Anyone able to remount a 25 year old King Eider

[Brian]

I have a good friend who has a king eider mount. Its about 25 years old and has a couple issues. Is there anyone on here who has a good name in doing this kind of stuff. Please pm me for prices and examples of your work. Id like referances if you have them. Thanks

[Nancy C]

I doubt if you will get very many takers.
Waterfowl remounts have about a 50/50 chance of success, at best, and when it is a very valuable, hard-to-obtain bird like a king eider it is probably best to just leave it alone. They often rehydrate very poorly, leaving a skin that has no stretch at all and almost no resistance to tearing. And that's assuming that it doesn't slip!

All of that being said, what kinds of issues does it have?  While attempting a complete remount can be risky, there might be some safer kinds of restoration that could help it.

[Brian]

thanks Nancy. ill try to get pics and send them to you. maybe you could bpoint me in the right direction. personally i dont think it looks that bad but after he saw mine he hates his now.lol.

[byrdman]

Brian,ship it over...have done several hawks,owls,and a few ducks......partial or total restorations

[JBird]

a little secret - if the head, scapulars, tertials and wings are ok - you realize that a common eider has the exact same color/pattern on the rest of the body - so you can use a fresh skin for virtually most of the bird - you have to shrink it of course - but I've done two king eider restorations that went very well just using the head and back of the original and a new skin from a common eider (customer must provide)  as Nancy said though - restorations are always risky as I have done one that simply would not work - but that was mostly because the original mount had a terrible "everything" -

good luck
J

[jc1982]

I inherited a collection of museum type specimens including some stellers and specktacled eiders. And a lot of hawks and owls. I used a product from Rittles to rehydrate and mount them in a lifelike position. Other than worrying about scyinide that might have been used to preserve them they have, so far, turned out well. Go slow. It can be done.