Making Zonker Strips

[Nuchal Man]

Hi everyone. I just got some rabbit pelts and am going to try to cut my own zonker strips. Does anyone have any suggestions as to techniques or what I could use to get nice straight strips without losing a lot of fur.

Thanks,

Sam

[kengore]

This has been discussed in detail many, many times.

Go to the top of this page and find the 'search' pull down. Enter 'cut zonker strips' in the search forums box, you should get about 3 pages of matches...including this one.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/s...=zonker+strips

[SteveP]

Once upon a time I had a PDF file with instructions on how to build not only the stretching jig but also the cutting jig (gave the ability to stretch both ways as well as cut the entire skin in one swipe) but that has been long gone for a while now and I really don't know if I could tell you how to build one to replicate mine... I guess I could take some pictures. To be honest I have tried to do it several ways and have found that the easiest way is with a jig of sorts, even if it's just something heavy set on one end of the hide.

Steve

[Buddy Sanders]

I try to keep it simple...

Clip board to 'hold' the skin...

Metal straight edge ruler for a guide...

Single edge razor blade...

The 'trick' if there is one, was shown to me by a friend that runs a leather store (he makes some incredible things with leather, AND he's a fly fisherman too!) You don't want to cut all the way through the hide...score it most of the way through, then tear the piece from the hide...no lost hair...much less mess...does take some practice/skill to get it right.

I can cut an entire skin into strips in about five minutes this way.

Buddy