skinning vbl n
1 Also: in processing cod fillets, the operation of removing the skin.
1987 FIZZARD 212 'Most of the skinnin' was done by hand, but some of it was done mechanically.'
2 Attrib ~ knife, ~ machine: a mechanical device to separate the blubber from the skin of a seal.
1987 Evening Telegram 27 Apr, p. 7 [tape transcript] They each had a skinning knife and a leather stall for your thumb--where you pressed on the back of the knife--and a steel. The knife, [a] 10-inch blade and curved, was sharpened with the steel and we'd always finish the sharpening stroke with the wire edge turning up and not down. 1987 ibid Then the companies got skinning machines to skin the pelts in place of the men [in 1925]. The machines were quicker. We had two and they were capable of doing 6,000 to 7,000 pelts a day. First the pelt would go through a band knife on a conveyor and that would take the fat off down to one-quarter inch of the skin. Then it would go through a flesh[er] which was a cylinder with a rubber roller so it couldn't damage the pelt.
