I am fleshing (with a dakota iv)a river otter hide and am working around the face, my question is how do you remove the meat that is around the wisker patch without cutting them and loosing the wiskers? Up till now I have just got close and cleaned up the area the best I could and the face always stays kind of stiff, I figured it was because of the flesh left on the face. I would like to learn how and get it good enough for taxidermy quality hide. Is it possible to flesh out the nose, lips with the fleshing machine or is this best done by hand? I have never turned a nose yet, I just let them get hard, this is just personal use like a wall hanging pelt. But I would like to try to clean out the nose.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
thanks, Joe
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Joe, a skife knife is the best way to get into those delicate areas,a scalpel will also work.
Your bird fleshing wheel with a coarse wire wheel. This works exceptionally well around whiskers after the scalpel cuts open the tracts. BTW, you're a brave soul to be using any wheel around the facial area. That's where I always relegate to hand work.
Lightly criss-cross the whisker area with a sharp scalpel knife, being extremely careful not to cut through the root of each whisker. Cut between the whisker roots in a grid pattern and work very carefully. You can use the Dakota if you are handy, but hand work around nose and whisker base is your safest bet. Good Luck!
Thanks for the replys. This is still new to me, like I posted before I usually just kind of touch up the face a little and the result was a stiff face after tanning. I would like to get past that point and make the whole hide soft.
So the best way is a sharp knife and criss cross the meat? So is the meat actually cut out of the areas between the wisker roots, with the roots left alone? If I don't get all the meat off the face it will be ok though right? As for the round knife around the face yah I have cut a few small holes but it is just for me, a learning piece. If I don't try I won't figure it out. I have fleshed alot of green seal hides and sea-otter with the flesher, a few deer, one elk, a few caribou and one bear hide. I do great in the wide open area's and after tanning the wide open areas turn out soft but the detailed areas like around the face never do. I think I am at the point where I need to figure out the faces.
I plan on buying a video that shows how to turn lips ect. Is this another area where a sharp hand knife is better? I was just afraid of cutting through the nose skin or ears, time to get over the fear so I can advance I guess.
Anyhow thanks for the posts guys waiting your replys
Joe