Could you possibly send a picture of that?

-- Hal

Tom: Where do you cut off the front leg? At the elbow?

-- Hal

There is probably no one right way. But there are a couple of very good ways out there that will make a big difference in the fur checks.

With the cats you are on the right track to put up the skin to show off the underside of the front legs. Get the legs to dry flat and with the underside up. There is some really nice white fur with stripes and spots on the undersides of the front legs so don't hide it or tuck them back into the pelt.

Bill Ilchick of Nevada has an excellent new cat book out there with a great fur handling section. Lot of pics that show exactly how to do it. Bill drys the legs flat and pins them up towards the head so they dry that way and shows off that underside. I think his website is: www.wildwestbobcats.com. Bill also rubs dry Borax into the finished pelt and shakes it out. I tried it this year and my cats turned out better than ever.

Tom Krause also has a good cat book with lots of handling pics. Tom cuts his front legs open at the front side and tacks them open to show off the underside. Again lots of pics so you see how it is done.

The western cats are worth some serious dinaro now days. Maybe too much. Learning a few tricks on handling can really pay off and I encourage all to learn from the guys who know thier stuff.

I cut the legs about an inch or so long of the elbow.

How you present your legs is really dependant on your buyer as long as you leave the leg enough intact for the manufacturer to make their desired cuts. I've seen them up, down, flat, tubed and inside. The best I can tell you is to show the belly well. I’ve settled on this way, mainly because it satisfies my buyer. He ships bales of from 500 too 1000 cats at a time. Legs that protrude from the sides are a problem as are those that stick straight up (90 degrees to the rest of the hide).

When you are dealing with pelts worth hundreds of dollars each, it is real hard to fool the buyer. At auction, the buyers are competing with each other and few will miss-bid a good cat for slight variations in leg presentations. That said, there are tricks to bring out the best in your cats...but you’ll not make a silk purse from a pigs ear.

i wish i had some close ups of it but everything is sold for the year. desert trapper pretty much covered it.

cut front feet off at the wrist.

skin the pelt completely out.

put in on your stretcher skin out and snug it down.

then with the head on the stretcher pointing up and the belly towards you, i grab the front leg and split the underside down to the arm pit.

then take the split leg and pin it to a flat piece of cardboard big enough to hold all the leg stretched out.

then when its ready to turn, turn the pelt while its on the stretcher and peel it toward the top until you get about to the front leg.

by this time you can take it off the stretcher, take the cardboard off the legs and tuck the legs back through the holes.

finish turning the pelt

put it back on the stretcher and repin the legs fur out until it dries.

when you are done, the legs should lay nice and flat in line with the pelt and really shows the belly and the white on the legs.

Let's see if we can clarify this a little bit.

Desert says: "…show off the underside of the front legs."

NE says: "…grab the front leg and split the underside down to the arm pit."

Let's try it from this angle. As the animal would be standing up on all fours, alive and healthy, when you are talking about making this split would it be on the front side of the leg or the backside of the leg?

-- Hal

Been trying to get the most out of my cats as well and went with what I read in Bill Ilchick's book. I also talked with Bill at the sale. What I do is cut to the elbow on the color line at the front side of the legs then use a plastic coat hanger that is cut in half to stick in the leg and spread the rest. After I turn fur side out I dry nose down to help keep the legs laying flat against the neck of the cat. This way not only are the legs flat on top of the pelt so they cant get snagged and ripped in shippment but you can also see all the belly and the white/spots on both of the legs. The legs are side by side white/spots toward the center creating a better appearnce. Doing it this way you'll see a wide section of white/spots from the tail clear up past the bottom lip. Every buyer that I talked with at the sale was very impressed with how I put up the legs. Averaged over $382.00 on my cats this year.

Yeah thats kind of a funny deal. I hear alot of guys say they want to split the dark (or front side of the leg as an animal stands. I agree this is great because that shows the largest white. only problem is you cant get them to lay flat when the pelt is complete. you would have to sew them or tack them up.
If it can be done that way I'm always willing for suggestions.
I guess as an animal stands alive and well, i cut the back side of the arm (pointing to the back leg) this way when the pelt is complete and legs split and dried flat, they simply lay down against the pelt.

granted, it doesn't show white as much as if you could do it the other way and not cut the white, but it does make the appearance of a wider white. Like i said, if someone can show me a better way, i'm aways willing to learn something new.

Dated for search.