Cat collector
Same thing here on basswood. A lot of Amish mills and no one wants the basswood boards . lol. One problem to be aware of. If the trees get too big they hollow out in the middle. Better to cut no more than 24” at base.

I thought this thread was about a guy asking where to buy fur stretchers? Not a thread on which one of you has the biggest fur stretcher

On that note, he does not need the biggest for his area, other than coyote.
FHA pattern numbers work real well here.
I've tried many others and that's my take.

Yep, true that! lots of hollow, crooked and knotted when it's free be selective nice clean straight logs is what you want! and cut preferably w/ a saw not a shear, shear will crack the ends. If sheared best to chainsaw the first foot or so off cuz that wood is stressed and likely to creep forward when drying... another thing I did on the bottom end of the finished stretcher was a bead of zero shrink construct adhesive to help with over time checking

I have made all of mine, but there is a guy in Maine that makes a pile of boards. Go to a mill and have them saw out what you need and make your own. I like to do the whole deal myself if I can.

Mighty nice offer Wright, good advice too.

I agree.

NAFA boards are too wide in the shoulder for my red fox.

I’m pretty happy with the ones from that guy in Colorado. Otis Latham, I believe is his name.

I had a select cut done on a property I own in north-central PA. The logger dropped a linden (basswood) that was in the way of a maple he wanted to drop. I sawed it up into seven-foot lengths and hauled it to a local sawyer.

I got a bunch of rough-cut 1X boards stickered in the wood shed for the last two or three years. I'm gonna start making stretchers soon. My current ones are pine because that's what I had readily available at the time. They work okay but some of them are a little hard to get push pins into.

Looking forward to working with new basswood boards.

If you are making your own boards,white cedar is the superior wood.In the west-western red cedar.
They take a pin nice,and never rot,bug resistant last forever.
I tried those soft bass wood-poor choice compared to the cedar.They take up moisture and some warp after a while.

A lot of that depends on how and where it is grown.
I dropped, sawed, dried and shaped cedar for my interior trim.
I'll stay with local grown linden for my stretchers.

I have some that are part pine. Same as above, and, there are many sub-species of "pine".
I use a brad gun for tacking those, it is fast and easier on my hands.

Have dried a lot of rats on old school paneling.

The key to this forum is to ask "How to make stretchers" and everyone will tell you where to buy them!

I made my current ones out of eastern white pine. I bought 1 x 12 S1S (only planed on one side) back when it was pretty cheap and you could get some decent quality boards with few knots. My local lumber yards would let me pick through them because i was a high-volume customer (builder).

Most of them take pins easily but a few seem to have got harder over the years. I know which ones they are and don't use them unless I have to.

I did notice a lot of the stickered 1X basswood boards have cupped. That's okay, they should be where they want to be by now. Some runs through the jointer to get them flat and they should stay that way.

I've never worked with basswood before but it is my understanding that it has high initial shrinkage but is stable after it has been dried. I know white pine is stable, no warping at all after about twenty years of use.

Bought all mine from Top Lot stretcher

here I thought I would get a vacation for this joke for sure and nobody even caught it lol