Spoke with a furrier/fur buyer today at the FHA convention.
We spoke during my marten handling demo and he stated that marten tails need to be handled with a bit of attention by the trapper-split and held open to dry either by pinning,cardboard etc.
Each marten tail is worth 18 dollars.He said almost all garment makers re sell the tanned tails for 18 dollars to jewish hat makers.
He added that they will not take dyed tails so when he sends a batch of marten to his fur dressers that require dying,the dresser will remove the tails for him before dying and ship the tails back natural with the dyed skins.
he stressed the value of the tails by comparing the price per sq inch of the tail to the square inch of the marten fur itself-the tail being more valuable per square inch of useable fur that the rest of the marten.
Same market for fisher tails.

I’ve always considered the presentation of the tail as part of the overall presentation of the marten. Fully widened and dried as flat as the split tail will allow. You can’t really make them longer, than the pelt will give, naturally. But attention at boarding will give fullness in width.
Hardware cloth or similar screen when placed over the tail, after pinning the length of the hide, makes easy work of fixing the tail with only three or four pins to hold the screen.

I remembered hearing they also used the tail fur for fine detail paint brushes used to paint eye lashes that sell for $ 35.00 + at finer craft stores .

It's always good to learn about how people use these renewable resources that trappers harvest .

Uhm, I never seen a marten without a tail, that i sold at FHA being deducted. Marten are graded on color, size, quality (never heard anything about the tail). i am also suspicious about the $18 for a tanned marten tail. That is more than the cost of tanning the whole marten. I will take what the fur buyer stated with a grain of salt.

My point is; Buyers at the auction are not buying for tails, nor is the auction house grading on, does the marten have a tail or not. Tails are a by product. I could not find how fast and what quantities manufacturers are selling tails.

Very interesting.

LOL.they dont tan the tails separately,they remove the tails from the tanned marten at the request of the customer before dying.Then ship all back.The marten and fisher tail market requires natural(non dyed) tails.The buyer of a marten lot at auction may find a few skins with mouse chewed tails in the lot.His point was that the marten tail is important and more valuable per square inch than the rest of the marten.The garment makers dont generally use tails paws and gills,but they re-sell those to recoup costs.A couple thousand marten tails at 18 dollars a tail adds up.

I use 1/8 inch soffit screen to pin the tails flat. I don’t like the tail skin drying into a taco shell

Thanks Boco

Nice to know what needs to be done to make them more money. Tell the buyer, Snowmachines cost 300 marten these days. I'm sure he won't care.

Maybe a good photo of one of those hats made from the tails would show why......

what they do cringe is a hundred pin holes in the tail because of the sewing problems....an old wood customer of mine showed me some hats he had done in his day,( pre digital cameras) and I missed getting some fur sewing machines from him back then. If I recall it was 100+ tails per cap ( dont know the Jewish name of it Shtreimels ?)

Well Master Argeriou from Montreal is a strong supporter of both trappers and our auction house.
A good guy and Master furrier.
I thought it was good information.
Confidence in the collection from the people that use our product is a good thing-why good fur handling is important and pays dividends for us in the long run.

My fur handling is fine. My dividends are weak.

You probably do know how to handle fur,as do a lot of trappers.
From what I have seen some are still learning
Why we do workshops and demos like the oldtimers did for us when we were young.

Some may benefit even if you or others dont.
Its nice to see the marten prices rising again over the last few years.
Helps to offer a good collection to the international buyers.

However, along similar lines, I once showed up at a new trappers house to buy his muskrats. I was in shock when he showed me all of his put-up muskrats, not one of them had a head, he had cut them all off at the ears. Once I regained my composer I asked him why on earth he had cut all the heads off. He replied that they didn't use the heads on fur coats so he didn't think it was important to leave them on the skin. I bought them all as bad damaged.
There are different factors the go into the value of a particular skin.

I have heard horror stories my entire trapping career about other peoples put ups and pelt handling. Some just don't seem to care.

I can't agree more with you Dirt ! All one needs to do is go to a fur auction and watch the fur come in through the door , some I've seen like everyone else has seen I wouldn't want anyone to see it if it was mine .

Those are the ones who cry and complain on the small amount they got for this or that fur when they didn't finish fleshing it or even brush out the fur after washing it .

I thought everyone split & pinned the tails, at least while it’s fur out. Even if they think the tail doesn’t matter, it’s presentation, like trying to sell a used car……shine er up a bit.
I try to pin them open when flipped also, but it’s harder to find the edge on the smaller critters.

With this new information, i can't wait to see a substantial increase in my check from FHA. All my marten have tails and pinned flat.

Doesnt work that way,its about fur handling and educating trappers about the value of a uniform collection to offer the buyers to improve their confidence in our product
One more reason why trapper education is so important.to our industry.