Flesher

Iron fleshers come in a variety of forms, including this one with a deer-foot handle. A flesher is used to process animal hides, helping to scrape away meat, fat, fascia, and hair.

Most historical fleshers were “country-made” — that is, they were made here in what is now called Canada, rather than being brought from Europe as trade goods. Sometimes they were made by repurposing other metal implements (gun barrels were a popular choice), but often fleshers were made by taking the shin bone of an animal, cutting off the distal end, and sharpening the bone to make a scraping surface.

This flesher is unusual. Of the fifty-six fleshers within the Manitoba Museum’s Anthropology and HBC collections, this is the only one with a fully intact deer-foot handle. The record states that it is from Paul First Nation in Alberta, but there are few details related to its acquisition. It was part of the collection of Dr. W.E. Anderson, a physician who was based out of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, and who amassed a large collection that he sold to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1921.