Since southern beaver dont get quite as HUGE as northern beavers should they be put on wire hoop stretchers with tension bars or on plywood boards?

WOOD You want to get as much size as you can and wood will get that for you, hoops won't cut It.

Where can i get the pattern to trace out? I got a link on here but i couldnt find it on the website the link sent me to and i couldnt find it on furharvesters.com either.

I cant say I agree with your assessment on southern beaver not getting as HUGE as northern beavers. I prefer boards over wire myself.

Always hooped mine, too much volumn for boards and not enough room for all that either.

If you have 10 hoops you can only do 10 beaver but with 10 boards you can do 20 beaver. So storage of 20 hoops would be more of a hassel then storing 10 boards. LOL

Can you explain how you can get more size on wood?

I use wire now but have been considering swiching to wood. The only problem i have is at the fur buyer he buys by the inch and you can really stretch your beaver on wood. It doesent seem right to me though my pelts are thicker and nicer than the ones that are pulled so tight you can see through but he pays for size so i guess ill get every inch I can.

Not really Gary. At any rate our beaver normally are not worth high dollar's like northern beaver, if it meant the difference between 10 bucks or more it would be worth it, ive not seen a price difference between wood and hoops to matter and hoops are alot faster for me. Of course im not selling at nit picky NAFA either. Im sure it makes a HUGE difference there, everything else does!

Southern beavers on wire - always ! You are less likely to over stretch them that way. Overall you should gain quality grade and $$$ when they aren't stretched too thin. It's worked for me on at least a few of them. Northern beavers shouldn't be over stretched either. You will have to put many blankets and all super blankets on boards as well as the two smaller sizes of beavers. If your buyer is buying on inches only, that may be a different story. But the truth is beavers aren't sold on size alone. I think it's just as quick and easy to put them on hoops as it is on a board wherever possible. I know it's a heck of a lot easier to hang and dry them on hoops and they dry much faster and take up much less space than on boards. Just my opinion and it's worked for me - can see it in the fur check !

email furharvesters and ask for a pattern, they will send one right out to you in the mail

I used wire and wood, I think I prefer wire,once you get used to hoopin beavers its about as fast as nailin on wood. It saves space in the fur shed, I hung mine from the trusses in my shed,they seem to dry faster and unlike wood you can hoop em with the fur still a little wet. Dont stretch em too tight though,after its on the hoop you dont want it tight as a drum,have it so that when you wiggle the hoop the hide will flop or move just a little. If you want the oval shape,instead of tension bars,you can use a piece of cord,horizontaly on the fur side.double the cord and use a truckers hitch to make the oval shape.

Oh God, here we are bashing NAFA again. Can't you guys find a new tune to play????????????

btw, wire for me. Quicker, lighter than wood, easier to store (hang 'em from a spike in a rafter by the dozen or more) and nope, NAFA likes 'em just fine...

Never saw a difference in price at NAFA either Jim, but stopped selling to them around '99 so didn't know what new goofy grading method they may of come up with.

i always use wood. jtwapper what do you do with them?

Don't fool with them anymore.

My south Carolina beaver sell at the same prices that WI or MN beaver sell for. From what I'm told you can't over streach a beaver. I use a vise grips to get it to the next line.

I like my prices so I'm going to keep doing what makes me the most money.

So how do all of you wood users find how big you should stretch your beavers? Once you have the hanging length is there a certain formula you use to get the stretch size?

Wood all the way and you can over stretch southern beaver nafa has patterns to mark your boards i put all my fur on boards it looks better.

i was in the fur house when all or at least most of the beaver came threw the grading and the graders where acting cocky and they said they could tell where the beaver came from by just looking how it was put up. and they where very good.. i would say 80% right.
they told me they want wood.. not that wood is any better then a hoop. but it is easier to do it right on wood.. not saying you cant do it on a hoop. but when you have to work harder to get the same thing you slip up and you dont end up with the same thing.
but if your getting a good price for your hoop beaver just think maybe you can get more for a wood beaver??
i think lots of it has to do with the graders.. they know that most of the top lot fur comes from up north. and most of the northern guys use wood for that nice uniform shape... so if you have a southern beaver i would think you would want to do anything you could just to get yours to look like ours.

and about "you cant over stretch a beaver"?? in two weeks the guy who grades your beaver will be putting on a small show in my town here.. i will take pics of how he wants your beaver.. and trust me.. you dont want to be pulling like a mad man on the pelt...

