Marten Hat | Life Below Zero

So once I get them to this point, a lot of times I like to hang them up so I can work on them a little bit better. Very little goes to waste. You want to kind of take your time and get it started pretty good, and you can pretty much just pull straight down on them. So I'll just drop them on the board.

The way they grade these is versus the length from the nose here to the base of the tail. That's what you get graded on, so the longer it is, within reason, the better.

One thing I like to do is, once they're hung on the board like this, I'm just taking the lower legs, stretching them out. You're just trying to expose the flesh so it'll dry out. I'd like to just tack them on gently first.

The final thing you do is take up the stretcher here, you stick that up in there. If you don't do that, the skin dries so tight that you won't be able to get it off the board. This allows you to have something you can remove and leaves a little bit of slackness in the fur. It just needs to dry.

Tonight, I want this to feel like paper. Tomorrow morning, I'll probably come in with a cup of coffee, turn all these Marten around, and put them back on the board. Let them dry for a couple more days, and then they're ready for canning and making a hat out of.

If I can take fur and make something out of it, it has a much higher value, not only monetarily but personally for me. The fur I wrap today is going to keep me warm for many years to come.