A Beaver Story...

A Beaver Story…

Calm yourselves boys, it’s not that kind of beaver story.

I used to do quite a bit of trapping, and a staple of the trapping industry in Alaska is the beaver. Most of my skins I sold raw or sent off to a tannery before selling them. It always nagged at me that I had to ‘send them off’. First, it took ‘forever’ to get them back. Often six months or more. And, I didn’t always like what I got back. AND most importantly, I like doing ‘things’ myself if I can. So, one day after bringing five beaver home, I decided it was time to do a little ‘home tanning’.

Being an aquatic mammal, beaver not only have a great fur, they also have a layer of subcutaneous fat. You cannot separate that fat from the skin as you skin the beaver. Even if you could – and you can’t – the skin is still very greasy. In order for the tan to ‘take’, you must degrease the skin. Taxidermy supply houses sell ‘degreasing agents’ but they’re kinda spendy, and difficult to get through the mail. More importantly, the commonly used ‘degreaser’ was just plain ol' white gas (AKA Coleman fuel in the US). Now that, I could get easily and cheaply. I went to the local hardware store and got a 5-gallon can of it. The hides were well-scraped, and I was ready to tan.

What I haven’t mentioned so far is that this is all taking place in the Interior of Alaska… in February. I decided I would have to do it “inside”.

I waited ‘til my wife had gone to bed so as not to “disturb her” and tip-toed down to the basement. (I figured what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, and I'd be done before morning anyway, so she'd never find out.) Didn't quite work out that way...

I put half of the can of white gas in each of two 5-gal buckets and dropped the skins in. After a while I checked them and did as I had read; I wrung them out and put them in my deep-sink to "wash with warm soapy water". After rinsing them and wringing them out, they were still quite greasy so back into the gas-filled buckets they went. I did this three more times.

The fourth time I was rinsing them I caught myself watching a little too long as the little soap ‘swirlies’ went down the drain. Bent over the buckets and the sink and wringing the gassed skins out and then washing them by hand, and then wringing them out again... I was high as a kite!

Just about the time I realized this, my wife comes storming down the basement stairs and she was just a little perturbed.:eek: She started out with something like “What in the blue blazes are you doing?” She had been awakened by the vapors two floors up! I, on the other hand, had been down in the midst of it for a couple of hours. Fortunately for me I was so stoned that I was positively goofy, and so stupid it was funny. At least to her.

We opened all the doors and windows and didn’t switch on any lights that weren’t already on. It’s a good thing she knew what she was getting into when she married me, or she would likely have scalped me, and rightly so. Whooeee! I used a lot of ‘marital currency’ up that night, but you know what...

The skins came out of the tan very nice.;)

Paul
 
Beaver skull on a piece of log chewed by Beavers.
I shot this one in Sweden.
HWH.
Beaver005.jpg
 
Great story! I often operate on the "what her upstairs dont know wont hurt her! in 21 years her "he is upto no good" radar has never failed her:rolleyes:

Very impressive set of teeth stag!
 
I love eating beaver the silky bronze colour ones are my favourite but the ones I like dont have a set nashers like the one Hubert Shot.:oops:
 
So does all this mean you can't actually brain tan a beaver then?

Or, putting it another way; What did the aboriginal peoples of the north do without Colemans?

While sitting around their camp fires... :)
 
So does all this mean you can't actually brain tan a beaver then?

Or, putting it another way; What did the aboriginal peoples of the north do without Colemans?

While sitting around their camp fires... :)

Tamus, been watching Ray Mears? I too saw the caribou brain tanning which i thought was fascinating!

Dakaras, "Up to no good radar", I think it must be a standard fitting on wives :oops:

ft
 
Interesting that this thread just came up, I've spent the last few weekends trying to take care of a beaver which is causing some problems in our terrain. It has already felled several large trees and is now working on one which could fall onto a foot bridge.

Unfortunately, with temperatures very close -20 I don't feel like sitting out waiting through the night in the winter months, so I guess I'll just wait till spring time.

Here's a couple of pics I took the other weekend:

9c0472f7.jpg


f4b8f931.jpg


ac818586.jpg


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060bef0b.jpg


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b334786f.jpg


I have some 85 grain Sierra Varmint doing 1000m/s which should be just the medicine! :cool:
 
Stag,
are the teeth in that beaver naturally that colour ?
I must admit i could not see why you would colour them but.......:confused:

atb
Nick.
 
Stag,
are the teeth in that beaver naturally that colour ?
I must admit i could not see why you would colour them but.......:confused:

atb
Nick.

Yes, natural colour, possibly stained by the tannic acid in bark.
Another specimen shown below with wood chips and a .243 and a .270 bullet to give some indication of the size of the teeth.
HWH.
BUGGYCROWS046.jpg
 
Cool skull trophies. I like those!

So does all this mean you can't actually brain tan a beaver then?

Or, putting it another way; What did the aboriginal peoples of the north do without Colemans?

While sitting around their camp fires... :)

Well... They did just fine...

