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Old 03-15-2016, 01:05 AM
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KegRiver KegRiver is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: North of Peace River
Posts: 11,346
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TFNG View Post
That sounds like a good way to pile up some beaver!

Yes I've cut my fair share of holes lately. The smaller beaver are very thin. Try cutting closer to yourself where the hide isn't touching your knee. I've struggled also with what to use on my lap. I've thought maybe something with bristles on it. A floor mat maybe, carpet?
Cutting where the hide is not supported is one trick, another is to watch for the point where the fat joins the hide and focus cutting there.

It can be hard to figure out where that is, look for a thin line that looks like it has some air in it. A lighter color line. I'm not sure how to describe it best but when you learn what I'm talking about you will find it makes life easier.

I'm not sure what you mean by how to use your lap. I wonder if you are working to close to your body.
When I'm fleshing I am working just above my knee. I want the weight of the hide hanging below my knee to keep the hide taught. And once a get about a third done, the weight of the flesh shoud exert enough pull to cause a change in color just where it meets the leather. That make life even easier.

The trick is to have only enough hide on your knee to give ample room to work, the rest should be hanging below the knee. I'm thinking that when I was doing it, I'd have maybe six square inches above my knee and the rest hanging below.

I'd start along one edge and work around the perimitor and in towards the middle forming a dougnut shaped roll of flesh as I went.
As I worked in I'd bunch up the fleshed hide closest to me so that my hold was only a couple of inches from where I was cutting.

Here's a video showing much of what I'm talking about.

Keep in mind that this guy is either a whole lot faster then I ever was or he is not doing anywhere near as clean a job as I would. I can't tell which.
All I know is that I've never seen a beaver I could strip the flesh off of the way he is doing, but the way he is holding the hide and where he is working on his knee is the same. At one point he even works around the edge as I would do. I have to add, I was never fast. Most of the trappers I know could flesh a hide far faster then I could, but my hides were as clean as theirs and that is where one starts. Get it clean, then get fast. I just never got the second part figured out.

So here's the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVZgMrQYDwY
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