Remounting A European Wolf

Recently I received into my shop a European Wolf that had been mounted as a rug mount.  We rarely take in Wolves from Russia.  This is only the fifth European Wolf that has came to my shop in the past 37 years.  This wolf here is a little different.  It was already mounted in the Ukraine.  The tanning was done very well, but the taxidermist struggled in the mounting process.  From what I could see, they are most likely limited to the taxidermy supplies available in Ukraine.  I found it very interesting to see the way this wolf mannikin was constructed.  They had used the original skull as the base and began modeling foam around it.   If this taxidermist had good quality supplies available, I believe he could have put together an outstanding mount.  This was not the case, and the client decided that we needed to take it apart and start over.  I will walk though the steps taken to remount this European Wolf.  

 Looking from the bottom, you can see the jaw embedded in the foam.  I began by using a wet sponge to lightly dampen the skin around the head area.  I was not sure if the tanned skin would hold up to being wet and pulled on.  To my surprise the skin was in good shape and the glue began to release as I removed the skin from the mannikin. 

I started on the lower jaw first.  I gently separated the skin from the jaw bone.  The skin had been glue to the foam which was molded to the jaw bone. 

 With the skin on the bottom jaw freed, I began focusing on the nose area.  I wanted to reduce any damage to the nose that could come from separating the parts.  The florescent pink material that is seen was a rubber compound used to fill in the mouth area and give it its color.  This material came off very easy.  

This is where it got very interesting.  In this photo, I have pulled the skin back past the ear canal but just short of the eyes.  The lighter color material that is there is silicone.  He used this to fill in any voids in the foam.  Silicone was also used to embed the ear butts into.

 Here is a better photo of the silicone used.  It made the transition from the foam to the skull smooth and complete.  The eyes were molded back in place using clay.  They were set in the eye socket just like the real eye.

The two pieces of tin were cut out to form earliners.  They had came from some empty can that was in the shop at the time.  The writing on the back was in Russian and it looked as if the can may have contained some kind of solvent.  There were two holes in each earliner.  These holes had a loop of wire that secured the skin to the earliner.  No glue was used, the skin just took the shape of the pieces of tin.

Here I have removed the skin and fleshed all the glue, foam and silicone that had been adhered.  Using some earliner material, I traced out the shape and began fitting the liner back in the ear.

I had to alter the form for size.  Once that was done, I dug out a void for the ear butts to fit down into.  This is how I keep the ears from appearing to tall and long.  Most Loins, Leopards, and Bobcats are finished with ears that are protruding to far out from the head.  This is the first mistake on most cat mounts.  Some people will remark on how the eyeset gives the cat a poor look.  This is true, but I have found that the ear butt placement is were it goes wrong.  

I always card my ears to give them a smooth, sleek appearance.  Here the Wolf is pinned and set aside to let dry.  

I have jumped ahead here. I have finished the mouth detail and border around the Wolf once I finished stretching the skin.

Here is a close up of the mouth showing some paint detail.

There is a great change from when I first began.  Always remember, having a fresh skin to start with makes the job much easier.  When a Taxidermist begins taken a mounted animal apart, he is playing with fire.  To start off with, there is always less profit when remounting any trophy.  I am not being paid for the tear down time, nor all the extra time needed to fix problems and rehab the skin.  There is a good chance of losing the skin and having nothing.  Most Taxidermist do these jobs for the challenge.   

Here is the finished rug. 

Watch for more tutorials and videos coming soon here at Dick's Taxidermy.

Altering the Blacktail Cross

 In this tutorial I will be mounting a Blacktail/Mule deer cross.  This subspecies of deer is found in the lower elevation of the California Sierras.  These deer take a substantial amount of alteration so skins can fit correctly.  There is not a form made for a Blacktail cross.   I will be pointing out the difference between a Museum quality mount and a Show quality mount.  In this photo I am removing the ear cartilage and replacing it with a custom hand made earliner.  This is where most taxidermist/hobbyist can save time by just filling the ear with bondo. Bondo ears end up thick and have no detail qualities to them.  Bondo is a fast, cheap alternative.            

