I went to school for deer mounts. They tought us to do your first fleshing on a deer with a scapal till you can see the hair roots or very close to them. This takes me forever is there a easer way and do I need to get that thin? I want to tan my own hides. By first fleshing I mean when the cape is in the raw not pickeled yet.
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That's a good one. A school thats teaches you how to flesh a raw deer hide with a scalpel. Are you in the dark ages? Does this still go on? If so now you can understand that there is nothing better than a certified school that keeps up on the lastest techniques. Or even a good book or video will show you more than this. I'm sorry but this so to far fetched for a school. But I'll bite, look in your catalogs and you will see that there are many different ways to flesh a hide than using a scapel.
Pete,
I have to agree with Frank. It does sound as if you've wasted money that could have been better spent. They didn't even know that there is a difference between FLESHING and shaving a hide. You can flesh a hide easily with a scalpel. All you are doing is removing RED MEAT and sinew. Once a hide is fleshed, it can be salted, pickled, and THEN shaved. Shaving is best done by a quality machine, not a tool, and the skin is thinned down until it turns a light blue, meaning that the hair follicle is being exposed.
Give up the scalpel if you can afford to. There are better tools and there are certainly better and more modern techniques than your "school" showed you. Time for you to hit the books and videos.
A fleshing machine you can rub some borax on it and flesh it better, more evenly and every bit a s thin. Good luck John C
Hi Pete,
Have you not heard of the new Quebec Lite? Tried it in School,
Colorado tanning and taxidermy training institute. We had five
different machine to work on and the Lite was the most popular.
Mutch easier to learn on, efficient and well priced for us bigginers
Seen there publicity in the magazines lately, give them a call.
Heres the bottom line. You FLESH raw hides to remove meat and fat. Period. I wouldnt use a fleshing machine for this. For those who dissagree with me on this point, wait till you get a hunk of meat caught in the blade and it sucks that cape in, then you might see my point! Go ahead and either beam it, or use a heavy curved knife. The whole idea is to spend 10 minutes on it and get it into the salt. Again, if you doubt me, read how many posts that ask why they have so much slippage. After you are well salted, THEN we go thru pickle and shaving, where the fleshing machine is king. You will want to hand shave around the eyes, nose and lips with the scalpel here. After the pickle you might reshave, too. I realize that this is only my opinion, and sometimes it sounds as though its not popular in this forum, but then again, I dont have slippage problems, either...Best of luck to Pete and others.
if you are going to tan the hide i would not use dry preservative to flesh it.
if you are going to tan the hide i would not use dry preservative to flesh it. p.s. Bill Yox I am not sure its your advise its your presentation.your advise is good.
I always forget there are those who can read inflection into typed words here! I speak to folks here as adults. Sure not trolling for friends. The point is that theres alot of "right" ways to go about this (fleshing) and I want to be on record as realizing that my opinion is only that...one opinion. Even if it IS mine! Ahem...should be read as humor, in case we read this wrong...ah heck, Im too tired to explain myself all the time! Good luck to you, J, and I hope your way works well for you...honest!
Good one. I'm just curious as to why the guys that present their advise on here with no b.s. and get RIGHT to the point, with a touch of humour, get bashed for their presentation? Does it make some people insecure that others know what they are talking about, and will even offer their time and help? I'm not pointing anyone out here and not just talking about this post...it happens ALOT!
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