Fleshing beaver

So, ive never put up beaver before and this year I’ve decided to give it a try. Is there a good time, or easier time to flesh a beaver? I caught 2 beaver today, one was smaller (25 lbs) and was easy to flesh like a coon. The other was much bigger (55 lbs), and was the hardest thing to flesh I’ve ever done. I skinned them around lunch, and then after dinner went out and fleshed it and put it on a board. Basically are there any tips for beaver?

Should I wait to skin and do it immediately or should I try and flesh it immediately if I can?

Also, any easy way to hold the fur on my fleshing beam. I had the hardest time holding it down when fleshing. It just kept sliding

Thanks

Leave the flesh on the carcass when you skin it.

Payote welcome to the wonderful world of beaver put up. I have a fridge and freezer dedicated to fur. I think the beaver are easier to deal with when chilled/cooled down myself. Like you experienced the smaller ones are easier. The big buffalo beaver can be labor intensive. A sharp fleshing knife is a must have to shave the red membrane, saddle, and grissle down. Knives like Post, Neckers, Lee's,Grizzle Getter tool, and Sheffield's just to name a few make it easier. Not sure what your using but the red stuff has to be shaved down and the belly/sides can mostly be pushed off. The sliding issue your having is most likely from too narrow of a beam. I like a 8 inch or wider beam for my beaver. Wide beam with me leaning into the pelt with my stomach will keep it pretty still. Just take your time with them starting out and learn the feel of fleshing/shaving red membrane off the pelt. As for the method Boco has pictured above...there is more of learning curve there IMO. Once you learn clean skinning and can keep good edges on quality knives it will change the way you put up beaver. Took me several seasons to get good at it and now I dislike having to flesh rough skinned beaver that I pull out of the freezer. There is several good videos out there on clean skinning both commercially available and on Youtube. Good Luck to you on the beaver put up.

Good advice from TrapperCarl78... I use a large spring clamp to help position the pelt on the fleshing board, right below my stomach.

X2 on the sharp flesher, knife. I have just begun to flesh mine on a beam. My idea is to try to flesh more efficient. Now that I finished with my beaver I wish I had a few more, every beaver seems to get easier. I use a round beam and I also use a spring clamp to hold the hide on the beam just as Eagleye mentioned. after fleshing on the beam I use a Dexter knife to clean up around the head and tail areas. ( Still learning this way) Good luck!

Carl, thanks for the advice. I’ll try to let them cool a little I guess.

I do need to be better at skinning. I doubt it will get even close to that nice though. It’s a completely different way of doing it. The first one I got into the stomach and man did that ever stink. When I got up to the front legs, both were bleeding like a son of a gun. Not sure if I hit an artery, or if the trap did it. I think I was half afraid to go through the pelt with my knife, but they got a stronger fur than I expected.

Thanks the the clamp advice. I’ll see if that helps the sliding issue

Payotetrapper,I love to flesh beaver on a beam the rougher they are skun the better they flesh,I grew up clean skinning and I feel the beam gives a better finished product for me.the bigger ones do flesh harder if there is not much fat under the saddle,thin spring beaver can be tough,I made a hardwood block and cut the center out the same shape as my beam only bigger,got the idea on this site,you slide block over beaver hide on end of beam then lean on it when fleshing it holds the hide purfectly it's better if the point of your beam doesn't stick out of the block and poke your belly,your knife has to be very sharp !! Good luck!!

[quote=payotetrapper]So, ive never put up beaver before and this year I’ve decided to give it a try. Is there a good time, or easier time to flesh a beaver? I caught 2 beaver today, one was smaller (25 lbs) and was easy to flesh like a coon. The other was much bigger (55 lbs), and was the hardest thing to flesh I’ve ever done. I skinned them around lunch, and then after dinner went out and fleshed it and put it on a board. Basically are there any tips for beaver?

Should I wait to skin and do it immediately or should I try and flesh it immediately if I can?

Also, any easy way to hold the fur on my fleshing beam. I had the hardest time holding it down when fleshing. It just kept sliding

Thanks


As to the sliding Issue . When you have skinned your beaver just lay the hide on the beam so the end of your beam Is directly In the middle of the hide. This way you have equal portions of the hide hanging down on all sides. The hide will not slide around when doing this.
Start about 5" In from the outside edge and push the fat off toward the edge. Just keep turning the hide as you go. When you have gone all the way around you will have a narrow strip right down the middle of the hide. Then you can hang the nose of the beaver over the end of the beam and take off that narrow strip. No need for blocks or clamps.

Wrapping a gunny bag around your middle will contain the hide from slipping down the beam when your pushing. I have a old pair of Neoprene waders where I have cut off the legs and just have the upper section. It makes a great fleshing apron. Knock off that sharp end of the beam so It's no so hard on your belly.

Don't skin fresh caught beaver. Wait at least 2 days before skinning and all those blood issues will go away.
After you have done a 1000 or so It will become very easy. LOL

I would be all day In the fur shed If I were clean skinning. A average beaver takes me about 8 minutes to flesh. And there Is no touch up when I'm done.

agree beav

I agree with you Beav. That sounds easier. The way I have been learning is backwards from they way you state. My 1st path is down the middle then push to the outside. I am still learning also and need a lot of experience info. Thanks.

Thanks for the advice. I will try these couple things. I caught two more today, so I will let them rest before I skin them.