There are some assumptions in those comments (and some of the other ones too), that might warrant reconsideration. At the foundation is the one that what you see on the television in a "documentary" is true.

The TRUTH is, the Alaskan natives, (including the Athabascans which consider themselves "Indians" and not those low-life "Eskimos"), didn't do two things you mention. Number one, they very rarely tanned beaver at all. The ones they did were mostly young-of-the-year that hadn't put on the fat yet.

I understand there is a great deal of interest in ALL of Europe (including the British Isles) in North American Natives these days - especially those of the American Plains. So much in fact that the single largest 'store' in the world (and Black Market of Bald Eagle feathers) is in Europe. There are more "Indian" head-dresses in Europe than there are in the US and Canada combined - HELD BY NATIVES. Maybe those Europeans so interested could tell you that the beaver was rarely used for its skin by native Americans. It was primarily used for food. Or maybe they couldn't.

Second, "brain tan", again in spite of the baloney spewed from the television, was a fairly uncommon method of tanning among northern natives. It doesn't work when it's too hot, and it doesn't work when it's too cold. Having done it, I can tell you from personal experience that it's a PITA, but more importantly doesn't work in the winter,and there's a lot of "winter" in northern North America.

So if they didn't/don't use the "elegant" and socially "cool" brain tan, what did they use?

Urine.

Again, the TRUTH is that the most common method of used for "tanning" skins by ALL aboriginals is the "urine method". This method 'works' in ALL seasons, but certainly works in winter as well as summer, and in fact, addresses the issues of "grease" reasonably well. It's just that the native communities REALLY don't want all their "lovers" to know the reality about the many less-savory elements of the "Noble Savages" lives. After all, don't we all KNOW that they are the wisest, most noble, most kind, most democratic, most respectful of women, most intelligent, most peaceful, greatest conservationists that ever walked the face of this planet?

I've lived and worked among the last of the natives of North America at the end of the era when they were being yanked from the Stone Age into the 20th century. They were a wonderful, wonderful People. And more importantly, they weren't even REMOTELY similar to how they are portrayed by "Hollywood". Or how "Hollywood" (including the BBC) has EVER portrayed them. Early on they were stupidly depicted as "stupid" and "savage". How stupid that portrayal was. Today they are portrayed as "wise" and "noble", "the original conservationists". That is equally stupid drivel. The sad part about their portrayal nowadays is that it's ALL filtered through their own "PR" organizations. You can bet your life that those organizations are not going to let "Hollywood" - in any form - derail the "white-man's-guilt" gravy train by revealing those little nasty truths about their lives to the idiots that worship those fantasies - and more importantly, give them money.

So, no... You can't brain tan beaver without SOME form of degreaser. But that doesn't mean you can't "tan" them.

And... I think they did just fine without "Coleman fuel" as they "sat around their campfires" contemplating, not the 'horror' of not being able to tan all those beaver skins they had laying around, but rather the day-to-day things that all of us do, like planning how we are going to get through the "winters" of our lives.

Regards,
Paul
 
Nice mount stag1933 :cool:

My friend has mounted his beaver teeth in a wild boar style, he removes the teeth and has the smaller teeth inside the larger ones with a silver oak leaf at the base, I'll try a find a pic and post one up.
 
Cool skull trophies. I like those!



Well... They did just fine...

There are some assumptions in those comments (and some of the other ones too), that might warrant reconsideration. At the foundation is the one that what you see on the television in a "documentary" is true.

The TRUTH is, the Alaskan natives, (including the Athabascans which consider themselves "Indians" and not those low-life "Eskimos"), didn't do two things you mention. Number one, they very rarely tanned beaver at all. The ones they did were mostly young-of-the-year that hadn't put on the fat yet.

I understand there is a great deal of interest in ALL of Europe (including the British Isles) in North American Natives these days - especially those of the American Plains. So much in fact that the single largest 'store' in the world (and Black Market of Bald Eagle feathers) is in Europe. There are more "Indian" head-dresses in Europe than there are in the US and Canada combined - HELD BY NATIVES. Maybe those Europeans so interested could tell you that the beaver was rarely used for its skin by native Americans. It was primarily used for food. Or maybe they couldn't.

Second, "brain tan", again in spite of the baloney spewed from the television, was a fairly uncommon method of tanning among northern natives. It doesn't work when it's too hot, and it doesn't work when it's too cold. Having done it, I can tell you from personal experience that it's a PITA, but more importantly doesn't work in the winter,and there's a lot of "winter" in northern North America.

So if they didn't/don't use the "elegant" and socially "cool" brain tan, what did they use?

Urine.

Again, the TRUTH is that the most common method of used for "tanning" skins by ALL aboriginals is the "urine method". This method 'works' in ALL seasons, but certainly works in winter as well as summer, and in fact, addresses the issues of "grease" reasonably well. It's just that the native communities REALLY don't want all their "lovers" to know the reality about the many less-savory elements of the "Noble Savages" lives. After all, don't we all KNOW that they are the wisest, most noble, most kind, most democratic, most respectful of women, most intelligent, most peaceful, greatest conservationists that ever walked the face of this planet?

