I recently finished a King Salmon, when I applied the Life Tone Polyurethane Topcoat it looked great. The customer picked up the fish and was very pleased, only to call me 2 weeks later and say parts of the Topcoat had pulled away from the fish especially near the fin buts, around the tail fin, between the fin rays. The body of the fish is fine. It is as if the topcoat suffered some shrinkage causing air pockets under the top coat. Any idea what may have caused this? I have used this Life Tone Polyurethane Topcoat before and had not a problem.
Thanks,
Dan
Return to Fish Taxidermy Category Menu
there areas in which you stated the lifting began, leads me to believe that possibly the degreasing process you used did not do a good enough job as this is where oil seems to accumulate a bit more. Also, what are you sealing your kings with? I do not use the same sealer on salmon as I do on less greasey fish such as bass,walleye,panfish, etc. due to the problem you are having. Good luck.PS, paying special attention to cleaning everything you can out while skinning these fish is crucial in a clean and stable final product.
...SOMETHING from underneathe is causing the problem. And I suspect the same Marc suspects in that those areas you mention are high in oil content...
Greetings,
I have done several salmon and not had a problem. I do a good job of making sure the skins are fleshed well and degreassed. I use the WASCO Fish Tan. The paint is fine and there is no sign of grease coming through. The Topcoat seperated without paint. It also happened on the artifical head around the eye and creases in the head. I have done 75-100 fish, about half have been steelhead and salmon and never had this problem. I seal them with WASCO Fungicidal Sealer.
Thanks,
Dan
Have you sprayed other fish successfully with the exact same batch? Or, did you change ANYTHING in the mount-up process with this particular fish? Or, is this an unusually LARGE King that could be greasier than your normal mounts? Was your gun clean?
I still say because of the location of the issues, that oils are the cause. Some fish are just GREASIER than others too. This one could have had a higher than usual fat content. Just some guesses to help isolate the problem...
99 can be fine and one will show problems in the areas you spoke of in your first post. Why that is I just don't know other than what Marty said...some are just greasier.
It could have nothing to do with grease, and lets assume you did a great job cleaning these areas.It could be that these areas were still shrinking. The paint might be stuck and forgiving, but the gloss(having a different consistency) may not be acting the same way in the fin areas. Oil from your fingers or hands might be the problem on the repro head, or mold release that wasn't removed. Just a thought...good luck, JL
Certainly another possibility...
in all of those areas? Maybe a bad batch of that or another problem with it. I know I've actually caught myself not mixing the two parts because I was distracted. I know I'm not the only one as I watched a taxidermist friend do the same thing! LOL
I had the same problem with a couple fish. I tried gloss from a can sold by the supply companies to see how well it worked. It worked great, it had the shine, and it was fast to apply. After applying it for a few days I had the fish outside to observe the shimmering colors for several minutes and the gloss started to bubble up and do wierd things from the sun. So maybe your customer had it outside for a long period of time. That type of gloss may not be weather worthy.
but I don't think it will cause it to pull away from the fish. Could be wrong though.
After using the canned gloss (master gloss) I had the fish in the hot sun for 10 minutes and it bubbled right off of the paint, just in certain areas three different times so I know it was the gloss. It wasn't just a skin mount, my fish wood carvings did it to. So no more fish viewing outside I guess.
Maybe it got left in the car,got hot, oil came out,then the guy could of grabed it then, oops, Did you say to the guy, Hey bud,..how long did you leave it in the car ?, I'd flat out ask the guy how long did he have it in a parked car on a hot day !
..Or..hate to say it,you diden't get all the oil out.
Buck...
I can't believe how Buck wants to handle the problem.It's little wonder that some taxidermists have difficulty running a profitable business.You can handle the customer in such a way as to have him WANT to come back bringing you more work.
(1) Since you don't know for sure what happened that caused the gloss to lift, don't try to put the blame on the customer, YOU DON'T KNOW.
(2) Simply offer to fix the problem at no cost to him, explaining that you don't know what caused this to happen and that you've never seen this happen before.Blaming him won't resolve the problem.
(3) Advertising costs are part of our business and this easy repair will do more for your reputation than an add in a newspaper.That satisfied customer will bring you many more referals than your cost to fix the problem.
Just my opinion...JL
Is for me I would then tell the guy I'd fix it Free of Charge ! then Id have a customer for life ! and the only reason I said it, because I reall did have a guy cook one in the car and it sutr was close to the above mentioned damage, and the guy since then has been one of my Best customers ! Well then there you go ! Thats how I handled a problem;and gained a valued customer ...That's just how I would play it based on the fact of that he almost never had problems like it before.
Buck...