 I believe we have all seen those YouTube videos where the eye sockets are no longer on the skull because the person doing the mount has removed that portion of the skull.  I have mentioned before about how important this part of the skull is.  Without these measurements, altering the mannikin becomes impossible.  Most taxidermist/hobbyist do not plan on altering anything.  This deer here has two specific issues that need to be addressed.  First, this deer is 3 1/2 years old.  The form that would normally be ordered, would be sculpted from a mature deer in the 5 1/2 - 6 1/2 year old class.  Head width and head depth will need to be altered for a perfect fit.  This is another place where the taxidermist/hobbyist can just stretch it to fit.  They will save time not altering the mannikin.  The mount will have a bug-eyed look that is unrealistic and unacceptable.  This skull is 4 7/8 inches wide.  The mannikin is 5 3/8 inches wide.  This also means that the head depth is also to deep.  We need to alter for size.    

 Here I have measured across the skull and found the width measurement.  The head width here is to wide and needs to be reduced in width.  

Here this photo shows that the neck is 2 inches to big.  I will be removing the head from the mannikin and then removing the neck portion from the shoulders. 

Looking closer, I have taken the measurements where the reduction will take place.  Once the head and neck are removed, I will be able to reduce to the size needed.

This photo here shows the reduction I will be making.  There is a formula for the resizing of this head.  It must be kept proportional to the species I am working on.  The depth of the head is figured in this manner. 1/2 of A-B plus 1/2 inch.  In other world, if eye to nose is 7 inches, half is 3 1/2 plus 1/2 inch.  The head depth of this deer with a 7inch eye to nose measurement would be 4 inches from the bottom of the eye socket to the bottom of the jaw line.  This head was 4/8 of an inch to wide, and the head depth was 5/8 of an inch to deep.  That does not sound like much.  In reality, this makes the circumference 2 1/4 inches to big around. That is more than 10%.  The finished head circumference is less than 17 1/2 inches.  That is why most deer look bug-eyed.   

 

Here the pieces are separated and ready for sizing.  We talked about the difference between a museum quality and show quality mount.  It is the amount of time and detail put into the mount.  Our museum mount is a $600.00 piece.  I do not alter those mounts.  I get a form that is close, and go with it.  There is no money or time to detail those heads.  Our show quality mount is $850.00 and each piece will be altered to perfection.  Remember,  not every taxidermy/hobbyist could even create a show quality mount.  Generally, those taxidermy/hobbyist are in the $500.00 range.  

See here the head is split.  I will then split the neck and start reducing it's size.

Here I have screwed the mannikin back together and I also have a chance the reattach the head at the angle that I will need it to be.  I will test fit the skin at this point and make any necessary adjustments.

Just quickly pinning the skin in place, it now look like the fit is getting closer.

I am reattaching the head, and still finding some spots will need more attention.

I will be using the top portion of the skull.  The top portion of the mannikin has been removed so that I can place the skull in that area.  I do not  use the two or three finger method of placing the skull on the mannikin.  The first time I heard about this method,  I was reading on a taxidermy forum.  This is a very poor way to set a skull and the outcome is even worst.  The industry has spent large amounts of money promoting quick set eyes and other fast get it done methods.  They want the skull butted up against the back of the form.  They do not take into consideration the age of a deer, nor the genetics.     

Here is where the face begins to take on the narrow look that most all deer have.  They have this look because of the proportion and symmetry.  Symmetry is the balance of form and proportion.  Without this, there is no profit..

Earliners are made and ready to install once all the alteration is complete.

This is an early season deer taken here in the bow season.  These deer are thin haired and need to be handled very gently.  My stitches are less than 1/8 inch apart.  I also glue down the skin/stitch with epoxy.  Once glued and taxied in to position, when the epoxy dries the seem will never come open.  Once again as in all my tutorials;  These steps can be over looked to save money and time.  To you hunters;  most of the time they are over looked, and you saved money.

