Boarding Beaver , nails or Staples
 

I use nails, but wondering about everyone's preference on this . I heard about using 9/16 Th staples being faster . What about the drying process , not like nails when you raise the pelt up for air to get underneath . If some of you are using staples how do you find the results on drying & does it speed up the boarding process which it seems to me it would . Cheers

I tried it. It was quick to board but when I took the beaver off I had to pry every staple out of the hide. I was using a staple gun with regulated pressure down to the o
Lowest pressure to run the stapler.
I also had 1 beaver I stapled on a well used board and the beaver when dried popped the staples.

So... I went back to good old fashioned nails.

If you find a better way please inform me...
Oh those expensive boards with the predrilled holes and horseshoe nails are slick. If I had the cash I didn't need it get some of those. Anyone had a negative experience with them?

Bill

Fly with the stapler, just use some kind of a spacer so staples stick out significant space. Pop staples out with a fur comb, either hook the staple “heads” with comb or slide under pelt to pop them off, then beat the pelt with the comb flat and the staples fall out. Odd one grab with plier.

Do not staple tight!

staples
 

wife used electric stapler and 9/16 staples was real quick to bang a beaver up , when dry popped staples with a screw driver with a bent tip finished pulling staples with pliers used a magnetic wand to gather staples up, did this for years[ key is to put up beaver with the fur dry]

IMO staples are a waste of time and expense. They go in twice as fast, but take twice as long to pull out. So time is a wash. The biggest downside to staples is that the pelt lays flat to the board. This makes the pelt take longer to dry, and it MUST be 100 % dry when you board, or you will have issues and possible slippage. Another advantage to nails is that you can manipulate the pelt when boarding, you cant do that when stapling.

Spruce

I agree with The Spruce",nails are much better. IMO box nails being the best as they are thinner than most nails and have heads on them thus being much easier to hammer in and remove than most other nails.

Beaver boards
 

If fur is not dry or if using staples and can not lift hide off board, try having center cut out of the board. Hole just smaller than small beaver.

You will still get rot/possible slippage on the ears, and leg fold overs (unless you are sewing).

Spruce

I prefer the "beaver nails" that Halfords sells. They have no groove, so they are easy to pull out, and have a large head on them for nailing. I have boarded hundreds of beavers, and they seldom bend.

Spruce

They are box nails, Halfords just labels them as "beaver nails" for sale purposes.

Makes sense, We are on the page then as always : )

Spruce

Lift pelt to the head of the nail and you're done. Won't rust but will bend if you don't hammer them straight.

https://www.homehardware.ca/en/170-p...ails/p/2145039