I am somewhat of a beginner to taxidermy, I have done a few deer a year for the past couple of years, and they have turned out great. On all the mounts I have done in the past I have never used a fleshing machine, but as I continue to do taxidermy work I am thinking about buying a flesher. As I am not a full time taxidermist, I wont be able to buy a table model flesher (at ~$1000) but instead I was going to purchase a smaller handheld miniflesher like the one McKinzie offers. I just wanted some feedback from some of you, have you used them, will it work for me? Anything you have to offer would be great! Thanks
BSO
Return to Gamehead Taxidermy Category Menu
I use to have a hand held air operated one. It was ok but it took so long to get the job done. I mean hours on a cape with a handheld as apposed to 5 minutes on a electric round knife. If you keep your eyes open you can get one used for a great price. Maybe other folks have had better luck nut I dint care for it at all, Good luck
and short of spending alot of money, it was a good investment for me. I use it on all my deer with, what I feel, is good results. I am happy with it for now. It never takes me hours to flesh one, an hour tops. It does take some practice to keep from cutting holes but I imagine that its the same any way you do it.
Almost burnt up a new 26gal. air compressor trying to run it. I thank the best bet is if your going to do the work, bite the bullet and buy a table model. I bought the Qubec lite and sold the mini flesher .
I've never owned one but I have seen them used and I was not at all impressed. The Quebec lite will handle anything your going to throw at it, from buffalo to squirrels.
or something similar might fit your fancy. It is a table top detail flesher, meant for deer faces and small mammals, but it can handle a full cape. When I started out I used it for everything, takes probably twice as long as having the full size flesher, but works pretty good and you get a real nice shave. Then if you get to the point where you want a full size, you still have the detail flesher to do deer faces or sm. mammals. The dakota IV is like $450 if I remember right. There are some other brands that make them too, I just happen to be farmiliar with this one. In my opinion handheld fleshers are a waste of money and you'd be better off with a draw knife and beam. Before you make this investment you should consider your future as a taxidermist, it might be worth it to save up and buy a real nice one like the pro series, or something comparable. These models allow you to adjust the blade right down to the milimeter. They are expensive, but if you forsee yourself sticking with it for a long time you will never regret your investment.
A good reputable tannery is hard to beat!
I understand where you're coming from. I'm a part-timer too, for now. I'm using my full-time job to pay for taxidermy equipment so that I can be a stay-at-home mom later and do the taxidermy gig full-time. In 5 years of practice, I've learned that the only way to make money at this (and not kill yourself in the process) is to have the right equipment.
I have a mini-flesher on a 30 gallon compressor. I have to take frequent breaks to let my compressor rebound to finish shaving whitetail. Until now, I didn't mind doing it this way to save $800+. It sure beats doing it by hand! It takes me about an hour to shave a cape this way, but I don't feel like I get the shaving depth that I want. Also, the mini-flesher won't cut it if you do elk or other big game. I love this tool on the facial areas. I probably won't sell it for that reason.
I decided that my taxidermy profits this year would go back into my shop to make things easier for the future, so I just bit the bullet and ordered a fleshing machine.