...when stacking pelts

So do the pelts stay greasy until they are tanned?

Ideally they should dry up. You can literally squeegee out a lot of the oil in the hide after your done cleaning it with anything dull..

When I sell beaver hides if they still are a bit greasy, I'll take a rag and wet it with laquer thinner and rub down the leather side.