New to Fur. How do I......

[CavTrooper]

Go about learning to skin, tan etc? I'm hoping to take a nice fox, bobcat or coyote this year (hopefully a few!) and want to have me some nice fur trophies. The wifey would NEVER go for a mount! I want to learn to skin and such but I'm sure it takes time and practice to get good and if I get some good fur in the meantime who can I take it too? A taxidermist or ???? How do they like them delivered? Ive heard of people freezing them??? Is taking them freshly killed acceptable? I would probably practice on the lesser quality animals but the good ones I want done right! I'm not going to be into fur for profit or anything but If I get something nice, why not keep it? Any help or answers would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Bob D]

Welcome to the forum. Glad to have you here. We happen to have a world class furrier on board that frequents this forum. He should be able to answer all your questions. Check him out at his website http://www.championtannery.com/
Bob

[FinsnFur]

Cav, welcome aboard. I see Bob's pimpin me out again.

I've been running my own independent tannery for just over 12 years so far. I don't know about world class, but I have taken in hides from all over the nation and take a lot of pride in what I do.
There's something about a fresh clean piece of fur or leather that gets me cranked. (Carefull with that one guys )

I did make several posts in the thread titled Fur Handling Tips, that covers Freezing Hides, Thawing Hides, Salting Hides, Fleshing Hides, and Turning Ears.

There might be some good reading in there for ya. I've been told I need to append to it and include splitting lips, and some skinning.

Splitting lips is something that is used mainly for taxidermy purposes, and what it does is provide a way for the taxidermists to open the lips from a thick slab sorta speak to a thin flap and actually tuck the skin into the form so the mount has a natural appearance.

Being in the tanning business, 95% of what gets shipped in here is usually already split by the taxidermist before it gets sent in to be tanned. Most taxidermists don't want to rely or trust a third party for that since they will have to mount it after someone else hacks it up.

Splitting lips is not necessary for hides tanned as throws, or walls hanging type furs.

I have done it, but I'd like to see if I can con Ric223 into doing a How To article for us on lip splitting. He's been in the taxidermy business for several years, and actually he's responsible for getting me into my tannery business.

Skinning critters?......we've all had our hand in that. It comes with the territory.
The old saying that theres more then one way to skin a cat couldn't be more true.

I'll let some of the others post a bit on skinning and maybe Ric and I can get together and put something together also.

Everyone's got a slightly different technique to peeling em out, but we all end up at the same end of the carcass

[Todd Rahm]

Yeah, Rick come on lip turning post. 

[Jrbhunter]

Hey Cav, I'm sure Jim gave you some solid advice there.... didn't take the time to read it all :)  But he wouldn't steer you wrong.

If you want to soak up about 10 years worth of typing in one Saturday afternoon you should come up to Greenwood Indiana on September 30th to the FTA Convention there.  There will be demos on setting traps, snares, skinning, fleshing, tanning and some knucklehead is giving a calling demo too.   You can find all kinds of products related to hunting, trapping and fur handling--- all in one place.   The convention is a  one day show, Saturday all day.    It's right up I-65, come on up and see us... I'll have a booth setup with 20-25 guys sitting around telling stories.  Look us up!

[Rick223]

Lip splitting
First you need a very sharp scalpel I cant stress that enough.
The lips are like a folded piece of paper they need to be unfolded.
I found the best way for me is to hold the scalpel like a pencil careful not to cut your middle finger.
Turn the cape inside out grab the lips so that you will be cuttin down between your fingers(youll have to experiment to find out what is most comfortable for you)
I always start at the back of the mouth opening there is a big flap of skin witch is
the inside of the cheek.
Start your cut where the skin was cut from the gumline cut downward between the two layers of skin till the lip is flat.
As you go feel the lip between your fingers if you havent gone far enough you will
feel a bump like a piece of twine was stuck in there or something also when you try to lay the lip flat on the table you will see the ridge where it is still attached.
Once you get close I put my index finger under the lip so I can feel the scaple cutting
you will be able to tell when your far enough.
When your done you should be able to lay the skin totally flat on the table .
I made a crude drawing so you can try to visualize what I mean.
Hope this is enough if not I will answer any questions best I can.

Rick
Ps next youll need to flesh the lip witch is not easy all the muscle tissue needs to be removed I use the scalpel for this and I carefully try to filet the tissue off.

[FinsnFur]

When you look at the flesh side of the animals face after you have it skinned, you see the lips where the black skin (which is the lips) meet the skin on the inside of the mouth.

Splitting lips consists of nothing more then peeling the lips outward, starting at that line. Using a fillet technique works best, being carefull not to go right out the front through the lips. Fillet the black part (the lips) out towards the front but leaving them attached on the very outside of the face.

Imagine making a fist with your palm up. Your arm will be the face skin, and your hand will be the lips.
If you open your fist you'll get the same results as a split lip.

[slagmaker]

Welcome to the board. Hope you had a good time hunting Saturday. Wish I could have been there, the area I had in mind for a hunt was under water tho.

Lot of info here I think you will like it

[OKTrap]

Be very careful when using a scapel on the lip. Even with gloves, you can cut through into your fingers. This is a bad thing ... and now I will explain why.

At very least you can get an infection from the cut ... at worst you can contract rabies.

Rabies takes 10 days to incubate before the animal shows symptons, so you could contract from what seems to be a healthy animal.

Bad deal? It gets worse ... rabies is 100% fatal in humans.

I case skin and cut all the way down through the nose and on the back side of the lips where they meet the teeth. It leaves a bit thicker lip, but I don't get cut.

So ... be careful ... and welcome to the board.

My .02

[fuzz624]

   yeah man,be carefull while skinning.If you are just starting i would recomend buying a good set of kevlar gloves.Then put rubber gloves on over the kevlar gloves.I know some guys will say that i am being to carefull but it is better to be safe than sorry.Good luck and happy hunting.

[straycat]

 The easiest way I have found is to have JD and Kee around.All ya have to do is act dumb and they will do all the work !
:roflmao:
Thanks again you guys !