I've lived and worked among the last of the natives of North America at the end of the era when they were being yanked from the Stone Age into the 20th century. They were a wonderful, wonderful People. And more importantly, they weren't even REMOTELY similar to how they are portrayed by "Hollywood". Or how "Hollywood" (including the BBC) has EVER portrayed them. Early on they were stupidly depicted as "stupid" and "savage". How stupid that portrayal was. Today they are portrayed as "wise" and "noble", "the original conservationists". That is equally stupid drivel. The sad part about their portrayal nowadays is that it's ALL filtered through their own "PR" organizations. You can bet your life that those organizations are not going to let "Hollywood" - in any form - derail the "white-man's-guilt" gravy train by revealing those little nasty truths about their lives to the idiots that worship those fantasies - and more importantly, give them money.

So, no... You can't brain tan beaver without SOME form of degreaser. But that doesn't mean you can't "tan" them.

And... I think they did just fine without "Coleman fuel" as they "sat around their campfires" contemplating, not the 'horror' of not being able to tan all those beaver skins they had laying around, but rather the day-to-day things that all of us do, like planning how we are going to get through the "winters" of our lives.

Regards,
Paul

Paul, take a chill pill and calm down there's a good lad! In this country some tanning, in the very recent past, was still done with urine. Dog turds were another useful tanning agent, the people collecting them were known as "pure finders". Urine was/is also used in the production of tweed and other cloth.

And i'm sorry, but everyone knows that when driving buffalo (bison) over cliffs, your native americans only killed just enough for their needs, and i'm sure they never killed any pregnant buffalo either ;) :stir:

ft
 
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What an interesting thread. I've always meant to have a go at tanning a muntjac skin. Anybody tried it? Given its thickness, I'm sure it would be ideal for indoor moccasin type slippers.


There are more "Indian" head-dresses in Europe than there are in the US and Canada combined - HELD BY NATIVES.

In a sort of similar vein, there are more German-Americans than there are Irish-Americans and there are more Irish-Americans than there are Irish. It must be true, it was on QI.

What did someone say just recently? Stephen Fry, a dim person's idea of a clever person.
 
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About 30 years ago, as a student, I visited a French tannery that still used urine in the process. Fairly cleared the pipes once you got back out into the fresh air.

The sadness of it it was, the business was actually going bust at the time because chromium sulphate and other vile tanning agents had become the preferred thing and their "old" techniques were regarded as "dirty" and inferior.... Go figure.

Oak chips, as a source of tannin, seem to have been a prefered technique in Britain.

Haven't seen any documentry on the subject, but I reckon www.braintan.com has an awful lot to answer for.
 
Thanks for your reply too Paul. I'm not au fait with all the political issues and sensitivities you allude to, though I do have more than the ocasional pang of conscience about the seeming limitlessness of man's inhumanity to man.
 
I really enjoyed that story... what she doesn't know wont hurt her. Classic.

It's a good job my lass knows what she's in for too. I bet similar to a lot of the guys on this wite can say too!

DC
 
Paul, take a chill pill and calm down there's a good lad!
I wasn't actually that 'hot', but acting on your advice, flytie, I did take my pills... :)

I was neither 'picking on' Tamus nor particularly 'annoyed'. (I'm pretty sure I'd like to meet Tamus one day, although I'm not sure the feeling is mutual. ;)) It's easy to be misunderstood over the internet and across an ocean.

I am intrigued that
In this country some tanning, in the very recent past, was still done with urine.
and am quite glad to hear that. Over here, there is some really strange sociological crapola going on. The East Coast Elites out of one side of their mouths want VERY BADLY to "be European" while out of the other side, damn every "bad thing" in the world on "The White European Imperialists". Often it's difficult to tell from which socially correct side of the mouth some comments originate. One simple truth for me is that there is no truth that comes from ANY form of today's "Press" - no matter it's "form" or origin.

I am well familiar with http://www.braintan.com and have very little to disagree with them about. Nothing I read on their site contradicts what I wrote above. At least not as it was intended by me anyway.

As for "German-Americans", and "Irish-Americans", and "Italian-Americans", "Mexican-Americans" and whatever-Americans; I know them not. I know Americans and I know Germans, Irishmen, Italians, and so forth. You are either "American" or you are something else, and that is proven with a birth certificate or proof of citizenship. This new "something-American" is a creation of the socialists, and an insult to all of the immigrants that fought and died to make the United States what it was. All four of my grandparents emigrated from either Ireland or Croatia, and not one of them wanted anything to do with the country they left, and DEMANDED that they be called and considered "Americans" not "Croatian-Americans" nor "Irish-Americans".

This thread is wandering a little off-topic, so in an attempt to get it back on topic, let me ask to see some more of these interesting beaver trophies, and ask that if anyone has any tanned (by ANY means) beaver skins, that they 'show them'.

On a side note: Up here in Alaska, we are not allowed to shoot beaver except in a couple of very remote Game Management Units. They are a "fur-bearer", and shooting is not a legal "method or means" of take.

Regards,
Paul
 
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