Poor
Man's Mink
Article from Mar
- Apr 2002 Buckeye Trapper
by Jack
Hatfield
In the fur trade, muskrats have always been known as the poor
man's mink. That simply means those who can't afford to buy an
expensive mink coat can often afford to buy a cheaper muskrat
coat. When you figure the average price paid for raw mink pelts
is several times what it is for muskrats, it's easy to see why
mink coats cost more than muskrat.
I'm one trapper/ex-fur trader, who likes muskrat garments better
than mink garments. I have vests made from coyote, otter, and
muskrats. My favorite is the muskrat. They are prettier, sorter,
and silkier than the others. Unfortunately, mink has a rich reputation,
which has made it a status symbol with fur garment lovers. I believe
muskrat fur is much nicer, but many fur people don't share my
view. You have a contrast in most muskrat furs that mink pelts
don't have. I used that contrast of the light belly fur and darker
back fur to create a beautiful vest. I told the furrier what I
wanted, provided the muskrats, and he made it. I could never have
made such a vest from mink.
The muskrat market has never been as unstable in the past as
it now is. Why? Because there's no individual fur company, brokerage
house, or individual who now buys most of the world's muskrat
fur. For years and years, an individual in New York City, who
owned a big brokerage house, bought most of the world's muskrats.
He more or less set the prices they'd bring every season. As a
result, muskrat prices were usually the most stable on the fur
market. He died several years ago, his accounts were all sold,
and the muskrat market hasn't been the same.
I once rode a commuter plane from North Bay to Toronto, Canada
with that old gentleman. We sat together and chatted about the
fur industry the entire flight. He was 80 years old and had a
wealth of knowledge about the fur industry. He told me muskrats
could command a top price of $5 per pelt before the price of the
fur garment fell into, or close to, the same category, as a mink
garment. That meant the higher over $5. Muskrats sold for, the
harder the garments made from them became to sell. He told me
the biggest trouble the muskrat market ever got into was when
the raw pelts sold for over $8. When furriers saw they couldn't
move those high dollar coats, the price dropped close to the $5
range the following season. A lot of muskrat buyers, furriers,
and speculators really got hurt with the huge price transition.
I know one buyer, who took the biggest single loss in the fur
business I've ever seen, on 35,000 muskrats.
When an average customer is offered a mink coat or a muskrat
coat for comparable prices, there's no contest. The mink coat
is the automatic winner. Consequently, to sell consistently, muskrat
garments must be much cheaper than mink garments.
Few fur customers know much about fur quality. Even worse, fewer
don't care. They shop fur name and price. That's not always a
bright thing to do. Why? Most mink garments are made from ranched
mink. Like the proverbial "little girl", when mink are
good, they're very, very good. But, when they are bad, they're
often junk. A mink garment is only as good as the quality of fur
that goes into it. Most mink are butchered whenever they are at
their peak primeness period. Consequently, their fur quality is
A-one. But, there are an awful lot of ranch mink that die, or
are killed, before and after, their peak primeness period. Garments
are still made from them and sold at reduced prices. Their buyers
are those shopping price and not knowing much about fur quality.
You truly do get what you pay for when you but a cheap mink coat.
That's why it's not always wise to choose mink over muskrat, simply
because of its superior reputation. Today, more than any other
time in the history of the fur business, there are far more cheap
mink coats on the market than there are expensive ones, Caveat
Emptor. Buyer Beware.
There's a Korean furrier that specializes in making cheap ranch
fox and mink coats. They're cheap because they use cheap off grade
pelts. They mass produce the garments and export most to the United
States. Ironically, their federal laws don't allow them, to use
any American raw, wild fur. They use Scandinavian ranch fur. How's
that for free trade between the U.S. and Korea? That situation
has existed for many years but no American politician has ever
cared enough to do anything about it. Sadly, no thanks to our
politicians, the American Fur Trade is one of the few businesses
that enjoys favorable balance of trade. We export far more fur,
and fur products, than we import. It could be even higher if our
politicians would do something about the Korean fiasco. America
has always been a fur-producing nation. We've never been known
as a fur-consuming nation because we produce far more than we
use. Our culture is responsible for that.
Louisiana leads our nation annually in the production of muskrat
pelts. They're very flat furred muskrats and used mostly for lining
coasts. They make an excellent coat liner because they're so warm.
Recent fur technology has allowed furriers to make felt-like sheets
or plates from sewing muskrat pelts together. They're dyed in
different colors and hard to recognize as fur. Since all the guard
hair is removed, it doesn't matter how flat the pelt is. It only
needs underfur.
There's as much a difference in southern and northern muskrats
as there is in night and day. And the farther apart they get in
those two climates, the more extreme those differences become.
The flat muskrats of the deep south are very heavy leathered and
have thin fur. The muskrats in Alaska and other northern extremes
are extremely thin leathered, but have thick, silky guard hair
and underfur. They seem to become dehydrated because of the extremely
cold temperatures and have zero body fat. Some are so thin leathered
you can hold them to the light and see through them.
The best over-all quality muskrats in America come from the
Finger Lakes Region of New York State. They are big, they are
super-furred, and they are beautiful. They are the closest thing
to a perfect muskrat that America produces. Their prices are always
fifty per cent more, or better, than most standard muskrats. They
can be sheared, because of their beautiful, heavy underfur, or
used natural because of their long, silky guard hair. Their large
sizes make them go far in making a garment.
Muskrat size, and fur quality, is usually controlled by the
climate where they are found, and the amount of food available.
Western muskrats demonstrate this very well. Climate seems to
take a back seat to food source with western muskrats. They're
generally poor to mediocre quality furs. They don't normally grow
large or have heavy fur, despite harsh winter, because there's
rarely an abundance of food available for them. Being iced under
most of the winter only seems to make their fur worse, because
they have to survive on a minimum of food. Western muskrats are
in a separate class on the fur market and worth less than northern
and eastern muskrats, but more than southern.
Food is a very important factor in muskrat fur size and quality,
no matter where they are. Marsh rats, where there's plenty of
food, like cattails and roots, are almost always large and have
good fur. Pond or lake rats will be the same as long as there's
plenty of food. Take away that food supply and make them live
off a minimum of vegetation, and they become small and have poor
fur. I've seen many, many examples of that. Golf course ponds
or lakes, where there are only grass roots for food, will produce
small, poorly furred muskrats annually. Strip pond muskrats, where
there's not much food, may grow gig, but they're almost always
poorly furred. They'll eat whatever is available, and more often
than not, that's not much. A lot of flat muskrats come from strip
mine pits because they don't get enough nutrition to produce good
fur. A muskrat must get ample protein to produce both fur and
growth.
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