preferred skinning cut on beaver

[mimes]

Took in a 37lb albino beaver and thinking of mounting it for the show room. I hate the dorsal cut, so going with either ventral or cased. Anyone prefer ventral over cased on a beaver? I did not know if there would be a problem with a cased cut getting that wide form into the skin. thanks

[dugart]

I just completed work on a 65lb beaver and based on info I got here, I used what I'd  guess you'd call case skinning.

I started the cut on the bottom of a hind foot, fairly close to the where the toes start to branch out from the foot. Stay in the center of the pad, up through the heel and head towards the vent. I cut under the vent and continued across to the other hind foot. Then I cut around the base of the tail and cut the tail off(I suppose I could have taken the cut from the foot directly to the tail, then around the tail and on down to the other foot, but the route I took allowed me to hide the seam under the tail).

Then start working towards the head and watch it, it was a little hard for me to tell where the fat ends and the skin starts, I went through a few times.
I didn't have that much fun working on this giant rodent but it turned out quite nice. Oh yeh, be r-e-a-l-l-y careful with the ears and eyes, it's super easy to cut through there too. In hind sight, I would have tried to split the eyelids after tanning because it didn't work so well on a greasy green, bloody, slippery skin. Did I mention I didn't have that much fun with this?  Oh the whisker butts are a joy also!

I used an artificial tail, filled the feet with epoxy and sculpted them through the skin, had to add length and girth to the manikin.
Have fun! Albino beaver eh, sounds very cool. Is the tail a different color? Post pics if you can!

[urcysk]

A beaver is a perfect candidate for case skinning. I just taxied a 85 lb beaver and case skinned it, I did not split the feet I just pulled them through and used the original tail, its a perfect way to have no visible seam as the beaver is sitting on the only seam there is. Good luck with yours an albino would be great to work on. Pics would be great.

[Gary B.]

Yep- case skin it-  it works great on beaver lifesize

Gary B.

[mimes]

When using the original tail, what do you use as "fill" inside the tail.

[rbear]

Case cut, I always cast the original tail. I hear the tails are hard to skin.
Ralph

[urcysk]

i just made a foam insert and sewed up seam (make it on the bottom)