OK so now you caught a beaver, guess what? Now
the work begins.
Lay the beaver flat on its back, feet in the air.
Start by cutting off the front and hind feet. The front feet come of quite
easily. The back feet, grab the foot and bend it down cut right at the heel
right at the fur line. Now give it a good twist to separate it and cut it all
the way off.
Cut around the tail at the fur line.
Now make a straight cut from right between the front teeth, down the belly
right through the anus, to the tail.
Grab the fur and lift using your knife along the carcass to cut the hide away.
Basically you keep doing this till you reach the feet.
Using you hands get between the body and the hide work the hide up and over the
feet. Use your knife if needed. Repeat with other feet.
Cut the ears off as you come to them, they'll be whitish lumps on the side of
the skull.
Cut around the eyes carefully.
Keep cutting around the body till you get the pelt free.
OK, now that you skinned you beaver the REAL work starts!
Place your beaver or the fleshing beam head toward you.
Use 2 large clamps to hold the pelt together under the board,
so that it won't fall off.
Now take your knife and make a shallow cut just behind the ears, to serve as
your scraping point.
Scrape with a stiff downward stroke, this should be easy once you get it
started.
The fat along the belly comes off quite easily, and the back isn't to bad.
The hard part is the area of the tail, it is about 12-18 long and equally wide.
It is solid gristle. Use the sharp side of your knife for this, or if you crave
a workout use the dull side.
Once the beaver is cleanly scraped, place it on a beaver board.
The board will have marks for different sized beavers on it. Place the pelt so
that it will fit on a slightly smaller marking so as not to thin the fur. Use
regular galvanized nails to tack out the pelt.
Start by tack the beaver in 4 different directions then gradually add more
nails in the other directions. Also tack out the nose and lips above the
marking your tacking the beaver on.
Make sure the beaver is semi-loose as it will shrink when dry.
When your done you should have nails every inch or so.
Make sure to close the leg holes. Nail or sew the back legs closed.
Use rubber bands on the front legs, wind them up tight and
slide them down the leg as far as they'll go.
Beaver:
2XL (over 65")
XL (60-65)
L (55-60")
LM (51-55)
Med (47-51")
Sm(42-47")
X-SM (under 42")
Make sure the beaver is semi-loose as it will shrink when dry.