I shot a blue wing teal today, brought it home and skinned it out to mount. As I was pulling the skin over the neck toward the head, the head came off...I am going to use one of Tony's heads anyway but what am I to do? Can I just finish skinning off the head and sew the neck back to the neck? I am doing this for myself and not a customer, thank goodness...I am also doing a hanging dead mount on the teal. Thanks, Sandy
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have to be careful with those little buggers...it happens... Sewing it back together is an option... I would wet the skin, and then place a piece of necking material in the neck of the correct diameter or a little larger to aid in sewing and making sure that you sewed evenly...being a september teal, it's probalby not in color so you have no guides to follow as to what goes where.... The smaller the stitch, the less noticable the end result will be (most likely, you will still be able to tell.) keep the feathers out of the stiches and just see what you end up with. The only problems is, as a person, you will be inclined to sew a perfect circle around the neck when joing the two halfs.. in reality it most probalby didn't tear evenly anywhere and you are going to end up with a funky neck line.. I always do.... It isn't a lost hope, just take your time.
Hope it all comes out okay.
Jon
I tore off a mallard last year. I turn both side inside out, matched the teatar in a couple places, and tacked the tear with a stitch in the most obvious palces where it matched. Then, withe skin in basically the rifght alignment, I sew up the rest of the way, but not so tight as to eliminate the ability to taxi or turn it right side out. You would never know there wasa problem. Just took some time. Taxidermy has taught me patience in my life I never knew I had!
I appreciate your help on my teal head problem...I have only been doing taxidermy for about 8 months and this is a first time problem...I will take all the advice I receive and be more careful next time...Thanks again,,,Sandy