fleshing beaver tails

Can anyone point me toward a video showing how to flesh beaver tails?
How the heck do you hold them?
just

I just put a couple of nails at the base of the tail on a sheet of plywood and scrape off with my trusty pull-type paint scraper. Takes less than a minute per side.

It's MUCH easier to cut down the sides like the video, then put the tail bone in a vice, then use a pair of vice grips and just grab each side of the tail leather and pull. peels tight off. One side always seems to have more fat than the other side. Way faster than using the fillet knife all the way down.

Has anyone tried tanning the tail skin?

Watching.

Moosetrot

Way back when I first started tanning, didn’t go too well. I have since improved my tanning method that has produced some soft leather. I’m fixin’ to do up a batch of tails using my new method. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Used these folks in the past and tails came out great! Looks like ,for now, they’re not accepting tails. https://specialtyleather.com/hides/

In the mid-90s I was professionally involved in tanning furs. in a season I made about 2000 pelts of muskrat, mink, polecat, marten, fox, badger. I think that with your help I can make a beaver's tail.

Same here, hoping this is short term, I liked the way the tails came back from them.

Great video on it thanks Hobbie

To make a useable size chunk of beaver tail leather for wallets etc,you have to leave both sides attached at least 4 inches on one side.
Splitting them in two pieces is not the way to handle beaver tails for the leather market.
May be OK for your own use,depending on the use.
There used to be a good market for properly skinned and dried beaver tails for a few years,we got $3 a tail for large tails and 75 cents for small ones.
The market was limited and FHA would let us know when the buyer needed an order.

Go to FHA website and check the pelt handling manual under beaver tails.
There is information on how to properly handle beaver tails.

Robert ! Do you make beaver tails ?

I do not tan beaver tails anymore,Kosoi,I have tanned a few in the past to make knife sheaths and watchbands.
I have also tanned sturgeon skins for the same purpose in the past.

Tanned sturgeon skin must be the toughest leather on earth.

I’ve not had much luck softening Bark tanned fish skin.

Go to U-Tube they have several good vids on splitting and skinning them. I use the vice grip and vise method only takes minutes and you don't have to much to flesh on one side cause the other side peels right clean.

You can use split beaver tails for wallets, Boco, is a bit behind the times with that advice, LOL I buy them like this all the time when needed, several people here have supplied me with them !

You just have to make sure they are at least 4 inches wide by 8 inches long larger is better cause even tails shrink when tanned

Specialty Leathers is your go to people for tanning tails, I don't recommend doing them home tanned they will usually break when you fold them, it takes a fine tan to do them and then they are sanded down pretty thin to work with.

I hear you make nice wallets Gritguy.I'm sure you can make a wallet out of split tails of the right size.
That said,the larger the piece of leather you have to work with gives you more leeway in what you can design and make with a piece of beaver tail leather,thus more marketing opportunity.
The handling of beaver tails for a larger piece of leather is in the FHA fur handling manual.
I skinned and sold a lot of beaver tails and never had any trouble handling them complete,as opposed to pieces.

I've bi-folded tails before for larger projects, not a easy chore to do, and then hoping they come back from the tannery with out splits or rips in them from the work there is another story. Tails are a tricky thing to master to even send in to tan, most use to much fleshing work on them or don't prep them correctly to have tanned.

It's a no brainer the more material you have to work with makes the job a bit easier depending on what it is.

Your work is not in question, your advice that you provided that you could only use split open tails was !

Your work is not in question, your advice that you provided that you could only use split open tails was ![/quote]


Well not exactly-you said yourself you need a piece at least 4 inches across-You wont get that from a lot of tails,only the biggest if they are not handled complete.

I don't know what the big deal is. They are just like filleting a fish. Not hard to tan either.
Also you don't have to use a vice if you just pull the tail skin off while it's still attached to the beaver.

Boco you mentioned that you have to leave both sides together, I say you don't, your turn LOL

PA not hard to tan, is sorta an understatement depending the use of them, yea you can home tan them, but I've yet to see one done well enough to my standards of use without breaking.

You must have weird fish, LOL

Well, IDK. I tanned one and made a wallet and it's still in good shape after several years of use, so I guess it was tanned well. And so far no one has complained about the tanned beaver tails I sell. They are darn sure a lot easier than brain tanning deer hides which I do for a living, but I'm still trying different methods on them.
I fillet the gristle off the tail just like you flay the flesh off the skin when doing fish.

