The other post on moles reminded me of two mole skinned chairs my maternal grandparents had up until I was around 7, when they had them reupholstered. My younger brother and I liked sitting in them and rubbing the fur back and forth. The fur would stay either way we rubbed it and was super soft. Fortunately there was 2 chairs or we would have fought more over who got to sit in one.

I just found a cool old PDF, based on a booklet from the government, published in 1917 on trapping moles for the fur trade.





Here it is:

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=56104a5f59817cc3cecaab12811bb661793f246a6d0926c29bdf7e3a830fea15JmltdHM9MTc2MDQ4NjQwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=3570fd6d-123c-6cfd-041e-eb1613b06d79&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9hcmNoaXZlLm9yZy9kb3dubG9hZC90cmFwcGluZ21vbGVzdXRpMDBzY2hlL3RyYXBwaW5nbW9sZXN1dGkwMHNjaGUucGRm&ntb=F

Keith

And they tacked them out round like little beavers.
I once saw a bundle of a couple hundred of them at the Seattle Fur Exchange. Probably the last moles ever sold a auction. But even then it was quite an oddity. I do remember old guys talking about trapping them for their fur though.

Around what year did you see moles at auction last?

I found some coats mentioned online, that belonged to royalty, that contained over 600 moleskins.

Apparently the color taupe, is the French word for mole and refers to the color of moleskin coats. The booklet mentioned that the US used to import mole skins, in huge numbers from Europe, but that our skins were actually better.

Keith

I’d like to know when you seen them last too Waggler……. Do you know when and why moles skins stopped selling

Anybody else have mole trapping and selling stories

Waggler I like the idea of a “ stack of blanket moles “…….

^^^^^
It would have been in the late 70's that they were at auction. As I recall, they sold for a couple dollars apiece; people were pretty amused and a little surprised. I don't think any had been at auction for many years.

I imagine they were from Washington or Oregon. The Townsend mole are pretty much only found in western Washington and western Oregon, they are the largest north American mole, and have good leather and the best quality fur and color. They are actually really nice.

Moles were considered furbearers in the Soviet wildlife management science, there were harvest plans/statistics, state buyers bought mole skins, and Soviet fur factories produced mole fur coats. There are still quite a few vintage mole coats on the market in very good condition, most are inexpensive (this one is being sold for $35). The fur is not warm, but durable and looks nice. Some people still trap moles for fur, the skins are stretched into a hexagonal or rectangular shape, and blocked into a pattern of hexagons in garments.




Their leather is surprisingly thick and tough.

Cool post with interesting information.

Very cool post!

Yes, interesting.

My dad said he trapped moles and got 10 cents apiece. This would have been near Portland, Oregon around 1920-22. He said they made ladies gloves with them.

Tatiana's pictures make me think moleskins would be useful for small projects like wallets, teddy bears, gloves, mittens and scarves.

Keith

Holy Moly.

Keith

Great post !

Apparently mole skin is currently used for fly tying. You can purchase it died in different colors.





If Bud Guidry pops in, he could tell us if he's used it.

Some women's clothing is still made out of moleskin.



Keith

Keith

I’ve sold them to fly tiers! Our townsends moles are huge compared to most other varieties.

And then there's krotovukha.

https://www.russianlife.com/the-russia-file/moleshine-anyone/

Thought I'd add something constructive. Good post.