Anyone ever used cypress boards to make stretchers? Took a look at sample boards for coon, grey fox , cat & otter today a cousin made. Using an electric stapler, these should be work good and made for less than half the price of purchasing basswood stretchers.

I use them. They work great. I have coon boards and fox boards made from them. The eletric stapler makes it much easier. I wish I had 100 of them.

M. Howard,
We got a small family-owned saw mill near here that specializes in cypress. $9.00 for an 8 foot board wide enough to make four 48" coon boards ripped 3/8" thick. Sanded the faces and rounded the edges. Makes a good looking board. That's about $2.25 per coon board plus a little elbow grease with the jig saw and electric sander.

I would think cypress would make fine stretchers.

a freind of mine made me some for coon. i love them! he made me a couple out of poplar and they are a booger to get a staple into and out of! the cypress really held up good for me last season with no warping or splitting. i hope to get me a dozen more this season.

Does the cypress stay soft over time?

Clay,

That is what I'm wondering. As cypress dries completely it does have a tendacy to harden somewhat. Still should be OK though using an elctric stapler instead of push pins.

I got mine for free out of the bone pile from a local saw mill. They were suppose to have been cut 3/4" and were miss cut to 9/10". The fastest way I have found to make the boards is with a shaper and router. Get a good pattern board and drill pilot holes in it. Then screw the cypress to the pattern board and run through the shaper. It makes them just like the pattern, then I take a rounding bit router and run down both sides top and bottom. I have made a good number of boards this way. The problem I have had with the 3/8" boards is warpping. They will warp where the 1/2-9/16" want. If they were to split in time, I take a two 1/2"x1"x7" board and nail the base of the board. This stops the splitting.

Also, I have not found that the cypress gets hard over time.

I agree about the 3/8" thick boards. I also think that a coon when he comes off a 1/2" thick board has a "fuller" appearance. Maybe it's just in my mind. It's hard to believe that 1/8" will make a difference. !/2" boards are certainly a lot tougher.
I have zero experience with cypress!! I do have some cottonwood otter boards that have gotten very hard over the years.

I agree 100% Clay. I think coons and fox look way fuller coming off 1/2" boards. When coming off the 3/8" boards, I feel the edges are sharp and thin looking.

Catalpha also works great.

Never heard of using catalpha before. We have them in Missouri. Do they stay soft over time?

There isn't much of those "fancy" kinds of wood up here.

I've used regular 1 x 4 PINE, straight from the lumber yard for a lot of mine and they work just fine.

I would like to try some locally-cut Basswood but finding a sawmill around this farming country is something else again.

i have some cypress coon, coyote, cat and fox boards, and really like em.

I have some boards I made out of catalpha about 3 years ago. They are just about as soft as basswood. I can push a push pin in it real easy.

One thing is for sure, putting fur on wood boards is catching on. I've been to a good many NTA Conventions, the last 8 in a row included, and I've never seen so many board stretchers being displayed by vendors and tailgaters alike.

There are some good ones and some not so good. I saw some boards that were perfect size, but the edges were beveled down to a almost a 1/4" on the edges. The guy explained that you get a little more length out of them. My poor coons down here need all the thickness to look full. I love rounded edges at least 1/2" thick.