I have a couple of questions for anyone who does european mounts, 1 what is the best way to get the meat off the skull in the back of the skull where the brain hole is
2 Ive been using oak skull bases from McKenzi But Im looking for the best way to attach the skulls to the base so nothing shows. Ive been drilling a hole in the skull in the far back of the head behind the antlers and running a bolt through the skull into the wood base, then apoxie sculpting over the bolt head to look smooth , then painting from there. Any suggestions
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I've cleaned my skulls with compressed water after boiling skulls untill meat starts to get of easily (20-30 min.). Worth of trying,works great for me!
First for claening, my favorite tool for cleaning the back of the skull and around ear canals ect. is a water pick. After boiling for 20-30 min to loosen up the meat, I set the skull in a rubbermaid tub and got to town with the water pick.(My wife thinks I bought it for my teeth. HAH.)
Second for attaching to base, I drill a 5/16 hole in th bottom of th brain cavity. Th bone is thick here and I don't have to worry about breaking it. The alighn your scull and make a mark on th base. Next I run a bolt up from the bottom and use a nylock nut inside th brain cavity. If you use a small piece of masking tape you will be able to hold the not onto a box end wrench long eough to get it started. Costomers seem to like it and there's no hole to fix.
nuff said.
I go to the car wash and use hot soapy water. Works great.
Cory S, For attatching a euro mount to the panel I cut small scrap pieces of wood paneling. Mix up some bondo, pour into the voids in back of skull that are exposed once the teeth are cut off. Into the bondo I place the little blocks of thin wood which become anchors for screws. Once the bondo sets and I get a flush surface on the back of the skull I drill holes to match 3 anchor points, run screws through from behind the panel into the bondoed in anchors and the skull is very secure. My way- enjoy, Aaron H.
I used to do the wooden block thing, then I found an easier way to do it. I had some of that heavy plastic pipe 3/8" that is used in hot water applications, CPVC I think. I mixed up the bondo and stuffed it into the little hole at the base of the skull, then I slipped my piece of pipe about 3" long into the skull and embedded it into the bondo. I let it kick good then drilled a hole just through the skull where the bone is thick, then I attached my panel up through the base into the pilot hole in the skull. It tapped into the plastic real nice. Then I added just a touch of epoxy to where the screw entered the skull. The thing I hated about the wood is you have to wittle the pieces down so little to get it into the back of the skull and often times the darn stuff would crack when you put the screw through it.