I recently purchased a new fleshing beam and when I got it, was surprised that it was a lot flatter than what I thought it would be. It's definitely a good quality beam and bought from a reputable company. Do any of you guys modify your beams to get them rounder? If so, what do you use and how do you do it?

I had just the opposite problem - too round. I would get your knife out and see how the beam fits the knife - I found that is the most important part. I use a necker knife and my 8 inch beam was too round and I could only get maybe an inch width scraped per push as the edges were too low due to the curvature of the beam. If the beam is too flat your knife will not touch in the middle of the blade but only on the edges - too curved and the middle of the knife will touch but leave the edges of the knife off the beam.

I did make one myself and had too flat a beam and just used a belt sander and then palm sander to take the edges off - again I will say most of it depends on your knife you will be using

It's personal preference I think. My wide beam is relatively flat and I like it....and my narrow one is a little more round.

Go with whatever works for you.

There would be several ways to put a little round on the beam . You could do it by hand with a coarse sand paper working to the fine stuff to finish . You could use an electric sander , Stsrt from the outer edge and work to the center lightning up as you reach the center of the beam . There is really not much round needed . Mine don't have that much round to it and it works great .

If you're going to use a Necker, I would suggest you run that Necker down the beam and get your eyeball down there at beam surface level to see what's hitting and what's not.

Then, get your sander out and start shaping the beam.

Continue to run your Necker (dull side/concave side) down the beam checking to be sure your beam surface is coming close to matching the Necker.

I almost forgot I made this post. Here is my fleshing beam and my knives. It's really not too bad after I looked at it again but still does not exactly match the curve of the knives. Maybe I'm being too picky?













I've hardly used the MB Cutting Edge knife. It's really sharp and I've put a few bad holes in pelts so I've stuck with the cheapy. The edge of the MB is sharp but seems to almost have burrs or a roughness to the edge. Just going to take practice to get comfortable with it. The other thing I just noticed about the MB is that one side is wider than the other. Is it supposed to be that way and if so what purpose does that serve?

Tom, if ya would like to get used to it on furs, if i were you, i would only practise when ya were doin the furs that bring very little money anyway, like possums, then when ya mess it up ya havent lost alot of money like you would if you put a whole in a high dollar cat

Beam is way too flat. It needs rounded so there is no gap between the blade and the beam in the middle.

You could pick up a flatedge fleshing knife or make the one you have with a flat edge . My beam has very little round to it but does have some and I use a flat surface knife . Works for me .

I have 4 knive that I made and they all work great

I agree with yoteskinner.
Tom, give this a try. Use your fleshing knife like a rasp and work it down your beam. When you find the correct angle and pressure it will gradually shave the wood off. It will be WAY faster than a sander but the beam will still need sanded after you get the shape you like.
Mine is shaped so the knife contacts the middle 2 1/2-3"s of the beam and barely clears the outside edges. Thats what works best for me.
Also, I know your pictures are just for reference but when your fleshing try to use the upper part of the beam. You'll get fewer holes and your back will thank you after a few hours.

What you have there is a hole cutting fleshing beam. You must get the sides or the edges of the beam lower than the edges of the knife. When you put your knife on the beam , the way you have it pictured, your beam should be hitting in the muddle of the knife, not the edges with a hole in the middle.

Thanks for all the answers. I haven't used this beam yet because of the flatness. I'll get to work on it and get it rounded out. Won't using the fleshing knife to shave down the beam dull or damage the knife?