i am a new taxidermist in buisness for only a year. Only brought in 35 shoulder mounts this year so i am not exactly pressed for time. anyway, my question is this: once i begin working a cape, fleshing, salt, pickle, dry, tumble, shave, neutralize, tan ( in house brush on ), and, mount, i have completed the mount in right at a one month time frame. some of my customers are not used to this and think they are getting a less than quality mount which i can understand, but, i am going thru all the steps and trying to be as meticulate as possible with each one. i could understand a lengthier time span if i had more work or used a commercial tannery, but i do all in house. is this quick time span unheard of for a not-so-busy taxidermist?
Return to Deer Taxidermy Category Menu
on you. But 4 weeks is a short amount of time not saying it cant be done and done right but make sure the mount is dried all the way.
We have a 6 month turn around and have most mounts back to hunter in 4. Just make sure you arent rushing the finish product.
Kim Collins
http://www.freewebs.com/bubbas_taxidermy
but to be perfectly honest, just how long does it take for a mount to completely dry? this is what i do and how:
-- flesh and get on salt
--salt for 48 hrs
--pickle min 72 hrs
--dry, tumble, shave, neutralize
--prepare ears
--prepare form
--prepare antlers
--prepare eyes
--mount
--dry for min 2 wks
i try to make certain there is no shrinkage prior to giving back to customer. do you think i should keep it longer for more drying?
about getting them back too quick, call em back in two years and see how much they complain !
I only take in about 10 - 15 heads a year and I give em a three month turn around time frame.
Just wondering , dont you let the horns dry out for a couple months before you mount them up.
If you did then your turn around time at the earliest would be 3 months.
let them dry for fours weeks before we even look at them for finish work. Also you can check the hide at the bottom (legs)part of the form and make sure it is tight to the form and has no give to it.When that happens we are close to finishing them up with the detail work. Also its a good idea to let the horns set for about 30 days to let them dry some. Others may agree or disagree with the drying time on the horns but thats what we do. And no one has complained about our work.
Kim Collins
http://www.freewebs.com/bubbas_taxidermy
I agree with kim on letting the antlers dry but I also feel you are really rushing the drying time on the mount itself, Im sure they look great but if they are still drying after the apoxie work and finish work is done the customer is going to really notice it in a couple of months were if you have it sitting on your wall you can fix anything that seperates or cracks or just doesnt look right before you give it back. 6 months is a real good turnaround time so dont rush it, it will give you more repete business in the long run.
and i will adhere to it. however, at the rissk of sounding like a complete knothead, i didnt realize the antlers needed a drying time. evrything you guys have said makes good sense and i appreciate the input. the school i went to never said anything about drying the antlers so i am curious as to why they need to dry.
Antlers are really nothing more than an external bone mass, deer lose there antlers each year and when they GROW back (in velvet) they are surrounded by blood and tissue (the velvet) and just like a normal bone they contain moisture that drys out over time and thus results in shrinkage. Now for the most part without measurements the average person wont notice but if you want to have antlers scored they need to be dried for I believe 6 months (not positive if lenghth of time is correct) prior to the offical measuring to allow for the shrinkage, And eventually you will have hunters tell you that "those arent there antlers" because most people dont relize that they do shrink. Hope this helps.
is 60 days. That's Boone and Crockett Club, Pope and Young Club , and New York State Big Buck Club. As for drying antlers before mounting...they don't shrink that much, however the skull plates do lose moisture resulting in some shrinkage of the bone. I always bed the skull plates in bondo mixed with sawdust or some similiar product and screw the whole thing to the form real good. If you don't use a filler and just attach with screws there is a good possibility of the skull plate loosening up later on. I think this might even happen with a dry skull plate.
As for scoring and storage, if case you get a big one in during the 60 day drying period,... don't cut the skull plate off the head, store the whole thing in a cool place like a shed or garage ( after skinning of course), hang by one side of the antler so the weight keeps slight pressure countering any decrease in inside spread measurement.
As for the quick return time...explain to the customer that most taxidermists send their clients capes to a tannery and have to wait to get them back before beginning their projects. Since this is your first year in business you don't have a backlog from the previous years and can get right to their heads. Otherwise you would be doing all your fill in work (fish, birds, small mammals, rugs, etc.), while you waited for your capes(probably happen sooner than you might think). This is the time to educate your your clients about the proceedure. As for drying time of mounts, I have let them go out after two weeks and could have let them go sooner after mounting and finishing. I only use commercial tanning which should not make a difference with drying times. With the proper materials and hide pastes there is no reason to have to let them dry for 4 weeks before finish work is done.
Thanks for the correction on the drying time to have things scored, although I don't agree on your drying time allowance for mounts. That is the good thing about taxidermy thru trial and error and a little experimentation you can chose how things work best for you. Don if the amount of time you are allowing is working for you then great but remember also that if you get people used to getting things back in a month while you have a short work load when things pick up and you get behind (and we all do) it will be very hard to make those people understand why you aren't still doing it, and the extra drying time defiantly doesn't hurt. just my 2cents
You listed steps from pickle then shave and neutralize? If you are shaving your cape it should go back to the pickle again. Unless you're talking about final minor shaving? I pickle, thin the hide more then pickle again.
The drying time of one week in a heated basement or other room in the middle of winter is pretty standard in my part of the country. I epoxy the skin around the antler pedicles, bondo the ear bases (cut off the form and insert into the ears prior to mounting, they slip right back into the form when mounting), eyes are done with clay, nose is clay padded. After I epoxy the ear bases back on they aint moving either. Everything is dry after this 7 days with these conditions. The brisket screens are the last things removed before finishing. If you live in a humid area then it might be longer.
I know a guy that dried fish mounts (cold water repro heads) in front of a fan and had them painted in three days, ready to ship. I thought this was a little fast but he did 100s a year and had very little complaints that I knew of. I tried it and three days really did dry a fish skin but I always wait slightly longer than that before finishing.