Turning a Marten Part 2
With Bryan's thumb he pushes out the ears.
Once on the stretcher he uses the two feet as a guide to centering the hide. .
Bryan uses his fingers to first get the feet in position and then with the thick end of the belly stick he makes the feet straight and off to each side just a little so that the pelly stick has room to go up.
The stretcher is pushed up and the mouth positioned around the top of the board.
He uses the two feet to pull so that fur is stretched.
Then he proceeds to pin.
He always brushes against the hair starting at the head and working up.
Insert the belly stick and then tap the stretcher 3 or 4 times on your toe to give the fur loaf.
Bryan, do you remove any pitch clumps from marten fur prior to brushing? I know that auction houses now advise against removing pitch and I always strive to locate trap sets away from "pitchy" trees and have the trapped marten swing away from the tree to avoid contact with pitch, however, there seems to invariably be the odd pitch clump on trapped marten. In the past I've used fingernail polish remover (acetone) with varying degrees of success, but am always open to suggestions.
ReplyDeleteTom If there is any bug killed trees bleeding that is where the Marten gets the pitch from. The Auctions want any reason they can get to downgrade a fur but there is no secret we have found yet to remove the old pitch easily. We are also open to suggestions.
ReplyDelete