My 11 year old trapping buddy Gavin is in need of a fleshing knife. We are looking to keep it under 70 bucks. He will be mostly doing beaver with coon, and a few k9s and otter in the mix. We are looking at the necker 600.

Pay now or pay later go with the Steinmeyer. Eric

Zeph, caribou, Steinmeyer

I'll be the odd guy out here, but I bought a cheap trapper supply store knife, sharpened the outside edge to shave the neck area, made a board to fit the curve of the knife and started fleshing coons.
It worked fine, no complaints from any buyer.
Did it work as good, or as fast as a name brand knife? I have no idea, but it worked well enough for my purposes. Did I mention it was cheap?, lol

Did you try a beaver with it gcs? The young man will also be doing beaver

I missed the beaver part, my bad, never did one so I defer to those that have...

I did the same as GCS... after struggling at first with a 100% dull knife.

I started with the "skinny" fleshing knife. It didn't work at all for me. After asking some questions on trapperman and giving it some thought, I sharpened that knife with a flat file and all of a sudden I was fleshing raccoons with relative ease. A little while later, I realized it was only easy compared to my old method and left much to be desired.
Then I bought the "wide" fleshing knife, sharpened it up real good and started to really get some consistent, good results... on one or two raccoons before needing to sharpen. It was also about this time that I got my first beaver... and realized this knife would never give me the results I needed with any reasonable speed.
This led me to try the "Green English" knife from MTP (looks like it's $48 or so on the website now). This is probably the last fleshing knife I'll buy. It takes and holds a keen edge. It is a good weight for me and it does a fair job fleshing beaver hides if you aren't doing 100 a season. It is a great knife for raccoons.

Getting a quality knife can be the difference between a kid enjoying putting up fur or losing interest from a job that lacks success for the effort, we’ve all been there. Get a quality fleshing knife it’s worth it in every way.

^ X2

I use a necker 600 for the last 13 years. I have 2, the 1 I use on beaver and is razor sharp. That knife has fleshed over 500 beaver this year. I can do a blanket beaver in 6 to 7 minutes. The other 1 I use on coons and everything else. Have put 1000's of animals with both. Biggest thing is matching the knife to the flashing beam. I started with the 600 and it is hard to teach this old skinner a new knife .

I am a few years into fur handling, started with a hand-me-down necker on beaver until I borrowed a friends Sheffield. I have since bought a steinmeyer and would recommend it to anyone. I mainly do beaver with a few otter and coon mixed in.

Get the kid Lee’s little knife and he will never need another.

Don't buy a necker. I did that first and it was as big of a piece of junk as the first knife I bought for $12.95, lol.

For prices ranging from $74-85 you can buy either a Steinmeyer or a Caribou.

The extra $20 is well worth it. Let the kid work it off, if need be.

Knecker made different grades of fleshing knives I still use a 400 model it’s nothing like the 600 type. If you do beaver/badgers a good knife will stand out.

How come no one talks about post. Very overlooked fleshing knife.

Because they ain't used one

I do a few beaver with my post knife. Love it.!!!

Get what he can afford. The knife needs to be sharp on one side and dull on the other. I have 2 necker 600 fleshers. They work for me but that is all I have used. I use mine for beaver, coon, coyote, pretty much everything.

Black I have a Post but after I got my knife from Lee I never looked back. Eric

Steinmeyer Mini Parallel

Whatever you buy also purchase something to sharpen it with so he can learn how to do it while you’re here to help him it’s little things like that that make that stuff easier.

yea I have a 700 thats been a good knife, done a lot of beaver

Thanks to everyone that replied.

Can you explain the differences between the 400 and 600?

Post
I never have used one of Lee's fleshing knives but hear nothing but good about them.

I had a Necker which I liked until I stepped up to a Caribou. Holds an edge longer than a Necker and is more flexible.

I have used a Necker 600 for more than 3 decades. I have two. I have used poorer ones and have tried out others that may well be better. To me for a young person starting with say coons, coyotes, possums, etc. The Necker is a step up from the lower grade ones but is to me safe to use and learn with. Once one gets the main gist of fleshing then finding those knives that are sharper, more flex etc or have the dull and sharp edges on the same edge may be better. For rats and mink I use a small steel trowl about 5 inches long 2 inches wide and it works well. I am a pusher when it comes to fleshing and not a puller.

Bryce

The 400 is very similar to the 700 model with the wider flatter curved sharp blade where the 600 is more of a basic bar design. During the boom years a lot of products were on the market back then to fill the demand at the time. The difference might be the 400 has wooden handles the 700 looks to have poly handles not sure about the earlier 700s.

I bought my knife from Lee Steinmyer a couple years ago at John Grahams Coyote Days convention. I got the parallel model and love it. I had been using a Necker 600 for at least a decade. I thought I liked the Necker but haven't used it since.
Lee's knife makes fleshing easier on my old tired back.