ok, I thought I sent this to the forum but can't find it. Bear with me please, I am new.
I am trying to do a turkey fan tail mount, on one of the fans, the tail feathers are curling and separating real bad. What can I do to fix this? I just pinned them out two days ago. Is it too late?
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Lisa, are you blow drying the fan after you have washed (degreased) the tail? Are you getting the blow dryer too close? I usually take my blow dryer and stay about 24" away. It takes longer to dry, but I know I am not too close to burn the feathers. Also when you wash and rinse are you being real gentle with feathers. DON'T wring out with you hands after you rinse. This will make a fan look really separated like you are explaining. Treat those feathers with kid gloves. After I rinse I just hold by the quills and just shake the fan and bounce off my other hand to get the excess water off. Try and soak it in mineral spirits or thinner something that will help disperse the water from the feathers then blow dry. Don't tumble a tail fan. Its hard on them too. Just be careful with those feathers. I hope this helps. travisd808@mchsi.com
As far as itr being too late, did you bondo the quills at the bottom? If you haven't you might try and rehydrate and start over. Re-wash and dry the tail again to see if it fixes your problem. I have never had that happen to me but it is fun to learn the art. Just keep at it and you will be turning out some fine fan mounts. Good luck.
oh no...I think I goofed. I didn't wash the fan at all, didn't know I was suppose to. All I have done so far is cut away all the excess fat/meat as I possibly could without harming the fan. Then I pinned the fan out, covered the raw area in borax and put a weight on the tail. One fan looks good, but the bird was in good shape. The other one looks really awful...but he was a little close when I shot him too. I have a freezer full of my kills that I am wanting to learn to mount (bear, boar, pheasant, coyotes, raccoons and more) hopefully I haven't messed up too bad.
So...with that said, should I go back to square one and wash the fans and degrease them? If so, how do I degrease them? Oops forgot...NO I have not bondo them at all...just borax
I am determined to learn this.
Lisa, get you a copy of the Breakthrough issue #68. It will give you the detailed steps that Cally morris uses on how to correctly perform the task at hand. You can go to their website and order that copy I think for around 9 or 10 dollars. As far as degreasing and washing the tail, just wash in dawn dishwashing soap. Make sure you rinse and risne again. When you wash the fan, take it and hold the quills and just aggitate the soapy water in and out of the feathers. Afterwards, rinse very well and do as I said above to not wring out the fan just hold by the quills and bounce it gently off your other hand. No need in trying to get the water out at this point just a quick few bats and on to mineral spirits or thinner, coleman fuel anything to disperse the water. Leave it in there for around 5-10 minutes or so then on to blow drying. If you follow this method you will see good results in how your fan will look. The Breakthrough issue I was talking about will make more sense if you see the color photos in the magazine. Good luck
I'm new at taxidermy and had never done a turkey when a friend brought me one last weekend to practice on. I just happened to have BT issues 66, 67, 68. A three part article that walks you through mounting a turkey. I was very thankful I had them.
Sharon
Thanks Sharon, I have never done anything either though I have always wanted to do taxidermy just a little nervous to try it. i am going to order the BT issues you talked about, but do you think I should put my fans on hold and wait till I get the issues or go ahead with the Dawn bath,followed by mineral oil, followed by light blow drying...right now I just have them pinned down and doing the borax thing. Problem is I want to make sure I do them right, besides they are two nice tail fans on birds i shot this spring so I would like to show them off. Any tips...thanks both Travis and Sharon I appreciate it.
Ok sharon and Travis. I did it. I reworked the curled tail fan today. I did as you suggested in Dawn, then on to Mineral spirits. Only thing is I didn't let it sit in M.Spirits for any time. I basically just dipped the feathers in it and out a second or two. Anyway, I nearly panicked when I saw what the feathers looked like after this. But I pinned them out and with a toothbrush and a light hairdryer I began to comb each and every feather out and I can say that the fan now looks wonderful, clean and shining, just like on the turkey. Thanks for the excellent tips. It was a real confidence booster and I had fun doing this. Now onto the Bondo.