What is the best method for degrease a wood duck whitout a fleshing machine?
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That would have been the first thing I would have done. Remember, I know all. Before you even think of asking a question, the orange button on the left should be your first option! Learn to help yourself if you want to be helped!
Just go to the hardware store but a small wire wheel that fits onto a drill put the speed to what you feel you can operate, go slow with the skin and you will find this will work ,if it has lots of fat I find it better to put salt on it first ,let it sit for a few hours ,it makes the skin alot tougher..
Good luck
For thinned skinned like wood ducks and teal I use scissors. Sit down get comfortable and remove flesh and fat. I have done them on machines and the repair work far exceeds the time it takes to flesh with scissors. Take some borax to help you along the way to dry up some of the grease as you go. Keeps you hands clean and aids in firming up the grease. Good luck to you.
I do a lot of wood ducks, mainly for competition and they are pen raised making them even softer skinned. What I have found is a very soft wire wheel. I have a new angle flesher to do all my work accept big birds.
Head down to your local ACE hardware store. Go to the metal/welding section. There you will find a 3" Dia. soft wire brush that is labeled to be used as a paint remover. It is very soft. Once you get home put that in your power drill and get all the bristles going in one direction like previouse articals have described. Trim all the wild end and then mount it to your flesher. This works very well on soft skinned birds. I use different brushes for different birds and I am having a lot of success. Have a soft hand and allow the brush to liquefy the fat. Good luck!
In lieu of the added expense of a professional built wire wheel set-up, I used a long bolt and nut to attach a soft wire wheel in my DeWalt electric drill and a wire tie or tape over the trigger to keep it in the on position. I hard mounted it to my old work bench with dry wall screws and put a thin aluminum sheet cover over the top of the wire wheel which extends over the edge of the table. With a trash can set below the wire wheel and an aluminum shield over the top, I just plug in the drill and wire wheel duck and geese just like the pros do but at a considerably less expense. I haven't wore out the drill yet. Hope this helps those who aren't ready yet to plunk down $200 for a professional wire wheel set-up.