Need help with fur coats!!

[c-denby 0]

Hey, I was cleaning out the attic and found a couple fur coats. One I think is red fox fur and the other I was told is Mink, however, I'm really not sure. Do you guys know what type of fur these coats are? AND are they useful to me for tying? Don't want to cut apart grandma's antique fur coat unless it will actually benefit my tying bench..

 

 

 

 

[rockworm 0]

Fur coats are a great source of dubbing material, although they are best if they haven't been sheared. To me the fur looks real and doesn't look dyed. (You can check the skin for dye.) Neither of grandma's coats appear sheared. Based on your photos I would say the first coat looks like red fox. I would venture a guess that the second is not mink; the hair looks too long. It might be beaver, but I don't think the pelt is dense enough. My best guess would be muskrat (my favourite dubbing.)

[morfrost 0]

I wouldn't go hacking up a fur coat just for some fly tying material. You have enough material for about a century's worth of fly tying or more, unless you gring out 50,000+ flies per year. You'll probably end up giving away a lot, or throwing away a bunch. Once you start cutting it up it pretty much loses its value as a garment, and having a bunch of fur pieces lying around in a plastic bag gets to be a pain after a while.

 

I suggest you ;

 

A) Try & sell it. Then use money to buy material. Put an ad in want ads. Someone may buy it and take it to a furrier to have it modernized or remodeled. Maybe the furrier might want to buy it as well, for remodel and resale.

 

Find someone who recycles these coats into other items such as custom made teddy bears. This could yield some $ or some fur scraps from their operation or both.

 

P.S. There's a lady in my community who does these bears in a variety of different furs. She 's intersted in dying some of the furs for her particular projects. I've been passing on info about dying from fly tying websites I run across. She gives me scraps which are not useful to her, but are to me.

[tidewaterfly 0]

As rockworm said, old fur coats are a great source for dubbing. If the sections of fur are large enough, you may even get a few zonker strips from them, but often they're small pieces sewn together to get the desired effect.

 

It's hard to really tell from the picture, but the top one may have been dyed, as the coloration is very uniform. If it's fox, then I would say it's dyed, and the longer guard hairs have been plucked. Furriers often dye furs so that there is just a tint of color added, so it's not always obvious.

 

That top pictured coat could be mink or sable, and again could be dyed. It could be muskrat too.

 

The bottom coat looks like muskrat to me.

 

One word of advise before you go cutting it up. Have it appraised by a professional furrier. If it's in good shape, you don't want to find out later that you cut up a valuable fur coat for dubbing.

[c-denby 0]

Well the top one (possible fox or dyed muskrat) is in BAD shape. Ripped in several places and was purchased at an auction for $3 for the purpose of tying flies. I was just getting into tying and thought I might use it then forgot about it and it got shoved away in the attic.

 

The second one was my grandma's and does have a little sentimental value to it but it has a bad spot on the collar where a mouse or something chewed on it while in storage. It also does have some nice long hair in places that would be great for zonkers or using for hairwing flies. BUT I suppose I better have it appraised before getting out the scissors and then finding out it could have paid for a ton of materials that I really DO need..

 

OK guys I'll take it to the furrier's tomorrow and see what he says. If its not worth a whole lot and I do cut it up:

 

How do I clean it without wrecking anything? AND Should I freeze the pieces after cleaning but before using it near my other tying materials??

 

Thanks everyone.

Chris

[bowfin47 0]

#4 looks like otter to me...

[c-denby 0]

There are only 2 coats there.. Pictures 1 and 2 are One coat and pictures 3, 4, & 5 are another coat.

 

I found out that the first coat is dyed red fox and the second coat is muskrat and beaver mix. I left them with the furrier today as he was too busy to look at them so I'm going to pick them up tomorrow and he will let me know if they have any value to them. If they do have any value I will most likely sell them to him and just use the money to buy some materials that I really need..

 

ALSO while I was there he gave me an extra large freezer bag full of small pieces of fur that he was going to throw away. There are a few nice size chunks and contents were mostly muskrat but had a few nice pieces of black bear, beaver, and mink plus a full fox tail. He convienently marked on the back of each piece what they were so now I have a great little stash of natural furs to tie with..

 

For everyone who told me to check with the furrier. THANKS because it greatly helped me with more than just those coats.

 

 

Chris