I meant to get better pictures of the actual fleshing process but my brothers were busy last night and I couldn't flesh and take pictures at the same time. x.x
So I've grabbed a picture of my little indoor setup after I finished but here is a detailed explanation of how I do this step.
I layed the plastic out to catch the bits of flesh that came loose and fell during the fleshing process but mostly for the dripping water from the wet pelt. I had squeezed out most of the water before placing him on the "beam" but there will always be more water that drips out.
The beam itself is actually just an oversized shipping tube that has had a plastic trash bag placed over the end of it and wrapped with mailing tape to hold it securely in place.
Normally I use the beam by placing it over one of the shafts of the metal hammock frame that's out on our front porch but it is freezing cold outside right now and I didn't want to work out there. Besides, a kit fox pelt is not very big at all and would be easy to do inside the house.
To flesh the pelt, I positioned it so that the end of it was held over the end of the tube nearest me and, with a piece of the plastic inbetween me and the pelt/tube, I pressed into it with my knee to keep it in place while I went at it with my knife. Once you've worked the excess flesh off in one area, reposition the pelt so that the part you're scraping at is kept taut right at the end of the tube.
I was at a crouch with the tube in between me and the corner of the wall for this entire process and today I have some tight, sore muscles in my back because of it. No one ever said taxidermy was painless or easy.
Once I had the pelt positioned correctly and everything held in place, I took my knife and, holding one side of it with each hand (the tip of the cutting edge was wrapped and taped to serve as padding), I slowly and carefully started scraping away at the excess flesh and membrane.
Always work from the tail end towards the head. For the legs, work from the paws up towards the body. I've seen most tutorials teach the opposite but I've heard from two sources to do it the opposite way because it allows you to work with the hair follicles instead of scraping against them. There is much less chance of tearing the skin this way and the work is much easier and goes quicker. After trying both ways, I will never flesh the other way now.
Fleshing is best done on pelts that have had a few days to soak in a pickle because the soaking allows the excess flesh to plump up and scrape away easier.
Once the fleshing is done, the pelt should be returned to the pickle for another 24 hours so that it can soak into all the newly exposed areas of skin.
The disposable gloves were worn for the whole process and the scissors were used to
carefully snip away the excess flesh around the eyes and muzzle area.
More of this process is depicted here:
[link]Any questions, just ask.