#1 hang dead goat by the head (I did it in the garage (4 car farm garage)
#2 with single edge razor blade cut a 1 inch incision just below the front leg knee. Be careful to go through the hide but not cut into the flesh....
#3 Put trigger end of compressor into the hole and hold for about 7 seconds. (you don't want the goat to blow up entirely))
#4 This process pulls the fascia (that separated the flesh from the hide. and the hide blows up like a balloon loosening all the hide from the flesh...,p. #5 For me, the longest part, took about 10 minutes was to cut around the leg, down the leg and across the chest and up the other leg. I tried to keep as much hide as possible so sometimes I cut around the head to get some nice hide from the chin...Once you have gone from one leg to another, all that is left is the hide loose from the meat...that part takes about 10 minutes and depends on weather the hind legs have enough hair to make it worth while to bother with. I would cut down the belly, pop the bubbles left from the compressor on the back part of the hide.. The weigh of the hide in some places will actually be heavy enough to almost fall off part by itself...
On an angora in full hair the hide is quite heavy, some will shear up to 10 pounds or more depending on the size and age of the goat and that does not take into account the weight of the wet hide......when it comes off, you lay in on a piece of plywood fleece down, between 2 saw horses and salt it real good to dry out the hide....I would get salt by 50 pound bags at the elevator. Every day go out and scrape off the wet salt and apply fresh sale, covering the hide about 1/4 inch thick....for an angora it can take up to 2 weeks to dry it out completely. When its dry and stiff as a board, fold it and sent off to the tanner....I used a tanner at Bucks County Penn.
Hope this is understandable to you....some guys are strong enough to hang and pull the hide off, I found this way really easy, no blood dripping if you do it right. DO NOT NICK BELLY. The belly hide is thinner than the rest of the hide on a goat...
The entire hide is removed with one single edge razor blade..and the wet salt you removed can be put on anything flat and dried out for use several days later....waste not, want not......GG
wow...what a description....I’d have to see it done in order to learn that...
It reminds me of my grandfather who was an old cowboy. We got him to write down his memoirs from the early part of the 20th century. In the book, he wrote about how to skin a hog. Fascinating what my forefathers went through, not to mention some of my current hillbilly relatives. ; >
Thanks goat granny. You’ve clearly done it a time or two!