I have been looking for some good jeweler's Tow and having no luck. Van Dykes does not sell it any more. They only have jeweler's wood wool that is nothing more than excelsoir. I know because I bought some. Research has jeweler's grade excelsior, but once, again not close to jeweler's tow. I bought some of that too. I did the ORANGE BUTTON search and all those results sent me to Van Dykes. I just received my Taxidermy Today and Kail of Backwoods Taxidermy uses jeweler's Tow so I emailed him twice and they both came back as undeliverable. His email is not working. So I though I would present this question to all you good folks and see if I have any luck. Thanks for your time and happy mounting.
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Skip, you don't have to use the tow really.You can use anything you desire to rebuild wing and leg muscle.I use the cotton batting Van Dyke's sells and its fine for doing what I need done.Tow is not an easy item to get lately,so I substituted.
the cotton roll used for perms by hair stylists.you can get it at any hair supply place.basically it is a box of cotton roll in a continuous spool.works great for muscle rebuilding and replacing fatty areas in the crop and side pockets.one box will last a loooong time.
The only problem with cotton is that for closed wing mounts, where you may have pins or wires going through the wing, it's hard to penetrate the cotton but easy to go through the tow; just my recollection of why I haven't used cotton for a long time.
I was just looking through some magazines the other day, and saw some Jeweler's Tow. I think it was the McKenzie magazine. You can also look up their online store and see if they have some.
Sorry, just checked their online store, and they only have the fine excelsior:o(
Unless you use sterilized cotton, they can have bollweivels hatch in them and you'll have instant infestation. These are the same critters that appear in Quaker Oats and other cereals that sit on the shelf for too long, even if never opened. I suggest you use the poly-fil 100% pure polyester fiber used to fill pillows, stuffed animals etc. You can find it at Wal-Mart in the fabric section.