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Post by joanne2 on Apr 10, 2010 13:39:33 GMT -5
Trying to anyway. I can make any project harder.
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Post by beaudro on Apr 11, 2010 18:06:45 GMT -5
are you using willow Joanne?
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Post by joanne2 on Apr 12, 2010 7:36:50 GMT -5
I think these saplings I found are ash, Beau. I forged ahead and peeled them and bound them together with the bark that I'd peeled off. I plan to frame the skin in with the ground wood chisel bit with some rawhide lace. Needed to wait for the spring to come back into the sapling before trying to bend and twist them up of course. Tieing these with the bark seemed pretty natural and not too difficult. It does make one wonder how it was all done 'back in the day', y/k?
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Post by chaz629 on Apr 12, 2010 10:32:35 GMT -5
hey looks good.well joanne iv'e had enough of the swamp i'm heading back to michigan,i cant wait,i'm gonna go spend a week in the woods as soon as i get there lol
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Post by joanne2 on Apr 12, 2010 12:46:08 GMT -5
Tada! Well it's framed! Far from perfect but I like it and I think it's going to serve the purpose..we'll see after it dries! Might be WAY out of round then, lol. Chaz! Good hearing from ya.. hope your b-day was great. We've all missed your posts.. been busy I presume? Well anyway thanks for the kind words... AND glad to hear an update! Comin' home, huh?? Good for you. You'd be happy with the weather here this morning.. calm.. sunny and warm! Not at all hot, not too warm either.. dang I love Spring! I've been to FL about 7 times and well.. it's a nice place to visit but .......:-) I hope you come by and visit us if you get any chances to get up north. We're south of West Branch about 20mi and not too far off of 75. Well....not sure what the next tanning project is going to be here. Nice just not to have ANYTHING going on. Heck maybe I can get to being really ambitious and clean out my freezer.. lol. Might cost le$$ to run!
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Post by beaudro on Apr 12, 2010 20:01:44 GMT -5
It looks fine Joanne, originally , and in the mountains , it was done with willow. Only because it's was available perhaps. The method I use is cut the longest willow you can find , one seldom is enough unless it's really long. Peel the bark right away , if it's dry it does not peel very good. Rawhide is best , but tie up the little end to the big ends, just like you have done. Then form the circle that best fits the hide, leaving and inch or two on both sides. Then as you form the hoop , heat it over a fire until the wood is dried out and does not bend as easy. Willow is full of water when it's green. Now lace up the green hide and hang it in sunlight, go back every once in a while and turn it so it does not bow real bad. Once the hide is completely dry you take it out , fold it in half , bale it with all your others and ship it to England! Here's William Ferris's journal entry on it: Their encampment was decked with hundreds of beaver skins, now drying in the sun. These valuable skins are always stretched in willow hoops, varying from eighteen inches, to three feet in diameter, according to the size of the skins, and have a reddish appearance on the flesh side, which is exposed to the sun. Our camps are always dotted with these red circles, in the trapping season, when the weather is fair. There were several hundred skins folded and tied up in packs, laying about their encampment, which bore good evidence to the industry of the trappers.
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Post by Buckskin Billy on Apr 12, 2010 21:19:19 GMT -5
it looks real good joanne. i have been needing to make a few but aint found the time. them dern buckskins been keeping me busy
good work as always
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Post by joanne2 on Apr 12, 2010 21:56:58 GMT -5
Lol! Well that was really a great post Beau. Think I do know where I can find a bunch of real long fairly thick willows. Kinda creeps me out cause it's swampy there!! Now that you wrote that I can see where my willow frame looks pretty crappy really. So..... I may just re'do it! Go for more the round rather than oval shape. Figures! Well thanks for the kind words anyhow.
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Post by joanne2 on Apr 12, 2010 22:01:32 GMT -5
ps. Chaz There's a nice swamp w/out any gators. Hope there aren't any boas! Well anyway it's probably prime willow cutting right about now off of M-33. Hope to be there soon.
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Post by beaudro on Apr 12, 2010 22:49:36 GMT -5
I don't think it mattered to the trappers if it was round or not Joanne, and I don't think all of them had to be willow. As long as it works. I don't think the trapper himself made the hoop , it was the camp keepers that did the skinning , hooping and the packing. It's likely they would have kept the hoops and re-used when they could to keep from having to constantly make them. It seems there may be a little art in everything these guys did , and just making the willow hoop had to be done right, but didn't have to be pretty. All they had to do was get the skins dried out and that work was done. Some think that the skins were not cleaned very good, this added to the weight of the hides. I think that would be a very small amount though, nothing significant enough. The importance of keeping a bale of fur from going bad might be a reason to scrape the hides well enough instead. You can imagine what they smelled like when finally opened up in England.
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Post by joanne2 on Apr 13, 2010 8:29:13 GMT -5
All this talk of beaver and willow has the gears slowly turning;). I j have to acquire all these beaver skins these two guys have trapped. They're just sitting on a lot of them. Probably because the fur buyer is not offering them enough$$. I was thinking that I might be in a very nice position here with a bit of effort maybe I can frame every one of them after fleshing and possibly thinning too. Course I have a lot invested but I'm sure the trappers do too so if I can get these guys to invest how would we split the profit? I have a great corner where all the buses taking the flatlanding campers/canoe traffic goes by to get upstream to the river landing. Just seems like it could be the start of a great thing. Will have to have documentation and give uncle Sam his share of course. I will have to go into the swamp after the long willow. There may indeed be willow there long enough to accommodate the smaller 'bank' beaver. Maybe a fixed price for all the beaver they have? Maybe I should lay out a business plan and take out a loan lol. Not kidding really. At least I have the great location, tipi, willow and rawhide and time. I wonder what the going rate IS for a one of a kind 'hooped' beaver skin. Probably depends. Well anyway worth risking a trip into the land of the Michigan water moccasin. I will bet that they are there. I hear the small ones are the most venomous. Hmmmmn. I really don't like snakes of any kind.
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Post by beaudro on Apr 13, 2010 11:34:15 GMT -5
I think I've seen "made beaver" around some of the rendezvous for sale. There is probably a good chance of being able to sell it. Lots of people decorate their camps with them. You might approach some of the traders and see if they would buy them from you.
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Post by beaudro on Apr 13, 2010 11:51:22 GMT -5
that is a good looking staking beam in your picture Joanne. Has anyone ever made one that is attached to a bench where you sit and stake braintan? I know I've seen a picture of one somewhere? Call me lazy, but I'm getting the idea of making something similiar.
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Post by paskinner on Apr 14, 2010 8:41:02 GMT -5
So...Joanne, How much did you say you were paying per beaver hide? ;D Going to sell these this week.
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Post by Cody ( The Patriot ) on Apr 14, 2010 9:16:08 GMT -5
Nice looking hides Brother
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