Jay has it!
Jay gettin it!
Jay Mounier has been the Secretary of NJFH for about 15 years. He and Curt Haberman have kept this organization together through thick and thin. Jay, we humbly say Thank You for all your contributions in the past and future.
Pictured is a gold plated muskrat trap mounted on a stretcher and presented by Steve Decker to Jay at our annual convention. The plaque recognizes Jay's contributions as Secretary to NJFH
A SIMPLE PROCEDURE FOR BOARDING BEAVER PELTS
by Jay Mounier
I wrote this in 2007 for the Winter newsletter. This article is meant to tell you how to lay a fleshed beaver pelt out on a plain board for drying. Putting up beaver is different from most other fur that we handle in NJ because it is stretched and dried on a board (flat) rather than cased. Getting an acceptable oval shape and even dimensions is important for a good grade on the fur at the buyers or auctions. I have worked up a simple procedure that gives you about the maximum size for any size beaver as skinned and fleshed. Please read through the procedure before starting to work!
The use of the table is simple and easy enough for at least two beginning trappers to use the above procedure last season (2006) without any hands on instruction -- and they both got it right!! I had trouble using the formula from the Student's Manual myself, and I was never able to figure out which line to use on those quarter sheet template things. Of course, I never asked for directions! Who are you going to call in the middle of the night when you're out in the fur shed, right?
Using instructions found in an old trapper’s education manual, modified slightly to give a better oval shape, a table was developed that tells you the proper length and width to board your pelt starting with the hanging length. The table is shown on the next page. I suggest that you save this table and article for use when you have beaver to put up. If you lose it or don’t think it’s worth saving now but change your mind later, you can find it on the website. That is one of the real advantages of this approach.
Measure the hanging length of the pelt without pulling or stretching it other than hanging it by the nose. Refer to the table to get the stretched length and width of the finished pelt. Tack the nose and tail on the board at the "stretched length" dimension, and then tack either side so the "stretched width" is centered on the line of the stretched length, both according to the length and side-to-side. Then go around the edge of the pelt (around and around) tacking the pelt at the midpoint of each untacked segment after pulling the pelt snug but not tight. You'll start out with four points tacked, both ends of the length and both ends of the width. Then you'll have eight points tacked after once around and sixteen after twice around and so on and so on. Keep on tacking until the tacks are spaced an inch apart.
Use six-penny finishing nails for “tacks” and be sure you have the fur side against the board and the skin side out. After the pelt is on the board, take a screwdriver and lift the pelt up to the end of the tacks so that air can circulate between the board and the fur so it doesn’t get moldy. This will take a little while but it’s worth it. As the pelt dries, grease will form on the skin side. This should be wiped off daily with a soft dry cloth. If you have more than one pelt and you want to stack them after they are dried, remember to always stack them skin-to-skin and fur-to-fur. Otherwise, the grease from the skin makes a mess of the fur and you lose grade on your fur.
While I have put up a few beavers, handling tips for skinning, fleshing and getting the most out of your pelts is not something I should try to tell you unless you really can’t find more qualified help. How to skin a beaver so you can still flesh it on a beam, how to handle the fatty deposits associated with the whiskers, how to handle the leg holes, and much more should be understood before you can get the most potential out of your pelts when you sell them. Winkler’s book “Raw Fur Handling at its Best” and the North American Fur Auctions “Beaver and Otter Professional Fur Handling” video are both available from the NJFH library. They are excellent resources. The instructions in the Trapper’s Manual that you got when you took the Trapper Education Class are good fundamentals. You saved that manual, right??
Call Rick Kern, Dick Webber or Curtis Corson if you have fur handling questions. If you are really hard up, shoot me an e-mail (jemounier@juno.com) and I’ll try to help. I hope this procedure is helpful to you.
TABLE FOR “A SIMPLE PROCEDURE FOR BOARDING BEAVER PELTS”
HANGING LENGTH
VS
STRETCHING LENGTH AND WIDTH
HANGING LENGTH (inches) WIDTH(inches)
LENGTH(inches)
20 18 14
21 19 15
22 20 15
23 21 16
24 22 17
25 23 18
26 24 18
27 25 19
28 26 20
29 27 21
30 28
21
31
28 22
32 29 23
33 30 23
34 31 24
35 32 25
36 33 26
37 34 26
38 35 27
39 36 28
40 37 28
41 38 29
42 39 30
43 40 31
44 41 31
45 42 32
46 43 33
47 44 33
48 45 34
49 46 35
50 47 36