This deer will now go though a drying stage, and then the detail will begin.  I hope that this tutorial has shed some light on how important it is to learn the art of alteration.  Once the art of alteration and symmetry is learned, the trophies will begin to look life like.  Watch for our classes in 2013.  We have been invited to do three seminars on the east coast this year.  There will be one in Wisconsin, Virgina, and Atlanta Georgia.  Watch for dates and times. These seminars will be videoed and be here on our website.

CWD and your Trophies

Prices........Food for Thought

Below is a letter I recently received from Shawn Joyce of Diizche Safari Adventures. I want to share this with my clients because it is written from a client’s perspective and touches on a very important topic. I believe it will be of interest to both my new and established clients.

 

Food for Thought

Today I was thinking about the joy I receive everyday when I view the mounted game in my home. To me each mount is a piece of art that captures the essence of a beautiful trophy that I have hunted. Through this art form the memories that surrounded the hunt are recalled and conveyed. For those who visit my home, they appreciate and enjoy the beauty of the animals. Visitors always want to learn more about the hunts, conservation through hunting, how the meat was utilized, and more often than not how the animal tasted. 

    

While reflecting on the enjoyment of my mounts I thought about the way my mounts were professionally prepared with the highest attention to detail. When I began building a trophy room to enjoy I did not at first find a taxidermist with whom I wanted to have a lifetime relationship. You see my first mount was a black bear. I went to a local guy that assured me I would get a great mount. What I received was a great mount with “his” level of skills and not what I have now come to know as a great mount.

After that experience I learned that you can’t take the word of well meaning friends and sportsman you meet about great taxidermy work. For many, the definition of a great mount is defined by how little they had to pay for it and not necessarily the quality of work. You have to educate yourself and learn what goes into making a great mount. You should visit professional taxidermist shops, look at their work, and ask questions. Another part of this process is to understand that you will get what you pay for. When you find a skilled professional taxidermist their time and labor equals money. The ingredients for creating the mount are the small part of the total cost equation.

The pricing of mounts can be misleading if you do not consider this aspect. For example, consider a typical deer shoulder mount where the price can vary from $500.00 to $850.00.  The question to ask is, why the difference in price.  The tasks involved when mounting a deer shoulder mount can be as detailed as the taxidermist wants it to be.  Of course the taxidermist must have the knowledge and skill to execute the details.

If a professional taxidermist advertizes a $500.00 deer mount, the plan is to assemble two deer a day. The taxidermist that is mounting two of these $500.00 deer will earn more profit per day than the taxidermist down the road spending two full days to mount one deer at $850.00.  Even without discussing the intricate details, you can see where the taxidermist spending more time on your mount will have the opportunity to create an accurate representation of your trophy. 

 

Why would a taxidermist spend two days mounting a deer, if it is possible to quickly mount two in one day?  The difference is the personal pride in the finished product. I have come to understand specifically what goes into making a great mount. I hope you will consider detailing this information on your blog for those clients that want to better understand.

Shawn Joyce

Diizche Safari Adventures

After reading this short letter from Shawn, I decided to elaborate a little on the difference between the $500.00 and $850.00 deer mount he described. This should give you a better understanding of the difference between the two approaches.

Elsewhere on my blog the hunter can find links to projects that were completed in a low budget shop.  They found their way here to be remounted.  This is a very costly and completely preventable problem.

I will outline a few short cuts that the so called bargain taxidermists typically do to lower the price and still make a living.  The first component deals with tanning. To save money they can send the skin out to a cheap tannery or they could tan the skin in house. 

 

The next component deals with anatomy.  To save time, which equates to money, he will not do any alteration for size, shape, or anatomy.  This taxidermist will order a manikin that is close and preferably smaller so the skin will go on quickly. There will be no attention paid to the age of the deer.  A deer that is 3 1/2 years old has a slimmer head than a 5 1/2 year old.  He does not know this, because he has cut the entire eye socket away.  He has no reference to head width or skull placement.  The name of the game is to attract the guy looking for a deal and give it to him. 

