I am getting ready to skin my first bear and would like to know the right way to skin the feet. Can they be inverted or do they need to be split.I don`t mean to sound stupid but I don`t want to make cuts that are not necessary. Thanks for any help you can give.
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Mike, I just finished my first two life size bear mounts. I cut along the hair line, on three sides, on each pad and opened it like a lid. You can then clean the cushing off the inside surface of the pad and get to the toes. With a little work you can get down to each claw root to remove the toe bones. After tanning, I sewed them shut before mounting. I used one McKenzie form and one Rayline. I loved the Rayline overall but the opened mouth of the McKenzie worked well also. Good luck.
I've skun the paws without cutting next to the pad. Put some grapple hooks in the wrist and ankle bones,(one paw at a time) hang from the ceiling, and work with your scalpel while the weight of the hide does most of the work for you by pulling hide down the paw. If you run into a tight spot, make a relief cut next to the pad but leave enough skin, say 1/4 in or so, for sewing back together later. It doesn't work to try and sew through the pad, it rips through like tissue paper. This hanging of the hide also helps to get to the 3rd knuckle of the toes, BUT, make sure that when on the last claw, you grab the hide underneath the paw you are cutting and lift up to relieve some of the weight because it will definitely act as a bungee cord and snap up to the ceiling and crash back down on your head once the final pressure is cut through! NO....this NEVER happened to me, what do you think, that I'm some kind of lamebrain?!
Good luck to you.
Mike:
I recommend doing the feet like Don Sherpy suggested. Incidentally, the best way I found to remove the fat cushion in the feet is with a wire wheel fleshing machine. It's easy and very fast. Works great on the legs and flanks too. If the bottom of a pad will show in a mount, you can cover the stitches and any imperfections by modeling over them with an epoxy modeling compound like Apoxy Sculpt or Magic Sculp.
Mike,
Guess we can all take sides. Leanna's way work best for me. First of all, I hate sewing, and second, I hate having to keep the paws wet for 4 or 4 days while they stretch enough to get over those big feet. If you stop at the wrist and peel them down, you can sweat the hide and it literally snaps over the foot form when you mount it.
Now to side with Larry. If you have a four-footer that has those nasty 1/2 inch thread stock sticking out the pad area, I still skin it out like Leanna, but I split the pad just to the point the bolt will exit. Then I simple throw a few stitches from the palm to the wrist and it draws the whole thing back together again. Then Apoxie the pad.
From a tannery point of view, go around the inside and front of the pad and lay it wide open. It's a heck of a lot easier to get the grease and fat out that way. Also, pocketed paws tend to shed a lot more claws in the drum, and I think it comes mostly from the fact that the skin takes a long time to dry after salting plus it's so much harder to for you to get it cleaned out, which is the first step to getting a good skin back. The worst thing you can do is skin them down and leave the bones attatched (for re-building on) the grease and moisture held with this method is almost gauranteed to cause claws to shell off.
From the taxidermy end. Carol has been doing taxidermy for about 35 yrs. (don't tell her I told you that) and has tried about everything you can imagine, and all bear paws are cut around the pad, inside of pad and front, just leaving the outside attached. The trick for sewing, just leave a little bit of skin on the pad, quick and simple to stitch back up. It's so much faster and easier to skin this way you'll actually save time, even though you have an extra 6 inches of sewing on each paw. How much time? can't really tell you, but I know she had two bears yesterday, average size probably 55" and skinned heads, paws, split fleshed and under salt by noon, started at 8, not bad since we always charge 3 hrs. a bear for skin and prep time on the bill!
Nice to hear a tanneries point of view also Keith, thanks!
Let me go on record as guessing that Carol started taxidermy at birth...Im doing this to bail your butt out! I sure hope she doesnt read what you write in the forum, or YOU will be skinning her next bears, buddy. For those who are wondering, Carol is Keith's better half...
Not too much to worry about though, she doesn't use the computer for much other than the business, by the time she quits moving for the day, it's pretty much time to call it a night!