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Anyone tried beaver felting? #8323416 01/25/25 07:29 PM 01/25/25 07:29 PM
Joined: Jan 2025 Posts: 32 Alaska FishingHoleFind OP trapper
FishingHoleFind OP trapper Joined: Jan 2025 Posts: 32 Alaska	I could use a new hat and I've got a few beaver pelts that might have a nick or two since I was still getting the hang of it. Thinking it might be an interesting craft project to take on. Any experienced working with beaver felt before? Or have a beaver felt hat you wanna brag about?

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: FishingHoleFind] #8323447 01/25/25 07:55 PM 01/25/25 07:55 PM
Joined: Mar 2019 Posts: 445 Pottsboro TX Grayson county J Jiggamitch trapper
Jiggamitch trapper J Joined: Mar 2019 Posts: 445 Pottsboro TX Grayson county	I was also wanting to do this, but could not find info on how to separate the guard hairs. I started plucking by hand and it's gunna take a long while before I can get enough to make a felt. If you figure something out, pm me please.

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: FishingHoleFind] #8323451 01/25/25 08:04 PM 01/25/25 08:04 PM
Joined: Jan 2019 Posts: 4,569 North central Iowa B Bob_Iowa trapper
Bob_Iowa trapper B Joined: Jan 2019 Posts: 4,569 North central Iowa	Hopefully Boco see’s this he does quite a bit of work with beaver.

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: FishingHoleFind] #8323481 01/25/25 08:28 PM 01/25/25 08:28 PM
Joined: Jan 2025 Posts: 32 Alaska FishingHoleFind OP trapper
FishingHoleFind OP trapper Joined: Jan 2025 Posts: 32 Alaska	Originally Posted by Jiggamitch I was also wanting to do this, but could not find info on how to separate the guard hairs. I started plucking by hand and it's gunna take a long while before I can get enough to make a felt. If you figure something out, pm me please. I got a couple ideas but I'll have to see. Apparently wearing them is a good way to slowly rub off the course hairs and helps get the underfur ready to felt.

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: FishingHoleFind] #8323504 01/25/25 08:41 PM 01/25/25 08:41 PM
Joined: Aug 2011 Posts: 47,762 james bay frontierOnt. B Boco trapper
Boco trapper B Joined: Aug 2011 Posts: 47,762 james bay frontierOnt.	Making felt from the underfur of a beaver is a detailed process with some trade secrets protected no doubt. For example what chemical do they use for the carroting step nowadays since the mercury originally used is too dangerous. Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: Boco] #8323530 01/25/25 09:07 PM 01/25/25 09:07 PM
Joined: Jan 2025 Posts: 32 Alaska FishingHoleFind OP trapper
FishingHoleFind OP trapper Joined: Jan 2025 Posts: 32 Alaska	Carroting is meant to break down the keratin slightly to make the felting process easier so you can replace it with more mechanical forces. Also, hydrogen peroxide supposedly makes a decent substitute while being mostly nontoxic, it just takes slightly longer. Apparently it takes like 3 beavers for one hat though so that's fun. And so much work. I bet there's a lot of trade secrets to making the felt hats that would be hard to do at home even if you knew them though.

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: Boco] #8323567 01/25/25 10:06 PM 01/25/25 10:06 PM
Joined: May 2010 Posts: 11,101 MN S Steven 49er trapper
Steven 49er trapper S Joined: May 2010 Posts: 11,101 MN	Originally Posted by Boco Making felt from the underfur of a beaver is a detailed process with some trade secrets protected no doubt. For example what chemical do they use for the carroting step nowadays since the mercury originally used is too dangerous. In the meateater podcast with Guy Groenwold, Guy said they use some type of acid. "Gold is money, everything else is just credit" JP Morgan

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: FishingHoleFind] #8323568 01/25/25 10:08 PM 01/25/25 10:08 PM
Joined: May 2010 Posts: 11,101 MN S Steven 49er trapper
Steven 49er trapper S Joined: May 2010 Posts: 11,101 MN	There are many interesting videos on youtube about the process. "Gold is money, everything else is just credit" JP Morgan

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: FishingHoleFind] #8323597 01/25/25 10:59 PM 01/25/25 10:59 PM
Joined: Aug 2011 Posts: 47,762 james bay frontierOnt. B Boco trapper
Boco trapper B Joined: Aug 2011 Posts: 47,762 james bay frontierOnt.	Carroting makes the hooks on the beaver underfur hairs stick way out which creates the locking effect to make the felt superstrong. Keratin holds the hairs in the pelt. Last edited by Boco; 01/25/25 11:02 PM. Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: FishingHoleFind] #8323744 Yesterday at 07:55 AM Yesterday at 07:55 AM
Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 30,837 Eastern Shore of Maryland HobbieTrapper "Chippendale Trapper"
HobbieTrapper "Chippendale Trapper" Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 30,837 Eastern Shore of Maryland	Regarding removal of the guard hair, I used the dull side of the fleshing knife. Here are a couple videos of the results. https://youtube.com/shorts/I9tUAHfCu-k?feature=shared https://youtube.com/shorts/81e_ijJjE30?feature=shared https://youtube.com/shorts/HMnMJHugAqs?feature=shared Like anything else, the more you do the better you get at it and it is a pretty good workout. lol Last edited by HobbieTrapper; Yesterday at 07:56 AM. -Goofy

Re: Anyone tried beaver felting? [Re: HobbieTrapper] #8324004 Yesterday at 01:22 PM Yesterday at 01:22 PM
Joined: Jan 2025 Posts: 32 Alaska FishingHoleFind OP trapper
FishingHoleFind OP trapper Joined: Jan 2025 Posts: 32 Alaska	Originally Posted by Boco Carroting makes the hooks on the beaver underfur hairs stick way out which creates the locking effect to make the felt superstrong. Keratin holds the hairs in the pelt. Hair is also made of keratin. Hair is actually a type of modified scale, same as feathers. Originally Posted by HobbieTrapper Regarding removal of the guard hair, I used the dull side of the fleshing knife. Here are a couple videos of the results. https://youtube.com/shorts/I9tUAHfCu-k?feature=shared https://youtube.com/shorts/81e_ijJjE30?feature=shared https://youtube.com/shorts/HMnMJHugAqs?feature=shared Like anything else, the more you do the better you get at it and it is a pretty good workout. lol Nice results. Thanks for the share, encouraging stuff.

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