For cattle, given their size, skinning required the collaboration of at least two people and was carried out with the help of a sturdy stretcher on which to lay the animal, a special double-headed hammer and a particular pair of pliers with handles perpendicular to the beaks.
Once the initial cut had been made with the knife and the first flap of skin had been separated from the musculature, an expert operator would hit the attachment of the skin to the musculature with the hammer, while the other operator would use the pliers to stretch the skin with jerking tractions (not violent so as not to tear the skin) to allow it to gradually come off.
This operation is now carried out by skinning machines, powerful vertically moving rollers, which remove the skin from the carcass in just a few minutes.