I have had a few ask questions about horns and caps so I took some photos today.
By no means do I say this is the only way or the correct way but it is my way.
Bugs have always been a worry for me though I don't no of any bug problems ever.
I steam all horns off cores. If they are to large for my steamer, I simply cover them and the top of the tank with wet towels. Here is my steamer. An aluminum fuel tank off of a big rig. Cut with a plasma cutter to the size I liked. Double burner, bricks and a steel lid I made. I get 12 to 15 sets of horns off to a tank of propane. You only need water half way up on the bricks and position your horns so no grease will drip on the sheaths. The horns never touch the water they just sit on the brick. A large set of Corsican, Addax, Black Hawaiian and Spanish goat horns were last put in the tank all together position not to drip on one another and removed all in 30 or 40 minutes of steam. The heat build up in this thing is unbelievable and easy to regulate with the two burners
Cut the bone cores off and drill the cores out all the way to the brain cavity. Ream as much material out as possible. Boil the cap, clean. Repeat until your satisfied it is clean and as grease free as possible. Put the cap in a bag of dry preservative and shake and bake making sure to get the powder in all areas. Put preservative in sheaths, dump and allow all to dry. You should end up with something like this.
Next fit the cap to the form by removing foam until the bone eye ring matches the form.
From here on I will let the photos tell the story. I use epoxy sculpt where you see pink. I foam the shock. You can do as I or use clay, mache, bondo etc.
After brain cap is bondoed, I set the sheaths in the steam to soften, slip on the cap and mark at bottomed out position.
Next I tape for foam. Pouring shock and cores.
View of shaped foam. Foam remove to lines made previously.
Cap is epoxied before screws installed.
Epoxy sculpt added, use clay if you prefer.
View of incision I prefer on goat, sheep etc.
Horns epoxied on and gap lost epoxied sculpted and textured. Will be oil painted later.
View of shock, horns epoxied and screwed in place. Screws will be removed after epoxy hardens
Hope you find something that you can use on your next horned mount.
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