new 65 year old trapper here to learn I appreciate and need your knowledge TIA
prep-treat shiny new traps or let em rust 1st?
fmj and then wax?
or just fmj or just wax?
rustolem -acetone?
or whats your Favorite way to treat WOLF TRAPS I hear smell is VERY important trapping wolves

If you are going to be trapping in snow I would paint or powder coat them white. You can always set white traps in the dirt, you're going to be covering them anyways. But if you are going to strictly trap dirt I would dye and wax. Brand new traps if I wasn't going to paint/powder coat them I would simply degrease and wax them. I used full metal jacket the first year they opened a season here, it was fast and easy on new traps, but I prefer traditional wax, I think it provides a better coating and speeds a trap up more.

I'm not a huge fan of intentionally rusting traps. Like mentioned above, I would decrease, then FMJ. I haven't bought new traps in awhile, but the last time I did buy a bunch of traps, I decreased and used FMJ the first season, and after the first season I dyed the traps. The dye took well on any place the FMJ wore off and after a few seasons of dying, the traps darkened up a lot and I never had to worry about intentionally rusting my traps. When I do buy a couple new traps (normally just to feed my addiction of trying new traps), I just degrease and dye. The first season the traps don't take much dye at all, but even though the trap doesn't looked dyed, it still goes through the chemical change in the metal which prevents must rust at all. I just make sure I dye those traps again right at the end of the season so the traps don't build up rust during the off-season.

Trap dye, paint, dip, and FMJ aren't used for scent control and I know a lot will argue with this comment. Anything you do will add scent to the trap. They are used to prevent your trap from rusting. Paint, dip, and fmj coat the trap to prevent the metal from being exposed to oxygen (which causes rust), and dye chemically reacts with the metal to prevent rusting.

I couldn’t agree more ^^^^^^^^^^^^ !

You would not rust your new truck before treating the metal .

my only concern with fmj was is the odor detection by canines -so degrease and dye will protect traps ? do I wax also after dye or just dye .and what type of dye ? thank for the info

I like to wax after dye, it helps protect the traps from rust a lot, and it really speeds up the traps, makes them fire smooth and fast. But it is not strictly necessary, you can run them without it.

Dye is your choice, I use alder bark. Walnut hulls and a lot of other natural stuff also work. Logwood dye works well if you just want to buy something and use, leaves a powdery looking finish that I don't care for as much, but works fine. I don't care for the dips, like Speed Dip that you mix with gas, but some really like them. If not done right they come out sticky (I've some used traps I bought that had that on them, took years to wear the sticky off). Also they need aired for quite a while to dissipate all the odors. Big advantage of natural dyes like alder bark, or logwood is the traps are ready to set when you pull them out of the pot, you can pull dirty traps in the morning, boil them in it in the evening and set them the next morning.

alder bark -would small saplings cut up work ? or do I need to find a dead tree and peel it ? thanks for your knowledge bearcat2

Yes small saplings will work, or limbs chopped up. I use a draw knife and peel the bark. You can use chopped up limbs, etc. (I believe this is what Boco uses) but most of the "dye" is in the bark so there is a lot of filler when using limbs. You don't need near as much volume of bark as you do limbs. I always peel green bark, much easier to peel than dead. When I lived around where actual alder trees grew I peel some off the base of a tree, then usually cut the tree for firewood, or just go to a logging job and peel some off a fresh log in their coal deck. Now I usually just cut a few tag alders, whack the limbs off and bring the trunks home and peel them straight into my barrel. Two or three minutes with a draw knife and I have enough bark to do all my traps for the year.

thanks