Here we clean skinned them just like the rest of the beaver.Open up down one side and around the bottom end and about halfway up the other side to leave the two sides attached.Then just start at the top side and clean skin right around,flipping over and repeat for the backside.

When I tanned mine I made sure all the black grain was slipped off.leaving only white leather.The markings are in the leather and dont come off with the grain.
I alum tanned mine so they would be supple and take up the veg tan quickly.I re -tanned with tannin.
The only time I will do one is if I want to make something.There is no market here for them and I dont really have time to mess around with them.
They go back to the food chain.

I think the commercial tanners chrome tan tails don't they?

Can you tell me how to remove scales from the tail of a beaver for further skin dressing?

The scales are part of the leather on a beaver tail. This is what it looks like when made into a billfold. Beavertail billfold.

Did you make this skin yourself?

No bought it from Grit Guy. He sends them to be tanned

Judging by the photo of your wallet, the scales have been completely removed there, and then the leather is dyed black.

I wish it were technically possible to translate this video. it's very interesting to hear what this hunter has to say.

Just ask if you have any questions.

Couldnt hear the vid too good-did you say half and half rubbing alcohol and glycerine?

Yes. I've had other people tell me that they can't hear me. I guess I need to talk louder.

The outside of the leather membrane containing the coloring, does come off when in the tanning process.

Then dyed back when its finished, when done so with a professional tanner. Most tanners who are professionals,
not home remedy artists, have several colors to choose from.

Thank you. That's what I needed to know.

The few I tanned I always slipped the grain off before tanning.

How did you do it?

Since Boco did not answer you Kosoi, I seem to remember that he adds some compost water and encloses them in plastic and keeps them warm and allows microbial action to start to rot the tail. After a few days the grain comes off and he stops the rotting procedure. (I likely am off on the details).

Having the top membrane to come off is a PH adjustment really, but home tanners without any PH test strips usually do it the "I guess thats enough way" politely called lots of experience !

When it starts to slip off, one needs to adjust the PH the other way to stabilize the solution or you risk losing the tail altogether. It's not just the membrane side that is being treated its the other side as well, leaving it to long will cause it to rot and be un-useable pretty quickly.

Once you have that done you can go on to the next step which is the tanning set, then finally the dying back for color, after which drying commences then shaving or sanding to a workable thickness.

I like consistency in the tails to work with and the ability to bend them almost in half with out even a sign of cracking when making my billfolds. I have yet to have a billfold sent back to me because it broke in half folding open and closed for years on some customers use, Usually the lacing wears out before the tail shows signs of wear.

Have never seen that with any home tan work or solution yet, have seen them used on bows or other applications where they are not formed around or bent to a 90 degree, so yes home tanning suffices for this use.

Guess I will have to find another tanner if Specialty Leathers is closing down, I don't have the time to tan in bulk what I need to use for my inventory base. Moyles used to do them but when Hector opened his own business he took that with him, and I really don't know if he is still doing his own work.

The few I did I did it like the Indians remove the hair from moosehides in winter.
I soaked the frozen tails in cold water until the black grain layer slipped off.
I suspect you could do it with lime,then you have to de lime the skin and bate(adjust ph) usually with boric acid.
I have not tried that so you can experiment.
losing a couple beaver tails to experimentation is no great loss.
keep records when experimenting with tanning so you can re produce the results when one turns out perfect.

Looks pretty darn easy and worth experimenting with, PA. I'm going to give it a go. Boco, I'll find out tomorrow how an alum/quebracho coon turns out based on an old post of yours.

Let us know how it turns out for you..

Turned out great. Don't want to hijack this thread and posted pics in this one https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/7493861/2/home-tanner-poll

Here's one I slipped the scales on with lime and then barktanned with quebracho extract.
Very flexible. And PH meters are like 10 bucks on eBay, BTW. They aren't outlawed for home tanners.

What do you raise the pH with? Acid or alkali?

such wonderful watch straps can be made from beaver's tail leather

They look great. nice job.

Very nice watchband, with imagination many things can be made useful from everyday things. I really enjoy these post with people's handiwork from trapping related items

A ball cap I made from beaver tails I tanned. Pretty well water proof.