I am roughing up a deer mannikin and sanding all the shine wax off. I turn the mannikin and if see any spot that shines I sand off. How much is necessary to remove. I will be trying water base Epo-Grip glue.
Thanks
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For good adhesion it's necessary to remove that smooth surface so the glue has something to grab..
Tom is correct about glue requiring a "tooth" to hang on to, but this seems like a little overkill. What does "roughing up" entail? I take a form scratcher from WASCO (thanx again Rick Carter)and that's enough. Sanding would be for what purpose? The scratcher doesn't remove detail like the Stout Ruffer does. Sanding alone will do fine or "roughing" it up will work.
Sounds like over kill to me as well. I only use the stout ruffer and thats it. I really only wanted to say I love Epo-Grip water base hide paste. That stuff is by far the best paste I have used. It holds in two days on my wet tanned capes. The detail of the mount is second to none I have ever done. My deer work just got kicked way up a notch. BTW dont eat it it does smell good and all but it may be harmfull if swallowed LOL.
Its quick and you get the perfect finish everytime with TOOTH for GRIPPING.
Its paid for its self several times over.
I have a home made tool that I put together about 10 years ago that I'm still using.
Bought a wire brush cup for a 1/4" drill(medium grit) and epoxied the shaft into the end of a 6" piece of old broom handle.
Scrape the form all over with this; deer take less than a minute to do! Be especially careful to scrape well in the depressions.
That's what WASCO sells as a "Form Scratcher". It IS a great tool.
I by no means remove every bit of crust, I use 60 grit sandpaper and rough it up too. Good point guys...
Thanks for your info. Sounds like I need to make or buy a scratcher and leave alot of the wax on. If you can scrath a form in one minute or even 5 minutes I have been removing way to much wax. Do you stratch the head and leave wax around the face area also?
Thanks again
In critical areas where you especially want the glue to stick I'd remove the crust. I pretty much remove most of the facial crust and in the valleys of the muscle structure where drumming might occur .
Johnny, I would say you are probably doing more than is required but I do it that way every time. It's the little details that make your deer look good and getting excellent adhesion is very important. I am rabid on form preperation and most anyone can prep 2 while I'm doing 1 (except mike d at less than a minute finishes 10 to my 1). Speed is just not what I do and I think you might consider that spending extra time on form prep is not necessarily a waste of time. Main thing is to enjoy, Aaron H.