Castration Bands On Beaver Leg Holes.

Anyone using them out there? When you put the band on the leg to close the leg hole, can you tell me about cutting excess leg off?

Do you cut the excess off right up close to the band right after you put it on? Do you wait till the pelt dries out and then cut the band and excess leg off right where the band squeezed the hole closed? Cut close to the band and leave it on the pelt? Some other procedure?

Let it dry 50-75% of the way and cut the band and extra hide off.

Thank you Mike.

I trim the legholes after scraping the liquid grease out of the pelt,then put one nail in the front legs and two in the back.Quick and easy and looks neat if you push the fur thru to the fur side when nailing.

I use them and use a set of endcutters to clip the band and excess fur off after dry.

Do you overlap the skin

X2 here I use a older Klein wire cutter. Dryer the pelt the harder it is to cut.

Cutter is rounded blades on it.

Just enough for the nail to catch both edges.

Very nice!

I do the same as Boco,I think it makes a neater looking hide when dried. Been doing it that way for over 65 years, not going to change now.















boco

If you trim flush to the band, lot of times the band will slip. When the legs start to stiffen up its safer to trim it flush

Boco's pictures are so nice to look at.

One thing someone showed me once was to make the little overlap part so you're combing "down" from the head. So look at the head, then "tuck" the skin so later (when you take it off the board) you'll be combing downward nicely, instead of running into the flap.

I use 2 per leg then once dried I cut between the 2 bands.

Do the bands increase the price of the beaver hide?
I do It like Boco.
Is there actually a reason to close the leg holes other then looks?

Main thing is to make them flat so they stack easier

Those in the pic are frostscraped,why they are so clean.