What knife for fleshing hide? Advise needed

Mount Sweetness

Mount Sweetness

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Hope to take a black bear this season..

What knife would you recommend for fleshing and where can I order it?

or is there a cheap common alternative...just a regular knife of some sort?

Thank you
 
knife

As a taxidermist I usually use a scalpel for everything. 6 bucks for a handle and 100 blades for 30 bucks. Time is my enemy so no time to resharpen just pop on a new blade and get back to work. If I do carry a knife I carry a cheap Normark folding knife that takes an edge easy and holds it for a good time. Good luck and if your fleshing a bear for the first time do not worry about the cuts you are going to put in the hide it happens to all
 
^I agree with this. My time as a guide taught me that a simple surgeon's scalpel is probably the best fleshing and fine caping tool a guy could ask for. It's a very specialized tool in a hunter's toolbox, but it is likely the best for this specific job.
 
As others have said the scalpel is popular. I have seen guides use this alot. Recently on Wild T.V. there is a company on the gear hunters segment selling a scalpel type knife for the hunting industry. I just tried to find it but can't remember the name. If I see it I will post the company name. May look into it for myself. In the segment they showed Brian Dobson from Artistic taxidermy using it so it must have some merit.
 
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i have used a lawn mower blade for years just tape up the sharp ends with duct tape and us the middel of the blade to push of the fat and meat works very well on a two by six or other hard flat area DUTCH
 
Riflesmith said:
As others have said the scalpel is popular. I have seen guides use this alot. Recently on Wild T.V. there is a company on the gear hunters segment selling a scalpel type knife for the hunting industry. I just tried to find it but can't remember the name. If I see it I will post the company name. May look into it for myself. In the segment they showed Brian Dobson from Artistic taxidermy using it so it must have some merit.
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Havalon knives.
 
Mount Sweetness said:
fleshing knives please
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What do you plan to do with the hide? Are you drying it and selling it on the fur market, tanning yourself or are you just interested in prepping it for the taxidermist?

Professionals and dedicated trappers often use a knife called a "fleshing knife", believe it or not. It looks like a large draw knife.
A "beaver knife" works great on getting the fat off , you guessed it, beaver, but also works great for fleshing all hides in general due to the curved blade.

If you're asking this question, I suspect you're new to fleshing hides. For this reason, I'd stay away from a scalpel. They work great for caping and splitting ears/lips, but a bear hide has a large surface area and a scalpel has a very small, razor sharp blade. You do the math.

Have you tried "google"? Lots of info and videos on there. I would suspect most on here don't do extensive fleshing on bear hides. Pack on the salt or freeze and then off to the taxidermist.
 
fleshing

again as a taxidermist and a registered trapline holder I use a scalpel for fleshing. I used fleshing knifes which are basically a blunt edge, however if you go the fleshing knife route, you will most likely need a fleshing beam. If I flesh a bear using a fleshing knife it will take about three hours, if I use a scalpel I can have it fleshed out in about 1.5 hours. If I use my fleshing machine about 20 minutes. You can get a reasonably priced fleshing knife from Halford hide or Alberta Trapper Asscociation, just do a google search, they both have websites. Good luck
 
I plan on tanning the hide myself and hanging it up on the wall in my garage, in other words...I don't want to pay the money to have it done pro and I can't stand the frustrating wait times .

I'd like to do this myself and learn the basics as I'd also like to be able to attempt my next coyote pelt.

It looks like I may place an order with Halfords soon.
 
Mount Sweetness said:
fleshing knives please
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Yes these havalon knives are used for fleshing. In particular they show them being used for exactly that application. I got talking with a buddy at work and he also mentioned two seasoned sheep hunters he hunts with using scalples as well. I am going to check out the havalon website to get more info.
 
Fleshing is not clean skinning.
Post knives make a good flesher and is available at the below link.
http://www.furharvesters.com/tct/2011content15.htm

look for the Post, catalogue #775 if you have some kind of beam or post to work on. If you're working on a flat board you might want to look at the zephyr style beaver flesher, catalogue #774.

might not be the cheapest but will last you forever and stays sharp a long time. The fleshing knife has the convex side as razor sharp and the concave side will be dull (for pushing).

or try here
http://ramconnection.com/knives
 
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