I have been trapping for quite awhile but never really handled fur before so I am just learning. Here are a few pics of a couple coons and skunks I just put on the stretchers today. Hope they dry alright.




Any tips on fur handling would be greatly appreciated!!

Erik

edholum- My dad was a professional trapper in the 30s-40s. As a boy I would sit in the fur shed with him after he had run his lines of some 25 to 30 sets while he skinned and stretched his pelts of mostly mink, muskrat and an occasional coon or possum. He hated skunks.
The memories I have are that he always skinned as soon as he got home and never the next day. His only skinning knife was a folding, small Case and only used the smallest blade which was like a razor in sharpness. The mink and muskrat were stretched on cedar boards that he made. Old guys back then made everything. Coons were centerlined and stretched on the wall with a zillion tacks. Pelts were always dried with a rag then put on the largest board possible and only the rear feet were tacked. After stretching he would carefully remove all flesh and fat from the pelt down to "hide". After the pelts were hard its was time to go to a Fur Sale at the courthouse!
Good luck to you. If you have a little boy, let him watch you, answer his questions and he will always remember you.