This is a old rack that we have that is pretty neat. I want to return it to look like a normal rack. As you can see I messed it up pretty bad by using saddle stain to stain the whole antlers. There is 2 broken horns. There isnt much left in the skull cap and there is holes drilled in the horns. So where do I start. I included a picture of what I think would be a decent lookin spread. Ill take any advice. There isnt much for burrs on this rack, will it be hard to head mount someday?
Just insert these in your address bar to see the horns.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/donelan07/100_1247.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/donelan07/100_1248.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/donelan07/100_1249.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/donelan07/100_1251.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/donelan07/100_1254.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/donelan07/100_1257.jpg
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/donelan07/rack.jpg
Just a pic of what it might look like mounted granted its a little unproportioned.
Being that you already stained them and made them totally dark in color trying to change that isn't done with ease.
So lets begin here on how I would handle this. First you can get a skull plate from McKenzie, WASCO etc, and attach your abntlers to that. What to look for is a european skull mount.
Next I would take some steel wool and lacquer thinner (mixed with some acetone)and scrub down the whole rack. Please wear the proper gloves and resporator when doing this. It can save your life!
This is the time I would take out some epoxy and rebuid those antlers in. All you need to do is drill a hole a size or two bigger in the rack and take some ten gauge wire prebent to the desired shape and lenght. Make some some cuts into the wire where it will be attached to the antler. Mix up some Epo-Grips 90 second epoxy or their 7-10 minute set if you have that on hand, or some other 5 minute epoxy and insert the wire into the epoxy and push it into the hole.
After this sets up mix up some sculpt-all,or other epoxy you have on hand and rebuild your antler to almost the desired shape. From there I use Epo-Grips antler repair putty. It's an epoxy that has a coloration to almost if not as close as can be to the real antler color. Finish with this with some water to blend into the antler and when it begins to set up take a modeling tool and make whatever marks you may like in the antler to make it look reaslistic. Smooth out the rough edges with a wet brush and let it set up overnight.
After scrubing down the antler as best as you can get yourself a can of flat ivory spray paint. Spray two coats of this on the rack. Let it set up overnight.
The following day use some Potassium Permanganate and alcohol. Again wear the proper equipment. Brush this all over the antlers. It will be puple in color but dry brown. Once this is done use fine steel wool and begin rubbing off the stain. Depening on the look you want will depend on how much to rub off where. I leave it a bit heavy in the buur to the brown tines and take more off as I go up. Use reference for this. If you rubbed to much off, just reapply the stain and redo the same tecnique.
Once you get what you want seal the rack with a matte finish. If you would like to see what it looks like when it's finished just e-mail me and I'll show you one that I'm mounting on a deer right now.