Hunters’ Hoods – My Creation

In a recent blog, I gave a pile of stuff on hunters’ hoods/caps. I have been wanting to make one fore awhile but Nathan Kobuck beat me to it. He did a nice little blog on it and also gave some killer eastern quotes on beaver trapping. Anyway, I went ahead and made my hood with fear of being a copy cat or a Kobuck clone. Hmmm… I would actually like to think of myself as the other side of the coin to him, he doing...

Converting New to Old… Trap Conversion pt. I...

In a past blog, I highlighted a project that Allen Harrison and I have going with converting more modern and readily available traps into something more historic.  With few smiths out there making good period traps; this is a cheaper, easier way to outfit for a good historic trapping camp.  The how-to that Allen put together on converting the trap is also found here. In the original tutorial, it has the original swivel left...

Hunters’ Hoods

A quick deviation from some of the things I have been planning on blogging about, but I want to get some info on hoods or caps out there to share. This is not a proper article or even much interpretation on the facts but rather a listing of some info I have found. Throughout the Great Lakes and out to the Rockies and beyond, there are a variety of interesting horned or eared hoods that are seen. Most extant hoods and images...

Beaver Robe

Fur robes were a common item prior to the introduction of wool blankets through trade. In many areas, some of these robes continued to be used occasionally. Buffalo robes come quickly to mind as a common robe that was used throughout history, but other fur robes were also used. A current project of mine is to make a beaver fur robe. Beaver furs as robes were referred to as castor gras (literally, greasy beaver) during the...