Marten skinning question?

I have a few questions about skinning Marten.

Does the rear cut go from the middle of each back foot to the vent or just infront of the vent?

How long do you leave the front legs?

If I understand correctly, NAFA wants the front legs tucked in when the Marten is boarded. Full length front legs that have been tucked in are a pain to aline when putting in the belly board.

Cut from the center of the back pad to the heel then follow the color change in the fur to just ahead of the vent. This puts extra fur on the back giving a bit more lengh to the pelt. The front legs can be cut short however when I pelt a marten I leave them right down to the paw.

Farm Boy. Theres a much easier way. Give me a call at home and I'll show you.

I was going to say, "hey Farm Boy, why don't you walk down to Ken's house and he can show you the way".

Geez, it must be nice having Yoda right in the same town as you.

Except Yoda takes alot of naps and is cranky...But, teach you to skin marten he will

He just has to provide the marten and the prunes

PICTURES!!!!!!!

No NO NOOOO The mouth technique. I must have given up too soon. Takotna says I need to do 30 this way and I will be hooked.

just got done with my first ever marten... good size male. wasnt sure how you guys do the front and rear paws but i just end up cutting right above like mink.

I skin the feet but the way you did it is fine Mogie.

I also prefer to skin them through the mouth after cutting up the back legs. This works real slick when they are suspended from a hook on a string. I have tried this also with mink, but the ones I get here are just to fat to get the belly through the mouth.

Skinning them through the mouth is so easy and clean, I'd never consider doing it any other way..I used to skin the paws on all of mine but for 3 years in a row now, I've cut them all of just prior to sending to Nafa, so I now have a bag full of marten feet with claws that I havent found a market for, lol..

Boy, when I started not skinning toes, did my skinning time ever drop!!

farm boy,I know you are a slow learner,but white17 has a lot of patience, so have him show you as many times as it takes for you to understand how to skin marten,even if it takes 30 or so before you do one.

thanks white... think i'll just stick to it. trying to do the feet will take me all night. beautiful lil animals.

FWIW, I skin all the way to the claws just because I enjoy it and I think the foot makes the pelt look better. After it comes off the board I take a pair of dikes and trim the claws right up to the toe so there is nothing to snag the other furs. When I have time, I trim the claws on the trail.

For auction pelts, I cut at the wrist. All others get the delicate toe treatment, and my eyes aren't what they used to be, so it takes about double the time for me to do it that way. I agree that they sure look nice when the feet are included.

Back when I started trapping, Seattle Fur Exchange would dock your price if claws were not left on the pelt. Then one day, the light bulb went off in their heads, that claws= fur damage. They sent out a nice letter asking everyone to remove claws. Also, the graders didn't like getting scratched while sorting fur Sure is quicker to just cut the feet off. Also I've always skinned my marten hind end first. I tried W17's technique a few times, but couldn't do the switch over. After several thousand the other way, it's just hard to make the switch. Sure wish I learned the right way the first time.

I too skin from the mouth, skinned one last night and thought i'd share some input on the subject...


First pull cheeks back and poke your knife inside and run knife thru upper/lower lips, scrap the tissue back onto the carcass(sharp knife is preferred)



Pull the lower jaw and poke knife thru to other side of mouth and cut hid off



I then hang by the lower jaw using a bent nail and cut close to the skull and get around the eyes and cut the ears off



Using your fingers poke and push down inside to take hid off carcass



Push and pull action(both carcass and hide) to take the front legs out



Using a papertowel push the flesh back onto the carcass while pulling the mouth of the hide(like drawing a bow)



Pull all the way down until you see the base of the tail



Pretty much the same process as the front legs, push and pull of the carcass and hide to remove the hind legs



Both hind legs off and off to the next step



Take off the hook and pull hide towards you and cut the vent hole off towards the tail, same time while making cut pull to minimize knife use. Before pulling out the tailbone, cut from one slit you made earlier on the hind legs close to the vent hole, move the the other side and complete the cut to the vent hole and finish the other too.



Slide hide onto stretcher and split the tail



Tack onto stretcher and a small amount of using a knife to carefuly take off some of the flesh and done


Sure hope someone understands the process, any other needed explanations would be great.

Nick

Nicholas, nice post! I think I'll try out on a mink/ermine this year...

I still don't get the advantage. What is it? Looks nice and clean, but so do mine done the "normal" way.

AV, Same here. Plus, I can do it my way in under 3 minutes. Mouth first just leaves less to be fleshed.

I've only skinned three marten before the normal way and I just wasn't good at it Not sure what the advantage is but I guess it is just what works for everyone that skins their catch and don't get me wrong, I like skinning that way. Started off skinning my martens by the mouth when I first started skinning them six and a half years ago and it just comes naturaly to skin by the mouth for me now, as I'm sure it comes naturaly for everyone else when it comes to skinning their favorite critter As a good man once told me, "Do what makes you happy and proud of what you do."