 

Believe it or not, this hunter is actually easier to please.  He will not complain about poor work or bad service.  Throughout my blog I have written many tutorials on this very subject.  Most of all remember that the taxidermist that produces a $500.00 to $600.00 mount cannot get $850.00.  The hunter should ask himself why.  The taxidermist is not short changing himself, only the hunter is being short changed.

You must remember that what sets apart an everyday or average mount apart from a great mount are all the details. These start with high quality professional tanning and then include proper anatomy based upon eye socket width and measurements, manikin alterations, antler placement and eye set just to name a few. These details and steps take time to execute and time equals cost to the final product. 

Dall sheep pinned and in the drying stage.

Preparing skulls for shoulder mounts

Though out our tutorials, we have made reference to skull placement and correct alignment.  Back in the 70's and 80's cutting the throat was a common occurrence.  As taxidermist we spend endless hours trying to educate the hunter in proper field care.  Nothing worked at all.  We had photos and descriptions of proper skinning techniques but it fell on deaf ears.  It was not until we started charging for the extra work and time,  that things began to change.

We are now at another cross road.  Since the finding of  Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD);  we now have uneducated people in the field cutting skulls and skinning trophies with the worst results in handling that I have ever seen in 36 years of being in business.  So you might ask; how can this be turned around.  There is only one way to get the hunter to want to stop and learn proper field care.  We will now begin to charge for the extra work it takes to fix these problems.  This will change the action and  attitude of the industry.  In the following photos, notice how skulls are cut and how they relate to the mannikin.  Most Taxidermists and guys doing taxidermy (and there is a difference) do not pay enough attention to the usage of skull measurements and placement.
 

Here is an example of a full time taxidermist who has cut this skull.  Our client harvested this Mule Deer in Colorado.  He took it to a local taxidermy shop where he found this full time professional taxidermist.  I find it hard to believe that this taxidermist cuts his own skulls in this manner.  This would make his job so hard to do, and do correctly.  Only thing I can say is that the taxidermist was mad that the hunter was taking his trophy back home to have mounted in his home state.  This is just an example of poor handling at its finest.

Here is what a skull cut in this manner gives you.  There is no skull to reference to the angle of the antlers.  Eye sockets are missing, so getting the correct skull width is also not an option. Attaching this skull to the mannikin is another problem.  As you see, skulls cut in this manner makes no sense.  This would be like trying to build a house on one prier block.  This is very unstable and everything is a guess.    

Notice here how the skull has been cut.  I have the bridge of the nose in tack to align up with the slope of the nose on the mannikin.  This will set the antlers at the correct angle.  There is no guessing here.  Next;  notice I have the eye sockets in place on the skull.  This is going to give me the correct width.

 The width of the skull is most important measurement to have when mounting any big game.  The eye to nose;  nose to the back of the head and neck measurement are second to skull width.  Most all mannikins are to wide in the head.  I am estimating over 95 %.  Believe it or not, this is the one measurement that most  taxidermist do not pay attention to. This limits there ability to produce high end quality mounts.  This will open the door for a new taxidermist to move in town and take over an area.  With this knowledge, he will be more accurate.  Now his prices can also be 30% higher, and he will still take the majority of the work.

   

 Here are the way skulls come from Africa.  Do you ever wonder why they send the whole skull.  This is to get all the measurements need to perform the job.  The width of the skull is there, along with length, depth and shape. This is very important on African game.  Well mounted African game will bring in the good clients.

Notice here, everything lines up.  There is no guessing.  We will end up with a natural looking deer.  Perfect these techniques and you will surpass your competition.  These techniques also bring in more profit and build a better client base.

Bighorn Sheep Project

In this tutorial we will begin explaining  the proper steps to mounting a lifesize.  Instructing your client to dorsal cut his trophy is the beginning to a successful piece.  In the first photo, notice the mannikin has been ordered without rods.  We have wrote about this in the past.  We still get questions on how important is it to do this.  We never order mannikins with rods. Here we foam in a 2x4 so that it can be mounted to the stand.

