Skins Should be Fleshed.
The skin of any animal should be fleshed and stretched as soon as possible after it is removed from the carcass. If the weather is somewhat warm and the skin remains uncleaned and unstretched a day or two, it may start to taint.
For fleshing cased skins I use two boards, one about three inches wide and three feet long for small skins, and the other five inches wide and four feet long for larger ones. These fleshing boards must be perfectly smooth and flat. They should not be beveled towards the edge like a stretching board, but should have the edges slightly rounded.
Before fleshing a cased skin be sure that there are no burrs or other foreign substances in the fur, for such would cause you to cut the skin, then draw the pelt on the board, fur side in. Now with the base of the board resting on the floor and the nose against your chest, shove the fat and flesh from the skin with the knife or hatchet, from the head to the tail. The instrument should be held at an angle of about 40 degrees. Don't try to flesh on the edge of the board or you will injure the skin. Turn the skin occasionally until you are all the way around and the pelt is perfectly clean of flesh and fat. The thin sheet of muscle found on the back of the skunk should not be removed, but the loose rolls behind the shoulders should be removed down to a point where it appears to be firmly attached to the skin. Don't scrape away at a skin of any kind until nothing remains but the scarf skin and the fur. There is such a thing as overdoing it, and one should remember that he is only to remove the loose parts, which are not a part of the skin. Skunk, oppossum, and muskrats are the skins which are the most likely to be overdone, and the skunk in particular.