Object Number: 2012.22
Flensing knifes were used by skilled workers to ‘flense’ (cut) the blubber from whales which had been dragged onto the flensing plan by a winch. Flensers started at the head of the whale cutting downward, peeling the blubber away from the whale. The men who did this job were busy during the day and if they had a whale on the flensing plan, they were working.
Once the blubber was removed it was cut into smaller piece and fed into the cookery where it boiled down to oil. The blubber boiled for a few hours to separate the oil from the sediment, known as gluewater or grax. A lemmer would take over the process following flensing, stripping the meat and breaking down the animal further. The meat and bones of whales would also be boiled to extract whale oil.