Ok why is it that taxidermist plug the nose up with wax.you dont see deer in real life walking around with wax in there nose.i am looking at a ref pic of a whitetail and in its nostril you can see the hole going up into the skull.do any of you put this into your mounts
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Have you looked around at all? Have you been to any taxidermy contests? If not, you should. That's why potential clients should shop around and look at examples of a taxidermists work. Now-a-days any taxidermist worth his or her salt should be using references and creating realistic nostrils.
MS
I don't know too many taxidermist that do commerical taxidermy on 100 to 200 deer heads a year, that are going to spend all time it takes to cut the nose off the mannikin, install the septum, and do the detail work, plus reinstall the nose on the form, on that many deer heads. I myself, just Dremel out the nostril, paint the inside of the nose and leave it at that. Beside most hunters don't even realize this.
Coyote
If a customer is willing to pay me for the extra time to do this, I will. Not too many customers are willing to pay extra for something that they would have to pull off the wall, and shine a flashlight up the nose to see.
dremel (with a drill bit) way to create the interior nose detail. Once you have a little practice with this setup you can create a very realistic nostril with only the maniken itself in about 2 minutes. I wouldn't do it on a competition piece, because the judge is likely to frown at you. However, a customer is not very likely to know the difference between a dremeled maniken nose and a repro nose. If you aren't putting any detail into the nostril of a deer it just shows me that you have no pride in your work and you just want to be paid.
Chris
WAX? I would have hoped that you'd learned better from some of our accomplished Finish Taxidermists.
We dremel out the nose as referenced above before mounting, but after that is where we differ in techniques.
As the mount drys for a day or two, check and re-shape the inner nostrile to suit you(re-distributing the glue and pushing in any pins you may have used to hold the skin in place). When you get ready to finish your mount, pull out any troublesome pins(as they are hard to cover), and cover the inner nostril canal with a little Aves Apoxie Sculpt.It's pretty easy to smooth out the Apoxie Sculpt with a small detail paint brush. After I get through smoothing in the Apoxie Sculpt, I reach for my red embroidery floss..yeah-you read right. It gives a pretty good imitation of the septum-you can even use the pink colored Apoxie Sculpt if you want to. I'll snip short strands off(with scissors),"fuzz" it up between my fingers to separate the strands, and then with a short bristle(soft) detail paint brush-distribute the "fuzz" inside the nostril. Once I'm satisfied with this, I'll wet(with water) my paint brush and smooth down any edges left from the distribution step-this also helps set the fibers in the Apoxie Sculpt. Then all you need is a misting of brown or black with the old airbrush to blend in the edges of the Apoxie Sculpt. This just sounds like a lot of trouble, but it's not-and it's really worth it! We're like one of those small shops that do 2-300 a year. We DO take the time to give the customer our very best, because we want that customer's business EVERYTIME he/she wants something mounted or their displays changed.-Susan
With a little practice, this can take no more time than the "wax method", and you can extend the rear of the nostril canal as far as you want to.-Susan
All my deer mounts get that very same nose detail. I don't pin the nose skin at all if I can help it. I take a piece of plastic bag and pack the nose full this holds the skin in place nicely and keeps it smooth as it dries. After a few days I will take the plastic out and check everything to make sure it is still where I want it. The plastic makes it easyer to transition the appoxie sculpt to the skin as it is real smooth to begin with. I hope the judges don't frown on my mounts for the show because they all have that done to the nose. I can't see puting some one elses work, artificial nose on my competition deer mount. Jack F
I've used the plastic too, but I stopped because it tends to "flatten down" the hair in the nasal canal-a small detail the judges WILL notice right off the bat.-Susan