RARE/COLLECTIBLE TRAPS

Believe it or not, there are some traps that are rare and collectible. In here I will include a little on two groups of these traps. One of these groups were called NEWHOUSE traps, and there were said to be the best traps in the world.They were made by a man named Sewell Newhouse who was born into the trade of blacksmithing in 1806. He forged his first trap when he was about 17 years old, and made them from then on. He would make them and sell them to the Indians he grew up with.  Pretty soon, they became famous for quality, and people would come from all over to get his famous traps. In 1805, after many years of making traps by hand, he started manufacturing them. They came in 25 different sizes, from gopher traps, to a bear trap weighing 42 pounds! The prices paid for these traps differ greatly, from $30, to $3,000.

The other group of traps was made by a man named Walter .A. Gibbs. He was a very inventive man, patenting over 16 different traps, most for muskrat. In 1913, he bought a marsh in Maryland for a duck hunting place, but he found that there were many muskrats in it, so he invented his own trap. It was called the Gibbs Two Trigger, and it had a kill bar that fired after the trap sprung, keeping the 'rat from twisting out. This was the first coil spring trap ever produced. He also produced a hawk trap, a "dope" trap (which when set off would bring a little capsule of poison for the animal to chew on), a "single grip" trap (which was a coilspring trap), and a "armadillo" style trap, which was like a cage trap that had a trap in side it. when the trap was tripped, the cage would close, then the trap would let go, and you could let the muskrat go elsewhere. The two trigger traps are worth from $20, to $250, the "dope" trap is worth $850 to $2500, the single grip traps are worth $10 to $90, and the "armadillo" style traps are worth about $2,000.    

If you like collecting, and you like traps, then you would like trap collecting. If you want to be a trap collector, then I would say do 2 things: get The Trap Collectors Guide by Tom Parr and Blaise Andreski, and become a member of the North American Trap Collectors Association (N.A.T.C.A). It is $25 a year, and you get great benefits, like a 1 year subscription to TRAPS, the current patch, and other great stuff.

Also, if you have any questions, then please contact me at: furtrader101@outlook.com.

Here are some other collectible trap brand names (and pics).

                  

triumph #1 -  3 jaw 

            

diamond 21

                   

Blake and lamb #2 wl teeth

Hawley and Norton

victor JUMP

Gibbs

Blake and lamb

Newhouse 

triumph

diamond (should have a diamond in the pan)

Sargent

Cooper

Kangaroo

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Thanks, Caleb