He moved to Florida, and yes I think he passed around last Christmas. If that's not accurate, call him and tell him he croaked. I'm sure he'd get a chuckle from that!

At one time HBC had (17) different wild mink sections in North America for wild mink. That was a pretty fine line of grading.

And there was a need for many grades of wild mink so that pelts could be sold that were similar enough to make garments. With ranch mink, with millions nearly identical the need to be able to grade as closely was not neccessary.

Bryce

It is one reason why a well designed wild mink garment is so much more costly and valuable than a ranch mink garment.
It takes a lot of skill for a top fur designer to match the wild skins in a way that makes the wild mink garment so unique-basically one of a kind.
Ontario alone has 6 different distinct sections of mink.

Ontario alone has 6 different distinct sections of mink.

Won't doubt you ,.but would like to see a breakdown on that.
I am well aware when demand is good, section / grades relax.
There was a time when any mink felt good,..now we have six distinctions accepting our approval?

I got $165US for my first taxi skinned wolf. Gotta start somewhere. Also learned that the Mb wolves in my area aren’t the most desired out there.

Here are the different sections of mink in Ontario and the differences in pelt character that distinguish them.

Interesting stuff Boco.

Yea takes an extremely high level of skill for a designer to work with wild mink
Needs a good eye for matching skins
Wild mink also one of the most difficult to grade and sort properly.

One critical line in that statement should not be over-looked

When Italy got religion in the late 80s the wild mink market crashed and never recovered.
Wild mink used to be special.

Actually it was the Chinese sweatshops churning out cheap ranch mink coats by the thousands that killed the master designed wild mink industry in Italy.

An old fur buyer told me the master furriers had an eye for matching wild mink for coats. That art is all but gone.

I’d bet very few if any mink go to Italy anymore. The mom and pop garment makers are probably long gone.

Even skunks have had a day in the sun since the boom. Mink on a rare good year would only bring half boom prices.

The Italians were buying mink at the last sale.
Lots of the master furriers in Italy also like to work with Fisher.
Similar for a master designer when it comes to matching of skins to turn out a unique garment.
Male fishers used almost exclusively for trim until Master Scarpi developed a method of cutting and dropping fisher skins where he could incorporate both male and female skins in the same garment.This method created a stunning look
Hope the Italians start buying fisher again.

Be interesting to know how much that business has shrunk. I heard the expert wild mink furriers had all but disappeared in talking to fur buyers More likely I suppose with the market like it’s been they had to retire or find something else to do.

China's pushing the fisher and marten market from what ive read from the last FH sale.

That's right, when Hermann went to China and watched the Chinese pouring all those sectioned, finely graded wild mink into the same giant soaking vat without regard to any kind of similarity he came back to Toronto and said "we're not going to spend the time to grade these mink like we've been doing any longer". I believe that was ultimately a mistake. The Italians, and Spanish bailed out of the wild mink market and they became a cheap alternative to ranch mink. I've said this many times that fine wild fur should be marketed and sold as something very special, not a cheap substitute for ranch fur like the Chinese market made it. Ask any fur buyer today what the Asians are looking for in wild fur and they'll tell you they want CHEAP! Good quality fully prime well handled wild fur should be priced as something special, and early caught, shot and poorly handled wild fur should be sold cheap. Just like selling green fur today, it's cheaper than prime well handled wild fur, and should be. The really expert fine craftsmanship in making a well graded wild fur garment has to come back to see $400 Fisher and $125 wild mink again. Maybe Sables will shine soon like in 2013.

Agree^^^