hollow fill method

[J Harlan]

I recently had a customer approach me about a method of mounting fish.  He called it the hollow fill method, he loves the results that he gets using this method. I can not find any information about this method and would appreciate any help.  The way I understand it is that he uses filler and some type of shavings. Any information would be greatly appreciated. 

[ljones]

Archie Phillips used this method for years    he explains it fully in his book mounting fish for fun and profit

[Glenn]

Years ago (50's) the Northwestern School of Taxidermy issued a supplement showing this hollow mounting method for fish.  You made a sandwich out of two layers of thin cloth (pillow cases or sheets worked well) with an 1/8-1/4 inch of papermache in between.  You placed the sandwich on the fish skin and started sewing them together along the seam.  As a pocket formed you filled it with sawdust.  You continued until the incision iwas closed.  You form the fish and let it dry.  When ready you cut an oval opening along the seam and empty out the sawdust.  You cut a piece of pine that you slip in the hole and glue/screw in place.  You take the piece that formed the hole and glue it back in place against the pine then finish the mount as usual.  Did it a few times but wasn't real pleased with the results.  There was another method that required a two piece plaster mold.  When dry you layered torn news paper and wall paper paste in each side, building up several layers.  When dry, you glued a piece of wood in the wall side half, trimmed the mating edges and put the two half shells together and glued/papered the seam to make a hollow form.  Made a very light form.

[Jim Tucker]

First of all forget it....it sucks.

BUT

You make a "sock" out of cloth and fill it with sawdust(whatever).  It should be slightly smaller than the fish.  You then put a layer of mache in the skin that will fill the fish out the rest of the way.  you insert the sock and sew it up.  After your mache dries you cut open the sock from the mouth and empty the sawdust out.

Fish fill, commercial bodies, carved bodies and driving a railroad spike through your knee are all better choices than "hollow fill".

Anyone who espouses this method doesn't know what they are talking about.  Leave it in the 60's.

[RDA]

LMAO

[Jimmy Lawrence]

Wow!!!!!!!!!  I am soooo glad someone posted this!!!  I just got done restoring a walleye, that was done in this fashion.  It was solid, and heavy feeling, but when I dremeled off the tail to replace it, I noticed a hole, and sawdust fell out.  Poked a wire all through the body cavity and yep, it was filled with sawdust!!!!!!!!!!!

That answers alot of questions.

Very, very cool!!

Jimmy

[rp]

when i was at school my first fish i did i used this method. it works like this:

1. Place the fish in a bed to make a one sided cast with plaster.
2. Skin and treat the fish as you would on a normal skin mount.
3. After the skin has been treated, sew it up and place it in the mold that u made.
4. Fill the cavity in the body through the mouth with either riversand or sawdust until the cavity is completely filled up.
5. Make sure that the filling that u put in is compressed or u will get a lumpy skin.
6. After u made sure that the fishbody is right u can card the fins and put it on a dry rack.
7. After the fish has dried u can remove the filling in the fish through the mouth. Use foam or rein to pour into the cavity and rota the fish so all sides are covered.
8. Finish the fish as u would a normal skinmount

The results are not the best as it is real old school, there are better methods available today.

[Old Fart]

The "hollow fill" method with the sandwich of cloth and papermache is how I started doing fish.....it SUCKS!  So does the "sand fill" method, where you dump the sand when the fish is dry and coat the inside of the skin with resin. AND so does the papermache/Styrofoam bead stuffing method. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! They all rank right up there with the "skull on the 2X4" method for deer head mounting.