Beaver hoops

[wormbobskey]

Has anyone got any idea on how I can make beaver hoops out of willow branches? I went out and cut some the other day and am not sure what I have to do to make them work. Worm

[clint]

I done a search on beaver hoops and sofar havnt been able to find much information for you other than this.

 You can make your own out of soft wood (birch or willow). Soak them in water until nice and soft and bend to shape, wait until totally dry to lace pelt on hoop with rawhide.

I know its not much information, I had a great website saved on my pc but when it crashed i lost all my links. If i can find it again ill be sure and post it. You may want to try posting this on www.trapperman.com I know there are some guys on there that have worked with hoops before.  clint

[clint]

Ok i found the information i was talking about had it saved on a floppy. This should help ya out some.

Beaver On A Wooden Hoop If you are looking for an alternative to selling your beaver in the usual raw state or maybe just looking for a project to do in the off season, try tanning your pelt and putting it on a wooden hoop. A beaver pelt on a wooden hoop makes an excellent wall hanging in a rec room, bar, hunting lodge or just about anywhere else you can think of. There is also a market out there for beaver pelts finished in this way and it offers a good alternative to the traditional market. Thanks to Hern Blett from Pennsylvania for the instructions on hooping beaver.
Use Willow or River Birch branches, the size of a man's finger.
Submerge the braches in water to make flexible.
Use 2 pieces long enough to make a half circle with overlap 2inches larger than the pelt.
Lay a half sheet of plywood on floor.
Center the pelt on the plywood and draw an outline of the pelt, or a few reference marks.
Make a mark 2" form the outside edge of the pelt in the 12, 6, 3, & 9 o'clock position. Then at the 2, 4, 8, & 10 o'clock position.
Now, connect the marks in the shape of the pelt. This is where you want your hoop, 2" from the pelt.
Place finishing nails around your hoop line. This is a jig to bend and form your hoop.
Tip ~ When joining the ends together, shave the ends a few inches, flattening, to form a good joint. I use thin craft wire to hold joints together, then hide with rawhide.
Tip ~ Space the holes 3 1/2" apart in pelt. Use a leather punch for this.
Tip ~ When hoop is in position and properly jointed, let dry for a day or two.
Use a continual strand of leather (if available) to lace beaver pelt onto hoop. Keep your spacing uniform, such as - WWWW. Use the leather to wrap the 2 joints.
Finished Piece ~ Now you have a hooped beaver pelt. But it needs more.
Using your leather or rawhide, hang a few ruffed grouse tail feathers on each side of hoop, at the 3 & 9 o'clock positions. Then hang 2 weasel tails or entire pelts in the 6 o'clock position. At the 12 o'clock position, hang 3-4 African or Indian trade beads.

Now you have a finished beaver on a wooden hoop to admire for years to come.

[clint]

Ok i found the information i was talking about had it saved on a floppy. This should help ya out some.

Beaver On A Wooden Hoop If you are looking for an alternative to selling your beaver in the usual raw state or maybe just looking for a project to do in the off season, try tanning your pelt and putting it on a wooden hoop. A beaver pelt on a wooden hoop makes an excellent wall hanging in a rec room, bar, hunting lodge or just about anywhere else you can think of. There is also a market out there for beaver pelts finished in this way and it offers a good alternative to the traditional market. Thanks to Hern Blett from Pennsylvania for the instructions on hooping beaver.
Use Willow or River Birch branches, the size of a man's finger.
Submerge the braches in water to make flexible.
Use 2 pieces long enough to make a half circle with overlap 2inches larger than the pelt.
Lay a half sheet of plywood on floor.
Center the pelt on the plywood and draw an outline of the pelt, or a few reference marks.
Make a mark 2" form the outside edge of the pelt in the 12, 6, 3, & 9 o'clock position. Then at the 2, 4, 8, & 10 o'clock position.
Now, connect the marks in the shape of the pelt. This is where you want your hoop, 2" from the pelt.
Place finishing nails around your hoop line. This is a jig to bend and form your hoop.
Tip ~ When joining the ends together, shave the ends a few inches, flattening, to form a good joint. I use thin craft wire to hold joints together, then hide with rawhide.
Tip ~ Space the holes 3 1/2" apart in pelt. Use a leather punch for this.
Tip ~ When hoop is in position and properly jointed, let dry for a day or two.
Use a continual strand of leather (if available) to lace beaver pelt onto hoop. Keep your spacing uniform, such as - WWWW. Use the leather to wrap the 2 joints.
Finished Piece ~ Now you have a hooped beaver pelt. But it needs more.
Using your leather or rawhide, hang a few ruffed grouse tail feathers on each side of hoop, at the 3 & 9 o'clock positions. Then hang 2 weasel tails or entire pelts in the 6 o'clock position. At the 12 o'clock position, hang 3-4 African or Indian trade beads.

Now you have a finished beaver on a wooden hoop to admire for years to come.

[clint]

Ok i found the information i was talking about had it saved on a floppy. This should help ya out some.

