Hey - I would really appreciate some help. I will be recieving two Capes a Springbok and a Gemsbok. This is my first taxidermy project with furred animals. They are coming from Africa Dry-Salted. I think I know what this means but would anyone be kind enough to explain the steps and products I need to use previous to mounting to the form.
thanks
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If these Africans are your first "furred" animals,
I'm assuming that you started with either birds or fish or maybe
a reptile or two.
What were they perhaps? An ostrich, Great White shark
and an Anoconda or two?
Does'nt anyone get their feet wet with squirrels anymore?
Call me cynical, perhaps rude, but your question is such a
basic tenant of taxidermy.
I'd hate to see these capes not utilized to their best potential.
PLEASE do a little more research on the net and in these forums
before you delve into the world of furrie critters.
That's what I think.
salt-dried = fleshing, salted and dried
What is your first marine mount? A sperm Whale? A Blue Whale or a Elephant seal. Yes we joke some and poke a little fun, but in all reality you do need to start with a simpler mount. When you get the african skins send them to a tannery.
Find some white tails to start on. You have a lot more reference photos and mannikins to work with. African on the other hand my require tons of form alterations, just for a shoulder mount. Good luck JC
I hope that these things belong to you, because you are YEARS from being ready to do them for a customer.
I agree that he doesnt have the experience needed to tackle this project but you guys are forgetting one thing......he has been chosen.
When god created the hunter he created half of them smart & the other half, not so smart. If Gregs client is willing to use him, so be it, thats his decision. I recently got over my competion & have come to realize that this individual is doing me a service by removing the cheap customers & leaving me with the more elite crowd. Raised my prices this year, $100 more than competion on wts & Ive already taken in triple the amount compared to last year.
My first gamehead was a black buck and it scored a 94. Just make sure you research the steps needed to mount a gamehead. and for god sakes study your reference over and over again before you mount that thing. If you are talented and understand anatomy and can reproduce what you see from your reference then It will turn out fine. It just scares me a little that it appears that you stillmay need to review the basics of taxidermy and it's processes. get a book. If the skins are your own then go to town on those things otherwise get practice or you may end up on court TV with a pissed off customer. To answer your question, the skins are going to be dried rock hard from the salting process. Send them to a tanner and when you get them back Read, Read, Read. then mount them things.
good luck,
JT
Well this Forum is great. I hope you all got your jokes out on me. But truly few of you took the time to consider what I was asking. I appreciate those who did. I understand that you dont think I am able and I question that of myself, I am sure you all know better than I but truthfully you need to understand that this catagory of posting is beginner. I live in a Big City and have never even seen a Deer Buck in the wild. I do dream beyond my means but without that How do we grow in Learning of new things. I have never failed at any Craft that I have started though dillagence and patience plus alot of faith. I think you assumed I was not aware that I was not ready. I do not have contacts to get a whitetail and antlers so I figured I would go ahead and face a challenge head on. I have been reading alot on the only book on taxidermy I can find in the libraries locally. It cotains all the original taxidermy methods and was published in 1894. I only asked what dry salted meant because the terms have change in the last century. I have never even met someone who has done taxidermy so how would I know not to start with an african mount. I just wanted to start with somethhing that inspired me by its form so I chose the oryx. If I had grown up in the midwest I may have known more about this but taxidermy is looked down upon where I am and I get alot of grief for expressing intrest. So I hope you understand why I dont know these things you consider common knowledge. Also, I hope you will understand why I am discouraged by you pesimism and ridculing. Beginner means Im going to need to ask question that seem stupid to others more experienced. I thank those that posted usefull advise.
I sympathize with you. We have all been beginners once. Some may lead you to believe otherwise. Anyway, I am suggesting (highly) that you get one of the Breakthrough manuals. They aren't expensive and will teach you, sorry to say volumes more than the old books. Considering the fact that you have no original measurements for the hide and perhaps not even the complete skull. The techniques have changed considerably in the last 100 years. Do your self a favor and get one of these books. You'll be much happier in the end.
Greg,
You first tell us that you will be receiving a Springbok and a Gemsbok,then in your last posting,you say you chose an Oryx.
1.If you chose to buy these skins and horns,then you could have easily purchased whitetail cape and antlers.CHEAPER!
2.You say that you question your ability.If this is so,why do you get pissed because we do? Confidence in your work is a very important aspect of QUALITY taxidermy and wildlife artistry.
3.Instead of asking us how to mount these wonderful animals,maybe you should have first asked us where to find instructional manuals on the Taxidermy trade.
4.Where you live has nothing to do with what animals you can obtain.You don't live in Africa,but you have African skins.I don't recall any of the gentlemen above(sorry guys, mental lapse)having anything negative to say about where you live.
5.I'm going to bother to go into the form alterations that are almost always required on these animals .
John C.,Big Al,and Old Fart, sorry I stole your thunder. I know you were all ready to pounce after that last entry.
When my first African group came in, I sent the skins to the tanner and proceeded to gather the necessary reference for the species that were to be mounted. Keep in mind, by this time I had hundreds of deer heads under my belt and lots of othe N.A. big game.
Just to be safe I bought an impalla cape and horns, to mount for a bit more experience. That impalla took almost a week and I destroyed two forms before I got it right. I rounded up a few more African specimens and put them together before I attempted the customer's safari.
It turnd out that the impalla was a pain because the tanning was terrible, but I didn't know it at the time, The others all went better but they all required major modification. Just take a look at your catalogs and see how many whitetail forms there are. Then look and see the number of oryx forms there are. I doubt that oryx are any more uniform in their dimensions than whitetails, so the odds are you will have to modify whatever form you get. If you don't do it right it will show. There is very little hair on an oryx to cover the flaws.
I wish you luck, but without a ton of whitetail experience you are asking for a lot of frustration.