I have skinned out,turned,salted and sent out 5 deer capes this year.Some are mine and some are for customers.I don't have many problems with deer capes exept for the nose.I can't seem to leave enough inner skin on. Then when I try to remove the cartlage and split the nose my problems worsen.I plan to cover my messy tecnique using epoxy, although tricky I think I can do it. Does anyone have any suggestions to help my bad tecnique or in fixing the problems I have now? I do have a video and books on skinning deer heads, but the books arent detailed enough and I can't see what the guy in the video is doing well enough to solve my woes.
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Are you seperating the skin from the nose pad? After you split and take out the middle cartilage the skin that has some cartilage on needs to be lifted and sperated from the nose pad and the surounding area. Take your time you will see where the two can be seprated.
To thin the nose down I use the end of a baseball bat cut off and insert the nostril down this and use a skife knife to thin it down. Then I use the rounded end of the bat and place the nose pad on this and shave the nose pad and the surounding area with the skife knife.
I hope this helps out some what. You just need to take more time and study on how the skins seperates from the nose. Your best bet if you can is to go and watch a person do this. If your lucky he will let you watch for free.
Thanks for the advice.I am going to try to find someone who can show me. But for now what is the best way to fix my rough noses for now?
If your cutting through the nose pad don't worry none. After it dries just fill it in with an epoxy and then I make the nose markings with mogde podge. After it dries just paint as normal and no one will no the differenece. I hope this answers your question.
It's not the pad that I have problems with. The problem is not enough nostril skin. Sorry, I should have made that more clear.Any suggestions?
You dont always need all the nostril skin to tuck in the form. I dremal the nose on the form as close in detail to a deers inner nostril as I can. Sometimes I just cut off the skin up to the hair line if the skin is in shambles, use good hide paste and pin in place. After a few weeks of drying, I use flesh tone epoxy sculpt and finish the inner nose detail. A good tip ,when turning nostrils place your finger in the nostril opening and feel the blade as you flesh. If you cut your finger it will hurt, and you woun't try to go to fast. The more you take apart the faster and easier it gets.
once you get the inner skin(whats left of it) just take celophane
and pack his nose with it...it will swell outward holding the skin in place
till the hide paste dries...
It is much appreciated.