Beaver On A Wooden Hoop If you are looking for an alternative to selling your beaver in the usual raw state or maybe just looking for a project to do in the off season, try tanning your pelt and putting it on a wooden hoop. A beaver pelt on a wooden hoop makes an excellent wall hanging in a rec room, bar, hunting lodge or just about anywhere else you can think of. There is also a market out there for beaver pelts finished in this way and it offers a good alternative to the traditional market. Thanks to Hern Blett from Pennsylvania for the instructions on hooping beaver.
Use Willow or River Birch branches, the size of a man's finger.
Submerge the braches in water to make flexible.
Use 2 pieces long enough to make a half circle with overlap 2inches larger than the pelt.
Lay a half sheet of plywood on floor.
Center the pelt on the plywood and draw an outline of the pelt, or a few reference marks.
Make a mark 2" form the outside edge of the pelt in the 12, 6, 3, & 9 o'clock position. Then at the 2, 4, 8, & 10 o'clock position.
Now, connect the marks in the shape of the pelt. This is where you want your hoop, 2" from the pelt.
Place finishing nails around your hoop line. This is a jig to bend and form your hoop.
Tip ~ When joining the ends together, shave the ends a few inches, flattening, to form a good joint. I use thin craft wire to hold joints together, then hide with rawhide.
Tip ~ Space the holes 3 1/2" apart in pelt. Use a leather punch for this.
Tip ~ When hoop is in position and properly jointed, let dry for a day or two.
Use a continual strand of leather (if available) to lace beaver pelt onto hoop. Keep your spacing uniform, such as - WWWW. Use the leather to wrap the 2 joints.
Finished Piece ~ Now you have a hooped beaver pelt. But it needs more.
Using your leather or rawhide, hang a few ruffed grouse tail feathers on each side of hoop, at the 3 & 9 o'clock positions. Then hang 2 weasel tails or entire pelts in the 6 o'clock position. At the 12 o'clock position, hang 3-4 African or Indian trade beads.

Now you have a finished beaver on a wooden hoop to admire for years to come.

[clint]

I dont have any clue as to why the infomation post so many times sorry about.  clint

[wormbobskey]

Clint, thanks for the information, it will come in handy. I guess I'm not as ignorant as I thought. I cut two lengths of willow poles, shaved them down until they were of uniform thickness, than took them outside and put them in the creek with a few rocks holding them down. I had tried to bend them before, but realized that they weren't bending enough. I plan to use artifical sinew. Have you ever heard of anyone just drying the hide on the hoop and leaving it that way? I've done that with fur on deer hides. Worm

[22MK1]

Ok i found the information i was talking about had it saved on a floppy. This should help ya out some.

Beaver On A Wooden Hoop If you are looking for an alternative to selling your beaver in the usual raw state or maybe just looking for a project to do in the off season, try tanning your pelt and putting it on a wooden hoop. A beaver pelt on a wooden hoop makes an excellent wall hanging in a rec room, bar, hunting lodge or just about anywhere else you can think of. There is also a market out there for beaver pelts finished in this way and it offers a good alternative to the traditional market. Thanks to Hern Blett from Pennsylvania for the instructions on hooping beaver.
Use Willow or River Birch branches, the size of a man's finger.
Submerge the braches in water to make flexible.
Use 2 pieces long enough to make a half circle with overlap 2inches larger than the pelt.
Lay a half sheet of plywood on floor.
Center the pelt on the plywood and draw an outline of the pelt, or a few reference marks.
Make a mark 2" form the outside edge of the pelt in the 12, 6, 3, & 9 o'clock position. Then at the 2, 4, 8, & 10 o'clock position.
Now, connect the marks in the shape of the pelt. This is where you want your hoop, 2" from the pelt.
Place finishing nails around your hoop line. This is a jig to bend and form your hoop.
Tip ~ When joining the ends together, shave the ends a few inches, flattening, to form a good joint. I use thin craft wire to hold joints together, then hide with rawhide.
Tip ~ Space the holes 3 1/2" apart in pelt. Use a leather punch for this.
Tip ~ When hoop is in position and properly jointed, let dry for a day or two.
Use a continual strand of leather (if available) to lace beaver pelt onto hoop. Keep your spacing uniform, such as - WWWW. Use the leather to wrap the 2 joints.
Finished Piece ~ Now you have a hooped beaver pelt. But it needs more.
Using your leather or rawhide, hang a few ruffed grouse tail feathers on each side of hoop, at the 3 & 9 o'clock positions. Then hang 2 weasel tails or entire pelts in the 6 o'clock position. At the 12 o'clock position, hang 3-4 African or Indian trade beads.

Now you have a finished beaver on a wooden hoop to admire for years to come.

  Boy, I love this place. This is exactly what I was doing as search for with no results, and then I went to Greybeard's in my favorites and here it was all along.

    I'm planning on doing the same thing.  A friend has a couple of stretched pelts as described(kind of like a giant dreamcatcher) and I've been trying to get him to cut one loose with no success. His are on wooden hoops but I didn't know what kind of wood.
 The town is having the beaver trapped before they take the dam out upriver from my house, so my basement doesn't become an alternate branch of the Bouquet this spring as the water never freezes at that point but now is 14-16" thick and nearly at the bank top now. If the high water throws the 1/2 acre of ice up, the water has nowhere else to go. I've beeen bitching about it since last fall when I bought the house and it's taken this long to get them to act(but it's a big secret lest the grain grinders who reside here find out).  The guy who is doing the trapping just started working for the town and hasn't trapped beaver for quite awhile because he says the pelts aren't bringing enough to make it worth his time to trap, muchless skin them but it's worth his time now, because they're paying him overtime.  I asked him what they were going to do with them and he said "toss them on the dump", so I told them I'd take them.  
    I don't think I'll have time to get a special knife to do it.  Would a sharp drop point knife work O.K. or does it need to be rounded and flexible like this one from:
http://www.murrayslures.com/furshed.htm

BEAVER KNIFE  
 Does an excellent job on Beaver.
Also good for Coon.  
 $10.95 Each Order # MS301