Tutorial - Possum Pelt Processing.

[Mataura mayfly]

OK, following Chris's excellent thread on Bird Skins and the preservation of for fly tying purposes, I decided I would do a bit of a series on how I deal with Possum pelts for sending over to you good folk that do not have them running around your back yard!
I got a young Silver/Grey buck Possum the other night out of the Willows, later that night Kim heard a noise outside and on inspecting in the morning I found a broken terracotta planter and a pile of possum crap at the front door! Several traps set and we got him the next night. Another young buck, but this one dark brown.
So after they had "set" for a day, I decided it would be a grand opportunity to do a bit of a photographic essay on how I deal with small animal pelts.

Now, as you can all imagine, as this is from go to wow, there are some photos that contain a fair bit of blood and gore. Nothing to do with the dispatching of live animals- but tearing the skin from the flesh is kind of gruesome if you are not used to that kind of thing.
So fair warning, there will be a bit more than my usual "dead animal" photos. If it is not for you, then please go look at some fluffy rabbits or something and avert your viewing of this thread.
By the way- these methods would work equally as well for fluffy rabbit skins!

Photo essay will follow.

[letumgo]

Teach away, Jeff. I am looking forward to seeing how you prepares hides. Having seen several of your finished hides up close, I know you do a great job. This will be a very interesting and educational post.

[hankaye]

Mataura Mayfly, Howdy;

Let me when so's I can warm up some spaghetti with meat sauce
to enjoy while I read along...

hank

[Mataura mayfly]

Start heating Hank......

First up is the skinning.
Now back in the days when we could sell air dried possum pelts for the fur trade, before PC ways and it became un-cool to wear furs, I learnt to skin possums. Often up to 60 or so in one sitting. I use a method called "pole" or "sleeve" skinning as the resulting pelt was pulled over a pole (or flat board) like an arm through a sleeve, then pinned in place to dry. For me it is still the quickest and easiest way to skin a possum, old tricks die hard.
The photo series is not the way I actually do it, but shows each step along the way. When I do it for real the possum only hits the ground once, rest of the time it is held between my knees/thighs region as I remove the pelt and do the knife work.
Speaking of knife work, there is very little of it involved. Two swipes to remove the ears, one cut along the legs front and back from foot to foot and one from where the front leg cut crossed the centre of the chest at right angles up to the bottom lip, centre of the jaw. Then the knife is dropped and it is all finger/thumb manipulation to remove the skin from the flesh.

Ears on



Ears off



Cut across the back legs



Cut across the front legs and up from the centre of chest to centre of lower jaw



Free the back legs



Remove the tail skin (the most complicated part for any novice skinner)



Then the possum hits the ground, I stand on the lower stomach region, trapping the back legs down and yank the skin upward to the upper legs



Free the front legs



Yank the skin upward again to free the headskin and hey presto.... your done!

[Mataura mayfly]

All of that took me about a quarter hour to type and explain.
For the easier to understand version please see...... http://s1095.photobucket.com/user/Matau ... 2.mp4.html
Not bad for an old hand, but I used to be able to do it in under a minute- 38 seconds my best. And these were young possums, old buck possums can be real thumb busters!
If you take note you will see I take two attempts at the tail stripping. There is a real knack to that which takes some time to develop and is a cause of many a busted tail, torn skin for novices. Rest is pretty straight forward.

Many thanks to my beloved Kim for holding the camera. Even if she was a bit slow on the "record" button and missed the ears being removed and the start of the front leg cut.

[Mataura mayfly]

After the skin is removed the carcass is "prepared" for dog food. Scent glands from the base of the tail removed (you really REALLY do not want to split these, unless you like sleeping and living alone! ), four feet removed (claws can tear dog internals- not good) head removed (large teeth can do the same as the claws), gut removed and major organs inspected for Bovine TB, carcass halved just below ribcage.
1/2 a possum per dog per day.

When the tail is skinned the skin remains fur out, it needs to be turned inside out so the flesh side is exposed for treating.



This is done with a wire after trimming the extreme end of the tail skin at an angle- another "trick" you have to get right or it becomes a real hassle to turn the tail out.



Then a piece of high tensile wire is used to push the tail skin inside itself (bicycle spokes work really well for this)



Then the chest to anal vent section of the skin is split with a sharp knife so the skin can be laid flat



And a liberal coating of salt is rubbed over the entire flesh side of the skin



Skin is then folded flesh to flesh along the spine with the tail laying inside



Legs folded in



And skin rolled from head to tail base (sorry forgot to take a photo of the rolled skin )
Skin is then placed somewhere out of direct sunlight, but well aired, on a stack of newspaper (salted skins will loose a lot of moisture that is corrosive).

[hankaye]

Mataura mayfly, Howdy;

Nicely done!
Once you got the tail out it's just like pullin' a hand out of a glove.
You really need to wear long pants when you do these videos ...
I liked Kim's slight gasp near the end, think she'll ever get used to it?

hank

[cassady]

I've been looking forward to this -- and it far, far exceeded expectations. And the video (the extra link) made it all extremely clear.

Outstanding!

Thanks for doing this. I'm now looking forward eagerly to the next installments.

[Mataura mayfly]

Mataura mayfly, Howdy;

Nicely done!
Once you got the tail out it's just like pullin' a hand out of a glove.
You really need to wear long pants when you do these videos ...
I liked Kim's slight gasp near the end, think she'll ever get used to it?

hank

Howdy Hank,
Exactly like degloving, hence the technique being known as "sleeve" skinning. If done a little slower you can get the skin off clean with no attached flesh. I always end up with a section of flesh around the chest area, you can see it in the 7th photo down in the first set where I have skinned up to the front legs. I peel this off by thumb pressure before salting...... forgot to photograph that as well.

What's wrong with my spindly legs? Was around 28 degrees C here yesterday, too hot for long pants!

That was not Kim saying "yuck"! Kin has removed skins from possums all by herself, so she is already "used to it". You go a long way before you find a woman willing to give that a try.
Did you hear a vehicle pull into our drive proceeding the "yuck"? It was Kim's youngest daughter (12) Katie being dropped off- it was her responsible for the comment.

[hankaye]

Mataura mayfly, Howdy;

Forgot to ask in my previous post, ... ever have one slip
out from under your foot when tugging the glove off the critter ???

hank