Here's the formula I use, and it's right on the money.
- Skin and flesh the beaver.
- Hold it by the nose, and "pop" it like popping or cracking a whip. Do this 6 or 4 times. This limbers up the pelt.
- Hang the pelt by its nose from a nail in the post or something.
- Make sure the pelt is hanging square, and measure it from the nose to the base.
OK, I have to assume now that you have patterns of various sizes already drawn out of your boards. You need to mark the lines in about 4 places with its size.
- Your beaver is measured. Add half of that measue to the full length of the beaver. That measure is a sub-total.
- Multiply the sub-total by 0.10 (i.e. 10%).
- The sub-total + 0.10 equals the number of inches the beaver will stretch.
EXAMPLE:
- After you have skinned, fleshed, and "popped" the pelt, say it measures 36"
- Half of 36" is 18". 36" Original length.
- Add. 18" = 1/2 of above.
Sub-total is 54" = sub-total
x.010 = 5.4"
- Add 54.0"
- Number of inches the pelt will stretch = 59.4" = 60".
- The pelt should stretch 60". If it gets overtight, drop back to
55".
-My first tack goes in at the base of the nose. My second at 6:00
O'clock. My third and fourth at 9:00 and 3:00 O'clock. I work evenly around from those points, keeping the pelt on the proper line.
I measure my tacked-up pelt from one upper leg hold to the diagonally lower leg hold.
Then I measure from the second upper leg hold, diagonally to the second lower leg hold.
Measure from edge to edge. Add these two measurments, and that is the size of the beaver.
Got It? You do NOT measure from hole to hole. You strike a diagonal line from the two holes (above), and measure from the edge of the pelt to the edge of the pelt. Then establish a second diagonal just as you did the first, and add the two lines together.
I said that this would be right on the money, and it will be, EXCEPT and UNLESS you land between two sizes. Then you'll have to wiggle a little bit. You'll get the hang of it.
Questions?
Later,
45/70,