Warmest fur?

[Jesse]

Looking to head to northern Canada for some time.  And I want to invest in some fur gauntlet style mittens.  Is any one type of fur significantly warmer than the others?

[furlvman1]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say otter fur is the warmest with something like a million hairs per square inch. River Otter is by far,  the easiest to obtain. It is very soft when sheared & plucked and unlike beaver or nutria, wears like iron. With Sea Otter being endangered, finished products only are allowed and must come from a native source. Remember, unlike seals, otters have little fat to keep the warm, their coats must do that for them.

[LeComte]

If you are looking for mittens, you should also consider durability of the fur. Otter is good in this sense, but as mentioned difficult to obtain. Mink is another good choice, as is beaver (both not sheared, sheared fur is less durable). Another issue is the question of water/snow. Again otter, beaver and mink (all not sheared again) are good. Mink is albeit less warm, I don't know about beaver. 

[AH7]

On 1/20/2022 at 4:56 AM, Jesse said:

Looking to head to northern Canada for some time.  And I want to invest in some fur gauntlet style mittens.  Is any one type of fur significantly warmer than the others?

Brown longhaired beaver   with mouton liners and deerskin or moosehide palms is my first choice. My second choice is land otter with mouton liners and deerskin palms. 

[AH7]

On 1/22/2022 at 8:49 AM, furlvman1 said:

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say otter fur is the warmest with something like a million hairs per square inch. River Otter is by far,  the easiest to obtain. It is very soft when sheared & plucked and unlike beaver or nutria, wears like iron. With Sea Otter being endangered, finished products only are allowed and must come from a native source. Remember, unlike seals, otters have little fat to keep the warm, their coats must do that for them.

I prefer plucked and sheared land otter over natural land otter.

[Pearl]

On 5/7/2022 at 6:31 PM, AH7 said:

Brown longhaired beaver   with mouton liners and deerskin or moosehide palms is my first choice. My second choice is land otter with mouton liners and deerskin palms. 

I absolutely agree! I was in Churchill, Manitoba in February and purchased fur gauntlets from a Métis handcrafter. Mine are beaver outside with shearling inside and the palm side of the mitts are  moosehide suede. They were very warm in the -40 degree temps. A friend got beautiful ringed sealskin mitts with coyote cuffs, fleece inside and leather palms but I cannot take seal back to US as marine mammal fur is forbidden. Natives to the arctic region know best how to stay warm. 

[AH7]

On 5/9/2022 at 2:28 PM, Pearl said:

I absolutely agree! I was in Churchill, Manitoba in February and purchased fur gauntlets from a Métis handcrafter. Mine are beaver outside with shearling inside and the palm side of the mitts are  moosehide suede. They were very warm in the -40 degree temps. A friend got beautiful ringed sealskin mitts with coyote cuffs, fleece inside and leather palms but I cannot take seal back to US as marine mammal fur is forbidden. Natives to the arctic region know best how to stay warm. 

Yeah. Sealskin can't be imported into the states . Same with  sea otter. Both can only be caught by Alaska Natives. Northern Natives in general know how to  stay warm. If it's above 60 degrees latitude, they know how to stay warm. 

 

[AH7]

On 5/7/2022 at 2:36 PM, AH7 said:

I prefer plucked and sheared land otter over natural land otter.

Exactly . Seals  (both nacaqs and ugruks/maklaks) have blubber. Sea otter doesn't. That's why some Native people use them as mitts liners for their sealskin and beaver mitts.