Does anyone know what the tool is called for plucking a beaver pelt? I have googled it and am coming up with nothing. I would like to purchase one but can't find anything about them?

As far as I know it isn’t a tool. It is a machine. I saw a video a while back about how it works. Probably an investment of several thousand dollars.

Get a comb and......

Good luck scrubby , I looked for a very long time for such a tool . Quite a while ago I saw a beaver tanning video that contained a small segment showing a guy plucking a beaver hide by hand with some type of scraping tool over a fleshing beam and using what appeared to be some type of powder . Maybe it was rosin or chalk I don't know . I never could see the tool clearly and never could find any more info on it . I wound up sitting down with a few beers and a couple of Gentleman Jack shots and plucking a January prime beaver hide by hand . It came out pretty good and I don't remember it being too hard or taking that long ........LOL . You might reach out to Boco on here . He has quite a bit of knowledge with fur handling/tanning and is usually willing to help if he can . PS , The guy doing the plucking was working for a commercial tannery .

Family trapper used double faced tape wrapped on a butter knife (I think ) On wilderness trapping

What's to stop the non guard hair from being plucked out with the duct tape method?

I've been told that plucking a beaver is combination art and science.
Apparently at some stage in the dressing process the skin is allowed to get just to the verge of tainting, and at that point the hairs are plucked either by hand or machine.

So they don’t need to be plucked, just shortened?

I would think they would still be too stiff to render the fur soft.

I have been told the powder they use is chalk to pluck on a beam. I have done a few with a spoon and my thumb. It's not fast, but can be done. I would not want the guard hair trimmed.

VH60, I think I saw the same video. There has got to be a hand tool for this process. I had read in one of the NAFA reports several years back that was one of the reasons beaver fur wasn't as popular as other types because there was no way to mechanically pluck the fur??? The plucking process was all done by hand?

A very big difference between plucked and sheared beaver, plucked is way softer and from what I understand is all done by hand which is why it’s so expensive, those sheared look good but the sheared guard hairs feel like 5 o’clock shadow when you rub them

The tool used is called a skud or puck but might be known by others

I have seen it done using any number of different tools, I think as long as you hav something that holds the guard hairs firmly so you can get a grip to pluck them would work, then it’s just putting in the time to do so

Plucked beaver is as soft or softer the bunny fur and dos not shed like bunny fur does

If they could come up with a mechanical means I think beaver fur would be in high demand

My understanding is beaver guard hair is plucked and then the underfur is sheared to a consistent length. Takes a heavy winter beaver to be considered shearable, very labor intensive which is why a sheared beaver coat is very spendy.

^^^This.

Have been told there is only one place that does it as well

Can one of you folks that has plucked one post a picture of what you are plucking and where the best place to start is?

So help us newbies out here, are you just plucking the guard hair?

Not the best pics but I’m trying to learn something.





And is this what we are looking for?

Yes. Plucking (pulling out) just the long guard hair. Leaving the soft underfur.

It doesn’t work just to cut or shave them off. The stubble that is left feels like a day and a half old beard. Very prickly.

Thanks Wissmiss.

I did see them do that with a dull fleshing knife like tool on an episode of “How it’s Made”.

They made it look easy. I’m gonna have to give it a go tomorrow. I left you know how it goes.

A lot of those are broken off-must have not wet the leather.

It’s not leather yet. Maybe that’s the problem.