Doing my first rug and was wondering about the paws. When I mount bears life size I cut all the way around the pad to skin out the toes and sew the pad back when mounting the bear. Is this ok to do on a rug or do the paws need to be tubed. I also plan on sending the bear out to be rugged saw a artical by Mary Krueger in the Breakthrough mag. Anyone ever deal with her that can give me some feedback thanks.
Bill
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I split the pad directly through the center on both front and hind feet. Turn everything and salt leaving the foot completely inside out. As it dries put a cable tie on the foot to insure that it stays inside out throughout the tanning. I send mine to a commercial tanner. Even the best tanners can leave the hides in the tumbler just a bit too long and fray the claws, this insures that doesn't happen. When the skin is stretched for a rug the pads come off. The drawback to this is that the feet do collect sawdust that has to be brushed out from between the toes. That's minimal compared to fixing claws.