I've done them with and without doing any cutting on the area at the base of the fan that holds everything together. Generally I think it's best to do a little cartilage/meat removal to speed the drying process and it also keeps the maggot count down. If you spread it out and pin it in place on a board like you want it to dry for mounting, it will be easier to do. Just take a little knife blade and clean out a little of the fleshy part in the middle because the feathers attach around the outer circumference of the "fleshy lump". Then take some borax and cover the whole area to start the drying/preservation process. Put it up somewhere that is out of the way where no animals can get at it and I put more borax on it several times over 3 or 4 weeks until it has dried out completely and will maintain it's shape when you unpin it. You can make your own plaque to put it on or buy one of many different styles of your choice that are very simple to put together. I bought a nice plaque from Cabelas for the best one I've ever taken and put the base of the beard together at the fan base and then tightened the centerpiece cover to hold everything. I cut the legs off the bird at the main joint and an inch or so below the 1 1/2 inch spurs and let them dry out before taking a small drill bit and drilling a hole through each one up near the joint. I ran the ends of some fine fishing line through each hole and tied them so that I could then hang them over the top of the wood holding the fan and beard to the plaque. Attached is a picture of how it turned out. That fan is by far the biggest of all the birds I've taken over the years and measures 31" wide from tip to tip and is 20" high. The beard was 10 1/2 inches long and we figure that bird was probably 4 years old because I think we saw him in the same spot the year before when he was almost that big. He was taken in May of 2006.