I was just speaking with a well known taxidermist who said that fleshing my bears and deer raw on a shaving machine will save me alot of time. It takes me 4-5 hours per bear and at least 1-2 per cape. Any info or opinions on this would be of great help.
Thanks
TrapperEric
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I do a number of bears and have found that if I flesh before pickling and tanning That I get a better more uniform tan on the bear. Here is how I do it: Salt, then rehydrate, flesh, then pickle, tan, then flesh again, then put back in the tan. Remove from tan and mount or freeze. I hope this helps as I am sure that others will have various methods that they use.Everybody does things a little different, but this is what works best for me. Lisa
No fancy, schmancy steps for me. They come in the door, they head for the wheel knife. After they are fleshed (both deer and bear)I salt them, roll them and let drain overnight. Next day, it's shake, salt and hang to dry. Then I really save time. I send it to the tannery and let them worry about the pH of the pickle.
.......while green and before salted, I prefer to run my bear on a machine to remove the fat. Being bear are soooo greasy,I salt them heavile during the machining process. It allows me to grip the bear firmly while also allowing some salt to get into the skin while fleshing. If the bear gets slippery and hard to hold, I dump more salt,allowing me to regain the grip again. The, once salted and pickled, I reshave on the machine to finalize the fleshing.
Me personally, running a green deer cape on the machine to thin it is kind of a problem. It tends to grab the skin allowing the blad to cut a hole,no matter how tight I hold it.I prefer to salt,rehydrate,pickle,flesh,pickle,and if need be, flesh one more time and then pickle for another 24 hours and then neutrilize and tan. But its just the way it works best for me.
Have a great day,
Dave
Dave, I know you're independently wealthy (LMAO), but salt is awfully hard on the hardware. I use my old tumbler mix to give me some grip on the greasy/slick stuff. It also doesn't dull the wheel as quickly as salt sandblasting. I try to keep salt out of my shop as much as possible.
George what is your old tumbler mix?
Kirk