First time responding or posting, have to love this site. This is my first few weeks of trapping EVER, targeting muskrat and beaver in MA. I call it PC trapping (cage only and no colony traps either) a ton of work! Anyway, 4 beaver in (1, 2year old and 3, 50lb + in and a 6 rats) I can’t thank everyone enough for all the advice. After Swiss cheesing the first few beavers, today I finally took an exorbitant amount of time and clean skinned my last 50lb + . No near like Boco, but far better than rough skinning and subjecting it to the fleshing beam knife cuts from my inexperienced hands.
45 minutes of hard labor, I found that using my pointer finger under the pelt as a guide helped me recognize the proper edges of the fleshing knife.
8 minutes would be a dream.........

Keep at it speed will come with repetition.

Learn to clean skin, but not necessarily as good as Boco, and no beam is required for the removal of the small amount of flesh & fat left on the pelt. This is easily accomplish on the forming board with a small pelt scraper.

Very nice put up bctomcat.

The learning curve between clean skinning and beam fleshing Is pretty high.
I could never get the hang of clean skinning way to slow and tedious. And If you can't keep a knife sharp your bound to fail at It.
Those that can do It are true artists but It's not for every one.

I like to clean skin beaver. That being said, it's important to know every fleshing discipline. I have been practicing with the beam and fleshing knife now and again, and the more I do it the better I am at it. And I do that in the manner that Beav has outlined, when I do it. The only time I don't clean skin, is if the catch is overwhelming, and I need to buy time by just ripping the hide off roughly, and freezing them up. That doesn't happen too often, but it can happen.

What are you guys using to sharpen your beaver knives? The peeler type. Any recommendations on specific steel and/or stones would be appreciated.

I use paper wheels on a buffer (Razor Sharp Edgemaking System) to sharpen, and a smooth polished butcher's steel for edge maintenance.

I looked into that a bit last night. Thank you.

I just use stones and a leather strop.
A wet wheel to thin the blade originally, and a fine stone and a strop to keep razor sharp.
That's all you need.No need for expensive gimmicky stuff that wears away your blades.

I see some guys use those cutlery steels to sharpen their beaver knives but the only thing they do for me is to destroy my knife edge. I use stones and have strops as well but I was looking for something a little less involved while in the throws of fleshing. I don't like gimmicks, either.

I don't have a problem keeping razors razor sharp.

Once you learn how to thin the blade,it just takes a few licks on the strop to get that razor edge back.Once the blade is thin all it takes is a few strokes on a fine stone to get it back strop ready again.

If using a steel is making your knife dull, you have one or two problems......1) poor quality steel; 2) Poor technique using the steel. Probably a combination of the two with the quality of the knife thrown in as #3.

I touched up my fleshing knife with a stone and strop after I finished up last season. Have not touched it with anything but a steel since.

Hundreds of thousands of butchers keep their knives working with a steel. It only takes a few seconds to straighten up the edge and right back to work.

I got a FDick steel from Horn on here. Been a game changer for touch ups while skinning.

It may be the chintzy steel I have, the only one I could find locally has striations along its length. I went back to my stone out of frustration. It works fine but is time-consuming.

Can you point me to it?

Both likely suspects. I've watched videos of guys fleshing beaver and four to six passes on a steel and they're back in action.

Google F. Dick Steels

I use the 10" Packinghouse smooth polished steel and the 10" Fine Cut Round steel.

A little study on using steels will show that the better quality knives are better served using the smooth polished steels. Cheaper made lower quality knives, use the fine or regular cut steel.

Thank you, I'll do just that.

Check out the beaver handling video on you tube under North American Wild Fur Shippers Council. Think it was titled the fur shed. Had great advice on sharpening knifes and fleshers, plus good all round videos.

Will do. Thanks.

Send Horn a PM he can hook you up. He also sells reworked Victorinox knives too. Fair Prices.

cheap crappy knives I use a fine file and steel. My victornox a diamond hone and steel. My favorite skinning knife is a old metal pearing knife cheap metal that sharpens fast but hair dulls it fast, Two strokes on a medium cut steel it will shave again.

I've got one I fleshed over my knee boarded right now and I'm quite pleased with the way it came out. I'm back to the stones for sharpening until I get a quality steel. I've got a larger beaver in the garage I need to get thawed for round two. I'll post up some pics with the finished product when I'm done.

Finding quality stones is no easy task nowadays. Found this just in case anyone is interested.

https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Hard-Translucent-Arkansas-Stone-in-Wooden-Box-P283C96.aspx

Thanks for the link Posco.
Can never have enough stones.People don't realize you need to dress the stones regularly also to keep them in top shape.

You know your stuff. I enjoy sharpening knives, it's a form of therapy for me. I'm never quite satisfied with an edge.

I pulled another frozen beaver out of the garage today and am hoping I can peel the hide off it tomorrow morning to have another go at fleshing over my knee. I'll let you know how I make out with it.

Fleshing over the knee is not much of a learning curve.It comes quite natural.After two or three you will have it down pat.The bigger ones are way easier to do that way than the smaller ones.
Smaller beaver that have been rough skinned can be easily scraped clean on the board with a one hand scraper.Just have to be careful not to rip it out at the nails around the more tender parts.

I'm wondering if I've got a large enough oval on my board to accommodate this one. Good to know.