Hello There! Have just completed my first deer head mount this last Sunday, and as I was grooming the hair along the back of the neck - which is the long incision type - I noticed I was having trouble getting the hair to hide the seam. I know my sewing skills aren't all that great, so I think I developed some "puckering" in some areas along the seam when I was sewing. Is there a way I can get the hair to hide the seam any better. Will cape set from WASCO help me with this? Any suggestions will be greatly accepted. Thanks Andy.
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Andy, Several products used by horse people to groom manes and tails are often good for calming the wild hairs. When you get puckers along the incision it becomes a bigger problem- might need a little careful plucking in some spots. For next time you can avoid the problem by cutting a shallow trench in the form corresponding to the incision and filling with a little clay. After stitching the cape up position the skin where you want it and last thing, press the stitches into the clay. This way any puckers go down and don't show the crocked hairs. Using this method a little hair spray is enough to take care of any minor flaws. Enjoy, Aaron Honeycutt
Andy,
I also had that problem years ago but changed to the short incision and no more problems.I first made sure no hair is down into my incision.They sell a product called show groom that work well.Or you can use hair gel.after putting this on you can pin a strip of card board on the seem to hold it.but next time try the short incision and save yourself some time and you will have alot better looking mount.
Thanks for the tips! As I was looking through one of my back issues of Breakthrough I came across Aaron's suggestion with the trench and clay after I finished the mount and could have kicked myself because I had told myself I wanted to do that. As for the short incision, I sure am going to try that method to save on sewing time. To give you a chuckle, it took me 2 hours to sew the long incision - never again. I have one other deer I plan to do soon, but unfortunetly has a long incision, so I plan to try and pre-sew some of it then fit it on the form and go from there. Again thanks for the tips, I'll be sure to use them the next time! Andy.
Try sewing the long incision before you put the cape on the form.
Turn the cape inside out, and make sure the sides are aligned
corectly. Then invert and mount the same as a short incision. The seam will hardly show, and is easier to groom.
after you sew up the cape the way Aaron told you, cover it with screen and pin it down. This will also help the hair lay down on the seem.
As long as there's hair and a hammer, you can hide the seam. Puckering is caused by the seams being too taut. Slack up a bit. When finish, take a tack hammer or ballpeen and beat the seam inward. This creates a trough in the mannikin and turns the seam "inside out". If you've got a short haired deer, the stitches have to be fine as frog hair and you're still likely to have to use SculptAll and a wire brush to make the transition and then air brush it out like African game.
Many times the edge of a cape seam has no hair, trim this area from the flesh side with a single edged razor blade, thin it down a bit also. You may want to do this in reverse order, its up to you. Now sew it before placing it on the mannakin, use lots of adhesive, now malletize it and groom it down with water then card it with scrren wire, if its a long haired deer you can wrap it with cheesecloth for a super smooth look.
use a hammer and piece of wood and run down back of seam to get cape to lay flat, then use ivory soap wet and put on hair where seam is to get hair to lay flat then use cardboard strips and small nails and run down back of seam to hold hair down flat and hide seam keep on till mount is dry then take off. this should take care of any wild hair and seam problems. good luck, dwl.