Traps

[Avio]

Does anyone know of a place that i could buy a couple of reprodution steel traps?

 

[Stumpkiller]

www.donelsoncustommuzzleloaders.com Click on "Traps" from his home site. I've got a rifle and a knife of his and I vouch for his [being a] character. :grin:

You'll have to check with him for authenticity of his pattern, but he does make hand forged traps of "early" style.

He also trades in originals and may have a few real ones for about the same price.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Hey HB,

Dont get cought with them in your car. The Libdemocommies will burn you at the stake.

Highly illegal here in the motherland.

 

[Ashworth]

If you are looking Steel leg traps here is a place you can get real ones to trap everything from bear to racoons.Check you local game laws for having them.Animal rights groups are trying to get them banned nation wide.
[url] http://www.snareshop.com/cgi-bin/snareshop/catalog.html?cat=Steel Traps[/url]

Take care
Alan Ashworth :v

 

[bwhoffman]

I have an old one that is more wall hanger than anything else that is pre-offset jaw, stake chain, 4 or 5 inch double spring, probly at least 50 years old. I would be willing to trade for something I could use. Just now getting into the "BP thing" and going the longhunter route.Have thought about making knives out of the springs. You can have first dibs on it!
FWIW,
Brett sr.

 

[crockett]

Check the classified ads of the major muzzleloading magazines. Carl P. Russell's book has more on old traps than you probably want to know. The basic difference is the square jaw but there are some other minor differences with today's style. I think some old HBC or French traps actually had round jaws. The thought occurred to me that you could just get some double long spring modern traps and maybe pull off the jaws and bend them square- this would save a bunch of money. This would only be worth it if you wanted a lot of traps, most guys only get one- just to hang in camp.

 

[mmahlock]

I hope I don't light a fire storm with this question but, If it a person's intent to present a persona of a trapper and given that the traps were the bread and butter of the trapper and ment the difference between success and failure. Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that the traps carried by a trapper in 18## would have been maintained in as pristine a conditiona as possible by the trapper and many of those that he had used for more than one season would be fitted with new or near new replacement parts? Given that spare trap parts and new traps were taken to the rendezvous by the traders.

 

[tg]

a well made trep could last quite a while and any repairs or replacements would undoubtedly be made, as for useing modern traps for props you have to go back to to about the turn of the century with Victors, Newhouse and a few others with some modifications to chain style have traps from the 1930's and later that are very close to the RMFT era type.Like many other articles there are many little things that seperatew the new from the old once you start looking closely.

 

[Blue Smoke]

If you have a metal detector.Go 5 miles West of Boonville,Mo.,North side of the Katy Trail.

You might find some Traps that are at least 110 years old. :grin:

Blue Smoke

 

[mmahlock]

True but my point was that if the point is to as accurately as possible portray a fur trapper the traps one would have would not be rusted and pitted but would be in as new a condition as possible given their extensive use and some would have some new parts representing repairs over time. :hatsoff:

 

[tg]

I am not certain how far back the practice of rusting and dying traps goes, this actually protects them from further damage, and after even one season a trap would show rust and pitting but not be at any risk of failure, a brace of shiney traps might be hard to find by the time they reached the Mountains even if it was their first season, the elements or owners choice would have made them look less than new,I collected traps for many years and have found 100 year old traps with slight rust and some with heavy rust and they all worked fine...same for 10 year old traps, I am certain that their equipment was kept in good working condition but with traps rust and pitting does not automaticaly make them otherwise.

 

[Blue Smoke]

Common practice to boil Traps,throw them in the grass,let them rust,boil Walnut hulls,put Traps in there,let the color,then melt some Beeswax in there,stir them around.Pull them out they are dyed and waxed.

Blue Smoke

 

[mmahlock]

Interesting :hmm: One of the reasons I asked the question was that when I was young I inherited a bunch of small "D" traps that were who knows how old. They were not rusty but were well worn. I had to canibalize several for parts and I maintained them for several years when I used them to trap rabits (with limited success I might add). As I said they were not rusted or pitted. They were black with age and typical stains found on carbon steel. I keept them in working order removing any new rust with with a wire brush and wiping them down with grease between use.

 

[dlemaster]

As a teenager in the mid to late 60s the only way I made money was to run a trap line in the winter and catch fish bait for the bait stores in summer.
All my new traps were cleaned to remove oil and then boiled in a concoction of Spruce needles and crushed Logwood or walnut hulls this gave the traps a dark brown or blackish color as well as descented them so I could make sets for mink and fox. The coloring seemed to really slow down rusting as well. At the end of the season I cleaned them up and lightly oiled them since they hung in an out building. The next fall I dipped them in a tub with gasolene to remove the oil and boiled them in the concoction to descent them again for the new season.
If you want more information on trap care get copies of "Fur, Fish,and Game" magazines they deal a lot with tapping and offer many excellent books on trapping and trap care
Hope this helps.

Regards, Dave

 

[crockett]

Well it has been a while since I ran a line but that is pretty much my recollection. First you boiled the traps to get rid of the grease on them from the factory, then you let them rust a bit because the rust better held the dye. You then dyed them and you cut in some beeswax which melts in boiling water and floats on top. You then slowly drw the traps out and they pick up a coat of wax to prevent further rusting. So goes the theory. Store them in a plastic bag with leaves, dirt, twigs, etc.

 

[mmahlock]

That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. I would doubt that a trapper in 18XX would have let his traps deteriorate to the condition that many if not all of the surviving traps from the period have achieved. I believe that their current condition is not representative of their working condition. I have this same question for a lot of equipment that is made and sold today as "period". Making something look "old" in my mind should not be a criteria for accepting it. People in 18XX or before would not have posessed equipment that looked 100+ years old. At least not in my mind. But then what do I know?

 

[tg]

I have some traps in my shop that were made in 1915 I got them in 1970 they were rusted/dyed, kinda cruddy lookin', they look the same now as they did when I got them. I re-dyed them and also waxed them if I was dirt trapping, in the 1800 there were no replacement parts they would be made to fit each trap as mass produced traps were yet to come, at time an order for replacement springs of a given dimension could be made, check your library for Richard Gerstells " The Steel Trap in North America" it is the source of info on this subject.

 

[tg]

"wiping them down with grease between use."

could have a lot to do with the lack of rabbit in the pot, most animals will shy from the smell of grease.. and the black color of the traps when you got them indicates they were rusted and dyed.

 

[dlemaster]

Sir Michael
I would think that most likely for those trappers their traps were tools so were subject to a certain amount of wear and tear under normal use. They wouldn't spend a lot of time keeping them pristine. They would, I'm sure, keep them functional and repaired but they still wear out so I doubt they doted much on them. Traps are used under some pretty harsh conitions so there is going to be some rust, you just clean them at the end of the season so you don't let them pit over the warm months. I still have more than 4 dozen traps from my trapping days and they are in as good a condition as they were 30 years ago.
As far as the condition of old traps today you will see 140 years of neglect or even abuse because they were considered tools, we see the same thing with firearms.
Just my .02 cents worth.

Regards, Dave

 

[crockett]

I think we also ought to define the time and location. I am pretty much focused on the Mountain Men- pre-1840. These guys only carried 6 traps and would pack them on their horse until they found a good spot to set them. I have never read of them boiling, etc the traps. Chances are, the beaver may have been uneducated about the danger of steel. I think they just set the trap in water and stuck a scent stick in the river bank. The presence of water may have hidden human scent.
I read some where that a couple of mountain men thought about gold mining but figured there was more money in beaver. The Rendezvous era only lasted about 15 years so there probably wasn't enough time for the trap to wear out regardless of care.