The use of the wash-wheel (see pp. 111, 118) for the same purpose is much more satisfactory, and may be profitably employed for common goods, especially when the hair has been loosened by painting with a sulphide mixture. After being unhaired, the hides are “fleshed” on the beam. This work, which consists in removing any small pieces of flesh and fat left by the butcher on the inner side of the skin, should be carefully and thoroughly done; but the closeness of the fleshing required is dependent on the purpose to which the hides or skins are to be applied. [Illustration: FIG. 29.--Leidgen Unhairing Machine.] It is necessary not only to remove those portions of fat which are easily visible, but also to force out that contained in the loose areolar tissue. The form of knife used in England in fleshing is shown in Fig. 30. It differs from the one used for unhairing in being somewhat broader and heavier, and both its edges are sharp, so that where the flesh is too tight to remove by mere friction of the knife, it may be actually cut away by holding the knife almost flat on the beam, and using the convex sharp edge. The strokes in cutting must not be too broad, or, from the convexity of the beam, the substance of the hide will be cut into in the middle, or flesh will be left at the edges of the stroke. This difficulty is avoided by the flexible knife commonly used in Germany, but in other ways its work is less rapid and effective. [Illustration: FIG. 30.--Fleshing.] Machines have long been used for fleshing and scudding light goods, such as lamb-, kid-, and goat-skins, and their use for fleshing dressing hides has now become very general in the United States, and is gradually gaining ground in England. The type of machine used for these heavier leathers, varies considerably from that used for light skins, but the general principle is the same. In most cases the working tool of the machine is a cylinder with spiral blades, which are generally arranged right-handed on one half, and left handed on the other, so as not only to scrape the hide in the direction in which the cylinder works, but also to extend it sideways. Much of the efficiency of these machines depends on the exact adjustment of the pitch of the spiral, and in the Vaughn machine, which is probably most in practical use, the blades are so arranged as to form two intersecting spirals, one of steeper pitch than the other. The great difference in the machines for skins and for heavy work, consists in the means adopted to support the skin, and to carry it under the spiral blades. [Illustration: FIG. 31.--Jones Fleshing Machine.]