Nick

I skin all mine the same way. Regardless of what you think AV it isn't 'normal' to do it the other way.

I hang mine to skin. Lots of guys skin them in their lap. When hanging head down there's a good chance of blood and other fluids to run down into the fur while it's inverted over the carcass. I've tried it the other way but just can't do it......it isn't normal.

I skinned 6 marten this morning and gave your head method a shot. It's a novelty act LOL. I do skin taxidermist specimens like this as it allows you to peel back thin lips without cutting them off but I don't really see any advantage on a marten. Having said that what ever works for you is fantatsic and that's how we learn new tricks. I skin martens by putting a rear paw in a vise and can do one pretty quickly. The only flesh that I find stubborn is that meat that sticks to the underarms. What I do is once I've boarded the marten is grab that meat with the edge of a papaer towel and pull it off. The towel gives you grip and it comes off pretty easily. Belly fat I just scrape with spoon edge or knife blade. Should be getting pretty good by now as I couldn't even guess how many marten I've skinned in 30 years.

P.S talk to your NAFA rep ... the first thing they do to those beautifully skinned out marten feet is cut them off before they go into the drum. Too much work on the line for me to spend on redundant steps.

For the first 20yrs I did it from the behind, the last 10 or so have been from the mouth, in fact I start skinning wolf/wolverine from the mouth to just before the ears then the "normal" way, it cuts down on blood draining all over when you start skinning the head at the end.

I have done this several times, but it seems that whenever I cut the nose off it bleeds pretty well... I end up plugging it or trying to with paper towels.

You have the rpoblem with that ?

I hear you on wolverines and wolves Taktona as I do the head as well before flipping over. Again no problem doing marten this way, just not my way.

Sometimes hup, I just "sqeeze" spl? with paper towel and jam a few other paper towels around the skull and put his face back over them like you say.

I skin marten from the rear legs first. When I am skinning wolves/wolverines/lynx/fox, I skin starting from the rear, but as I progress and get to the neck, I hang the hide from another strap and slowly release the carcass and allow the body to pull itself out of the skin as I am skinning it out. Keeps the blood from getting all over the head, etc. Works well for me.

WHooaaa...

You go both ways???

Whoa there Hup you're assuming those critters are males, northway ain't no pervert!

LOL Hup! A little skinning joke no and again is great to hear! Thanks for the laugh!


Nick

I do the same thing Northway does with his larger animals, once I have enough hide below the front feet I slip a short cable loop over the hide and hang the carcass from the loop holding the hide. Tie the legs and tail up out of your way. No blood on the fur and very little pulling. It also makes it easier to clean skin the head and split the ears a ways before you cut them loose.

Don't have a preference as to which way to skin the small mustilids.

I agree on the bigger animals, I too once I get to the neck area I tie off the hide as close to the tip of its nose as I can and hang it as stated above, really nicely done. Nose gets turned and ears are turned as well.


Nick

I do it this way as well.

I learned from the ADF&G video. At first I didn't do it that way, but the weight of the carcass GREATLY helps instead of having me pull on the hide.

I can't speak on Marten, but for cats right around the lips, or i'd hit a vein (more like an artery...and might have been) on the neck and it'd bleed like a fresh bullet wound. Was amazing. I did what Hup and Takotna mentioned: stuff with paper towels.

Saves a LOT of mess to turn them half way through and use the carcass as weight to pull, and the blood then runs down and not onto the fur.

Catfish skinning pliers work very well to get small pieces of unwanted Fat / meat off of boarded hides. However, they might be a little hard to find in your local Alaska tackle shop. If interested, you can probably order pair from Memphis Net and Twine or Delta Net and Twine.

Oh don't you love the diversity among us. It is truly what makes the world a better place.

Yep FT this is a diverse group.

diverse?eclectic comes to mind,along with a couple others.some flattering,some maybe not so much. but a darn good buncha folks.

I'm gonna go try to skin my marten through the mouth , thanks for the great pics.

That went pretty good , one question though , was I supose to make the hind leg cut before , or after I got skinned to the base of tail?

Make the hind leg cuts before you start the head. Just cut from the heel of the foot to about the knee. Just a inch or two. Complete those cuts after you have pulled the tail. Cut on the skin side and you can make a good straight line cut from one side to the other.

start all 4 legs before you start skinning.

I skined both , and never made the hind leg cuts till I had the pelt off the carcas , this through the mouth is still a pretty good way , thanks for all the posting and picture in put guys.
Now I'm looking at my fisher wondering if this might work for them too?

if you can get the head over the shoulders/ and belly it will work.

I think I'll try it and tell ya how it went.

Nope can't do it can't get the head past the front shoulders. Oh well that was fun to try.