putting up coon with pics ON WOOD

[Stef]

Thanks Gibb...

From the last pics posted... You see now how its cleaner boys?

Gibb,
Talking about sawdust... I've used different kind of sawdust in the past and I'm not sure here but spruce or pine sawdust stains the leather.
I've used it and had little stain problems (yellow color) with that.

Never used cedar... that might work too.

Have fun scraping..LoL

Stef

[Gibb]

I have used both spruce and jackpine sawdust but never on coon.
For sure the best is hardwood but, any dry sawdust would work for fur out critters.
Cheers Jim

[td]

Looks good, but think it could use a couple more push pins.

[WIF]

garman,

That is an excellent post and will help out in our fur shed a great deal.

WIF

[bobm]

How long per coon does it take you to put it up?

[garman]

no problem I try to help as much as possible but thanks and thanks to the other gentlemen on this site and thread that are also willing to help out and share. As a side note there was a group of guys back home that used to do custom fur, and as the furbuyer I used to work for would say I could eat off them, they were beautiful the coon, just come out creamy white skinned, anyway $3-3.50 completely put up anyway I always wondered how they got that way, I believe they used the sawdust and tumbling also.

[akona20]

Well we are going coon fur trim for our range winter next year as the main fur trim with some rat.

At present the year after it is looking like fox and coon.

Some otter will be used on men's coats in a new range.

[garman]

I could scrape around 20-25 coon an hour, skin about 25 -30 an hr and board about 10 -15 an hr on wood (kinda slow on wood) any way top to bottom @ 10 an hr maybe more I am being conservative never timed myself with one top to bottom do all in stages.

[bobm]

How much extra do you think you're getting vs. green skinned?

[garman]

you should always at the least figure $3-$4 extra because that is what buyers on the whole have to pay for getting them put up. Depends on the year, when I used to put up I would be offered @14-15 green skinned; $20-21 dollars put up from local buyer and 24-25 after commisions average straight all season caught on the auction. The difference is you have more saleability, less room to hold and store put up coon, most buyers like put up fur, if it is put up nice. Some years you will not make that much some more. For some people it is not worth it, that is fine and I respect them for that, for me it always worked out good catch majority of fur during my vacation spend a couple weekends to put up, then sell wherever! Some are fulltime trappers cannot keep up so they sell as they go they make it up with more coon caught. Just the way it is, I find, myself, pride in putting fur up and selling put up fur reminds me of the ol days I used to read about, as far as fox for sure and yotes no way I would not sell put up. Just my opinion. Nafa and Fur Harvesters always treated me good no special treatment to others and not me or vice versa far playing field furs don't sell no ones sell.

[bblwi]

garman with the numbers that you quoted per hour I wonder why you sold in the grease at all. Those times are very good from my point of view and if you could skin, flesh and board about 6-8 coons per hour complete that means you could be making somewhere between $25-$45 per hour depending on the speed and markup for put up. You could buy lots of freezers for that kind of value added to put up later. You may catch that many coons that your situation is different, but with the negative vibes you received from your two recent sales and your fur handling ability I would not even consider those options.

Bryce

[garman]

bblwi- up until a 2 years ago I lived in an apartment (since I moved to Rochester), after that last year suffered with kidney stones and did not mind selling to my last furbuyer, when I had a particular buyer, he bought fairly to him and myself, i knew when I had good coon adn bad and he knew it also, he was gracious enough to give me pointers and I took him up on them as best I could, in return I brought him prime coon when very few others were catching coon), one year in particular I sold to him I plain out told him that the coon had been sitting out and he should look them over well, thawed to soon. Anyway to make a long story short, my intentions were to put them all up but I contracted what they call clostridium dificile for those with medical knowledge it can be very difficult to treat and can reoccur and if it does can become more severe and even fatal, it is not worth it to me to get that sick over losing a few dollars, more than you guys needed to know but so be it. So yes I will be putting up in future years. When I was handling coon on contract for guys back home I could scrape @25-30 an hr and skin up to 280 in 9hrs. But I am guessing top to bottom how many I can do. Coyotes not near that fast nor beaver hate doing them sucks LOL

[garman]

PS: as far as my skills to put up fur I have seen much much better out of many others, I just posted to give some guys a good start, others need to check with local furbuyers or auction house to see what they like. Some like things different. Ex: some like mink with back legs pulled around on the same side as the back and back skirt straight across, some like the back legs on belly side and tail/back more v shaped.

[bobm]

thanks.