Fur

M O N T H LY N E W S L E T T E R

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FUR By: Seth Spack, Dane Roken and Becca Miles

Fur is a body hair of any non-human mammal, also known as the pelage. I n f or m a t i o n o n fu r

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c i s a B r Fu Sources of Fur

Animal sources for fur clothing and fur trimmed accessories include fox, rabbit, mink, beaver, stoat, otter, sable, seals, cats, dogs, coyotes, and chinchilla.

Harvesting Fur To harvest fur you can trap an animal using box traps, or you can hunt an animal and kill it to shave of the fur. Sheep for example you do not kill it to get the fur, instead they just shave them or cut down their fur at least twice a year.

Processing Fur Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing, thought widely used as hominids first expanded outside of Africa. The exact date when fur was first used in clothing is debated.

Fur clothing of some form is worn in virtually every country. Furs are especially popular in colder countries due to their excellent properties of insulation. Fur also forms a part of traditional Russian, Scandinavian, and Japanese clothing.

Fur is found on the bodies of animals. The popular animals are fox, coyotes, and rabbit. Fur is basically all over the world. Where you can find an animal with fur, is where you can find fur.

In Canada they use mink fur to use for heavier coats. In China they use Acrylic fabric with small fur, used for making auto upholstery, apparel, and home textiles. In Japan they use siberia fur to use in paintbrushes.

Pelts bought at fur auctions must be cleaned and made flexible by a process called dressing. First, the pelts are softened in a salt solution that removes all excess tissue and grease. Next, the processors apply a special grease to the leather and put the skins into a machine called a kicker. The kicker has wooden feet that pound the grease into every pore of the skin. The pelts are then placed in revolving drums, where they are cleaned and dried with special sawdust and compressed air. Later, the processors may pluck out the long guard hairs, leaving only the thick fur fibers. The fur may also be sheared shorter to give it a plush effect.