I was wondering if anyone had any pointers on a problem I am having fleshing coon. This is my first year trying to flesh anything and I have done a couple of coon so far. I am using a Post two hand flesher on a freedom brand fleshing beam, and when I try and push the fat off with the dull side of the blade (after the fat has cooled and hardened up) there are pockets of fat left behind so I start pressing harder, but then I notice the hair poking through from the other side and I see the black hair follicles.

I have not found much online regarding this specific problem so I am confident I am doing something wrong with my technique. Here is a picture of a coon I did NOT press 'too' hard but with little patches of fat left behind. Maybe this amount of fat is ok? I assume not. Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,
Conibear330

Sadly the best advice is practice, try different angles and pressure till you find YOUR groove ,s the best advice I can give online. If in person I could show you more - sorry

I understand not seeing what I'm doing makes it hard to give advice. I guess I didn't know if this might be a somewhat common problem with an obvious solution, or if its just me. Do most other people really put muscle into this or is it supposed to be all technique without a lot of force?

With my Necker I can just about do a whole coon with the dull side. What you need to do is take a file and square up the dull side of your knife. If you look at the dull side and feel it, you will see it's pretty much rounded off. You can't push fat like that. So just file it square and keep your knife flat when you push. From the ears down about 6" you should be using the sharp side of your knife. Start out with your knife at a slight angle and once you make that initial slice flatten out your knife so it's just about flat with the hide. And don't just push straight ahead just use a slicing motion. And if your knife has a beveled edge make sure the bevel is up. The bevel will help you move fat and gristle away from the hide.

Practice is what you need.

Thank you. The dull side of my knife is very rounded. I will file it square and give that a shot. I appreciate it.

What The Beav said.
Till you get the technique perfected just lightly use the sharp side to clean things up

I don't like to let fat harden up completely.

I like it cool and set. Not half froze or warm. I'll put them in the barn fridge overnight.

I love that fat to be wet and slippery.

Get one of those old timey paint scrappers. The wooden handled ones with the curved blade. You can take that scrapper and clean up the left-over fat spots. Let that hide dry a bit before going after those fatty spots.