Hello all, I'm now onto tanning my 4th hide but it is still taking me a ridiculously long time to completely prepare smaller animals, so I'm looking for a bit of guidance on the process of fleshing and getting the correct tools.

In terms of process. I skin and then flesh the hide if I have time, or salt it and go back and flesh another day. Typically the first fleshing goes quite well and I make good progress, although it takes me quite some time. Since I never finish in the one sitting as it take me so long, when I go back to the hide it looks like the first picture. The darker skin in the images is fully fleshed (I think) and is quite supple. However, the highlighted areas are quite crispy and I think I need to remove this membrane to get it looking like the darker flesh patches.

I use the scraper in the second image along with a scalpel for the whole fleshing process and the scraper works so much better than the large knife I was using previously. However, it hurts my hand after a while and still takes me a long time to remove all flesh. Is it worth getting a double handed fleshing knife? Judging by youtube videos people will completely flesh a hide of this size in around 30mins whereas I've been at this a combined 6 hours or so and still not done. I don't think this will be the last hide I tan but whenever I get to this stage I question why I'm going through all this work. I think investing in a proper fleshing tool would likely be worth it in terms of time saved (if its a tool and not a skill issue).

Once I'm at this stage with the crispy membrane left over, is it then better to use a scraper to remove this? any other good methods? Would rehydrating the hide make removing this membrane easier at this stage? It seemed easier to remove before it was fully dried out.

This will be a hair on tan, and I want to make it as soft as I can so I think removing all this membrane at this stage will save me some effort when it comes to softening. Any good tips for me to save time? Should I really get a proper fleshing knife?

Fleshing process and tools