That kind of reminds me of the old Wringer Washer concept for fleshing rats.

You nailed it buddy!

General question regarding fleshing......Lots of stuff made out of cowhide leather. How do you think is is fleshed? By Hand? Or mechanical?

I say mechanical and what GFW uses for beaver and raccoon is an adaptation of what is used to do cowhides. We could not afford leather products if it was not mechanized.

Most cowhides are shipped to China where they are processed into leather and shipped back to the US. It's cheaper than having them processed here.

peeler could do it............

Yep, sure. Why not.

All beavers are not created equal. This year’s beavers….they flesh super fast. Two year olds are really easy too. But the 50+ pound beavers don’t want to give up the gristle without a fight. I pretty much shave everything on them, except the edges around the belly.

I would still put my money on a mechanical fleshing process even in China and Russia where a lot of US cowhides go. And yes, it is cheaper but not just due to labor. They do not have the EPA and OSHA riding herd on the process and protecting the environment and the workers like we do. Not saying all regulation is bad but we do tend to over regulate and that drives up costs.

I think you could too if you used your toe nails.

I agree.

I didn't know that we shipped cowhides like that until I was visiting Dave Rodgers (Rodger's Hides and Supplies) years ago and he was working on a pile of them, turning them in a pile of salt. He told me they were destined for China to be tanned and then shipped back here.

I was astounded that it would be cheaper to ship halfway around the world and back for a tanning service rather than have it done domestically. He said it was for the same reasons you did.

It's probably because they can just go behind the tannery and dump the used chemicals out on the ground or into the bay and nobody says squat. Some of the leather coming back from China might be child laborers or prison camp inmates that didn't move fast enough.

Old Grant showed me there beaver fleshing machine back in the 90's while it was in use. It was that fast. The beaver were fastened to a metal grate looking thing and rotated threw a dryer. He told me it was made for them and what it cost at that time.

From the time the guy first touches the beaver to putting it back down fleshed was around 8 seconds not 30.

https://www.imdadinternational.com/hydraulic-fleshing-machine The red cylinder in the middle is the knife, the blades spiral out from the center. The bottom roller closes up and pinches the skin up against the knife, it's rotating down (fast). It also pinches the skin to the top roller; both of the rollers are feeding the skin back out as the knife is fleshing the skin.

So here’s a question as to whether the fur buyer saying you get $3 more is a ploy. If 2 guys show up at buyer one with put up beaver the other all unfleshed and they compare averages after selling and the put up beaver guy averaged $3 more only then it’s a fact not a ploy. Just wondering what you’re saying or referring to. Are you talking about selling at auctions?

You would have to be sure that the sizes were comparable though.

Ok , in this case they were identical because it was a planned test

Yep, that is very similar to what GFW uses. The hide is inserted halfway between the rollers/knife, the gap closes and the rollers feed the hide under the spinning knife to flesh half the hide. Gap opens back up, the hide turned around, the gap closes and the rollers feed the hide under the spinning knife to flesh the other half of the hide.

The machines are designed to flesh open skinned items and come in widths big enough to do cow hides. They can be coupled with conveyor or auger systems to catch and carry to waste meat/fat into a truck for disposal. Very efficient process.

The cutting blade is designed similar to the old reel type push mower I used as a kid. The old reel mowers were spiraled in one direction. The fleshing machines are spiraled in both directions from the center so this cuts from the center toward each side basically spreading the hide from the center toward each side. And the hide is always pulled under the blade by doing approx. half at each pass.

ploy /ploi/
noun

An action calculated to frustrate an opponent or gain an advantage indirectly or deviously; a maneuver.

Have you considered that this maneuver may allow the fur buyer the advantage of buying both put up and green more economically than his competition? Keeping the margin between green and put up minimal encourages sellers to opt for selling green which he can process cheaper than other local buyers, to his advantage. The few put ups that he does buy he gets cheaper since he is intentionally keeping that margin low. It also reduces the probability of no sales, since other options are much more limited for green frozen than put up beaver.

Those rascals! Some folks on here have most certainly been ployed with!