Once I have established that the circumference is correct, we then foam in the block that we use for mounting purposes.  If the circumference needed to be adjusted, we then split the mannikin to add or subtract materiel.   We have place the block in the mannikin and it is now ready for more alteration.

Here is where a mannikin without rods become very easy to alter.  The legs on this sheep were out of line and needed to be corrected before moving forward.

This is the most misunderstood procedure in taxidermy today.  Not only is it misunderstood,  It is ignored, and the importance is disregarded.  Notice here the mannikin is 7 1/4 inches wide.  The skull on this sheep measures 6 1/8 inches wide.  The mannikin is 1 1/8 inches to wide.  Most all Taxidermist do not reduce the head size at all.  They like to say they do, but they do not even have the eye socket on the skull to measure to start with.  This is why most sheep mount are odd looking and do not hit the mark.

Here we have cut the head off the mannikin and split it down the center.  Notice the back has been reduce more than the front.  The muzzle was to wide also by 1/4 of an inch.

Here in the photo, look at the solid block of wood that is used as a head board.  This should be 1 1/8 inch plywood.  Solid wood will crack over time and allow for movement of the skull and horns.  This is a large well known company, and you can see that they also short cut where ever they can.  Look closely at the staple used to fasten the reinforcement board to the head board.  This just goes to show you that they have no intentions of the form being altered.  Even our suppliers are still in the stone age.  As a Taxidermist, if you plan on making a living at this;  you will need to perfect the art of alteration. 

I have foamed the head back together.  Notice the large difference in the shape between the altered head and unaltered one.

I can now position the head on the mannikin where I would like it to be.

I have decided to give this sheep a little head roll.  This will give the sheep some motion and interest.

Notice that I have the whole skull to work with.  I can get all my measurements from here and transfer them to the mannikin.  As taxidermists;  we should always have the whole skull in front of us.  Someone, somewhere started cutting skulls which has led to a very inferior and improper way of doing taxidermy.  The hunter can bring back any whole skull from any place in the world.  CWD has nothing to do with cutting skulls.  I always use a wire brush to remove all the brain tissue from the skull and that is the only requirement.  Skulls should never be cut in the field or by the hunter.   NEVER! 

Notice the sheep is on a stand.  This makes the mannikin much easier to handle.

I have begun installing the rods back into the mannikin.  I have made all my leg length and circumference adjustment need for the skin to fit correctly.  Applying the skin will be easy and the skin will fit perfect.

In the lower part of the leg, I use bondo to hold the rod in place.  bondo is stronger and it still can be glued to.

I use a drill bit in a drill to auger out for the rods.  Make this slot first and then bend the rod to fit.

I screwed the skull in place and then foamed it in.  Then I used bondo to get the area built back up so the skin would meet up with the horn.  I have used heavy grit sand paper to enhance the detail on the head.  I do this though out mannikin.

Here the rods are all installed and they are all on the same plain.  In other words they are all parallel.

I have fit the skin on this mannikin about 12 times.  I make adjustments until the fits right without stretching.  If the skin is stretched out, it will shrink back.  That is where all the drumming comes from.  I have measured green skins when they first come in.  I then salt and dry them.  Ship them off to be tanned.  Once they have came back, wet them down and remeasured.  I will gain 10% in size do to the shaving process.  Why do you want to stretch it 10% more.

Pay attention to detail.  Stop guessing what you think the other taxidermist is doing.  Call him up and ask him.  He should not fear you,  you are not going to damage his business.  You are your own worst enemy.

I start sewing down the back and then once the neck is sewn, I start on the head.  I set the eyes, lip, nose and glue skin around base of horn.

I placed the sheep on a base that has wheels.  This allows me move it around the shop while we build the rock system.

We blue foam to start the rock shape.  I use 2 part foam to foam the pieces together.

In future tutorials, I will explain in detail how we build rocks and give them their realistic color.

We build all of our hardwood cabinets.  We have not found cabinetry on the market that is of a high enough standard.

Paying attention to detail and alteration will always pay off.  Pricing your art work correctly will provide a profit.