Also Manning/Titus traps and early Dean Wilson traps. The pans where hand stamped.

[quote=milkcrate]Is there anything written up on the history of the #9? e]

I started at one time putting something together however JR mentioned he was planning on writing something, so I never finished it.

Here is the deal. You have the first model Dean Wilson # 9.You cleaned the pan which some collectors are ok with. Some are not. There is more to the story and if you research a past thread I initiated you will find out more.

There are only a couple of this model in existence!! LOL

Does anyone know who was making the #9 when it went from the round rods to the big bolts holding the springs?

The 1st trap I built in 2025

That’s pretty cool. I bet you could get people to line up for those. Are you going to market them?

JR

Those are all #9s. He's the one who makes them.

That is very kind of you to point that out, but I am well aware of what they are and who makes them. I was inquiring if he was going to market one with teeth, like the one in his pictures.

The 1st one is being donated to the ATA for this year’s Fling. I will be making more in the future due to the high interest from the guys who saw it in my shop. Kind of a fun build.
You were asking about the #9 Museum, well here is the start. Only missing a couple of and one of Chuck’s ivory 9’s would look good in there…

what is the stamping on the frame state. first i noticed it?

Looks like it says 2025

JR did you get the mangled ones I saw that were on Dean's wall in the Klondike motel? I asked what in the world happened to those traps, and he said that was the result of testing.

I did Paul. They are on the bottom right in the display. Dean and our own Wolverinebait were the testing team for that endeavor. I also acquired the door chime trap that hung about the door at Dean’s Klondike shop. I promptly hung it above the door in my shop. Love the sound it makes and memories it brings

Very nice.I have Dean's trapping dvd.Love watching it.

Yep, that was me that "tested" those traps. When Dean first acquired that trap business, he called me to come over and give him my opinions on how & where he might be able to improve the #9. So, I just thought that if he wanted to make it stronger/tougher, or at least to know how strong they already are, then to start with, we need to know what the weakest link is, and that includes the chain, swivels, everything. So, I suggested that we could pull on the trap with a pickup, until something gives or breaks, and go from there. But we'll wreck a few traps doing that,... but he thought that was a good idea, so that's what I did. We took a few finished traps, with 10' chains, and ran a towing chain thru the big ring and chained the trap to a big spruce tree, and I took a 1" diameter mooring line and made a monkey-fist knot in one end and put the knot inside the jaws of the trap, hooked the mooring line to the back of my truck, and slowly pulled on it while Dean watched to see how things bent, what went first, etc. And I think, if I remember right, on every test we ended up pulling the jaws out. But animals aren't going to slowly keep pulling harder and harder, their greatest pull would be a running impact when they hit the end of the chain. So I tried "smacking" it with a little momentum too, and maybe we popped the rope out of the jaws once or twice without pulling the jaws out of the base,.. can't remember for sure. We also tried attaching the chain in several different ways to the trap as well,... I know we wrecked at least a half-dozen traps doing all this. But the final conclusion was that no wolf, caribou or even a moose was going to do to that trap what I did with my pickup. The "weakest link" in the Alaskan #9 was well above what any animal could get to. That's when Dean asked me if I would help him with all this,... his welding was not to good with all his shaking, etc, so I did. So the main changes we made were focused on speed & cost. And the first thing we did was to make up some jigs, so we weren't making each piece one at a time.
But this also reminded me, when people were talking about the various changes that happened over time, and different owners, and having a collection of all the different "models",... that there was a very small "run" (12 to be exact) of this trap that had a different spring lever than all the rest. (I'm sure I told JR about this at some point) I had always thought, right from the start, that the thing that looked the worst, or looked the least "profesional" with these traps, was how the spring ears are welded onto each side of the spring lever. Even with my own welding, it was the only "homemade" looking thing about the trap (IMO). So, after talking and thinking about that with Dean, taking some measurements, he had his parts company make up 12 sets of spring levers, where instead of cutting out that big square hole for the jaws to go thru, they would make a sideways "H" cut there, and curl each half 180° outward, and the spring ears would come already made! 8 less welds per trap, and no (sometimes) ugly welds to look at. The only issue? I think that each lever was $4-5 more than the old style, and Dean didn't think that most trappers would want to pay $10 more/trap just to have nicer looking spring ears. And I'm sure he was right. Anyway, he gave them all to me to test out, even tho we both had no concerns that there would be any issues with that new style,... and I've caught many wolves in those traps, and they work just fine. Anyway, here's some pictures of that "factory-style" spring ear, that only came on 12 #9's, at least while Dean had these traps.
This is one of the #9's with the "built-in" spring ears

This compares them, "factory-built" ears on the left, hand-welded ears on the right

And a close-up of the curled-out spring ears

That was a great idea, Wolverinebait. And also great that you still have the traps. Obviously one of them belongs in the #9 Museum. Thanks for your contributions to such a legendary trap.

Thank you for adding to that. It is some very interesting information.

Thanks Dave. Interesting footnote to the history of the 9's!

Pete