I've been told by NAFA you can't overstretch a beaver. Next time you pull a beaver really tight, check the middle of the pelt where the grader is paying the most attention. The middle never does get drum tight, and not as tight as most of the other types of pelts. In my own experience it's been proven to me that stretching beaver to the next size when possible definitely brings me more money. No one will ever convince me otherwise. I've seen pelts of guys who don't stretch their beaver tight and some are a wrinkled up mess after they've been off the boards for a while.

I have seen beaver over stretched and the fur is very thin on the back and if the pelt is wrinkled it was took off board to early or put up wrong.

my understanding is.... if it is almost a size 5 but not quite a size 5 then you can stretch it to a size 5. but dont be getting the quad winch out and go for a size 6 or 7... but thats what i was told and the way i do it

countrysmith - I think you are a little confused on your beaver sizes.

A 5 is bigger than a 6. If you were to try and make a size 5 beaver into a size 6 beaver - you would have to UNDER stretch it.

7 = kitt
6 = small
5 = medium
4 = large medium
3 = large
2 = extra large
1 = XXL = blanket
0 = XXXL = super blanket

This is some great stuff on here. It might help out some poor ol sap that comes through with questions like mine. Anybody else wanna share there opinions on the subject?

Under-stretched beaver will wrinkle the same way that under-dry beaver will. I've stretched my beaver to the max for years (but only when I've had to to get into the next possible size) and I, the local fur buyers, and apparently NAFA have never seen the leather or fur get weakened by tight stretching. My grades have always been very good, when they haven't had bites. Like I posted above, the middle half of the beaver never get's very tight anyway, it's mostly the outside edge. I think if the fur was very thin on the back it was that way before they were ever stretched. But I also have no experience with southern beaver. Maybe they are different.

wissmiss i think you knew what i meant.. always has to be a wise one in the bunch

I've stretched my beaver to the max for years (but only when I've had to to get into the next possible size) and I, the local fur buyers, and apparently NAFA have never seen the leather or fur get weakened by tight stretching. My grades have always been very good, when they haven't had bites. Like I posted above, the middle half of the beaver never get's very tight anyway, it's mostly the outside edge. I think if the fur was very thin on the back it was that way before they were ever stretched. But I also have no experience with southern beaver. Maybe they are different.


Trying to compare northern beaver with southern beaver Goldy, lol. Our's have thinner leather than your's for obvious reason's so over stretching them does make them thin. As was said on hoops i like for mine to have some slack in them as they will be tight as banjo strings on them once they have dried out, won't be any 'crinkling' in them.

I wasn't trying to be a wise guy. Just trying to clarify what I thought was a problem.

Sorry if I offended you.

Called Fur Harvesters, My beaver pattern is on the way. Looks like its wood for me now.

Back when I was putting up beavers, I used wood. I liked it because that's what I was taught to use. I don't recall overstretching any of my beavers. There's a size they need to be, and that's where I stretched them at. It's a feel thing, I reckon.

We have some nice beavers down here. I've gotten top lot awards for my beavers back when I was sending to NAFA. Even got a top lot award for a western pale beaver - lol.

I was wonderin when you would chime in on the subject boss.

Paul, I got a top lot for a western beaver this year. I guess he came from the western part of my county, or one of the ones I caught when I went two counties west of here in the delta....LOL

I put mine on wood, and I like to staple them down. The downside is that now it's started costing me about thirty-five to forty cents per beaver for staples.

Jackie. We know you don't stretch beaver anymore. U 2 lazy! LOL

Paul I think you should archive this.... Lots of different opinions and a pretty good read.

I go both ways i like the hoops better for the speed but the beaver i put up on wood seem to look better.