skinner n Cp OED ~ 2 'one who removes the skin' (1699, 1884).
1 Man employed ashore to separate the skin of a harp or hooded seal from the attached layer of blubber; SEAL SKINNER.
1852 ARCHIBALD 5 ... an expert skinner will skin from 300 to 400 young pelts a day. [1909] 1930 COAKER 5 If Sailors, Labourers, Carpenters ... Coopers, Firemen, Printers, Skinners. . can form Unions, and derive great benefits through them. why should not the Fishermen[?] 1924 ENGLAND 226 The only really respectable pay made by any workers in the sealing industry is cleared by the skinners, at St John's. The skinners are tremendously deft. With long knives they peel away the fat in two or three slashes, never leaving a shred of fat on the skins or cutting the hides. 1931 BYRNES 114 The South Side, became a bee hive of feverish activity, as an army of 'skinners' worked day and night, with deft knives, separating the fat from the 'pelt.' [1960] 1965 LEACH (ed) 190 "Big Sam": He was covered with grease from cutting loose fat, / And he said to the skinners I'm fed up on that.
2 In preparation of cod fillets, plant worker who removes the skin.
M 68-11 A typical day at the fish plant would begin at 8:00 a.m. [when] the 'headers' (who take the head off the fish, if it has been bought head-on), 'cutters' (who cut the fish in packable-size pieces), 'skinners' (who remove the skin before it can be packed) begin to get fish ready for the packers.
