I just recieved a wild boar head this will be my fist and just for practice. I would like to use the orginal tusks but ive heard that they don't last long. Is this true? Can I preserve them to make them last longer?
Thank-you
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Yes
NO
Sorry, but there's no other answer.
Rick Carters A-Z boar video, its great! He discusses how to present this issue to your customer. BTW I met him at the MI show this weekend, nice guy. Good luck www.natures-reflection.com
Im getting ready to mount my first wild boar too and looked up this very question. I dont remember who posted it or answerd it but from what i read, and its probly searchable but, you would remove the tusks as usuall clean and dry and then fill them with a two part fiberglass resin or epoxy. Which i did to mine so we'll see if this works.
P.S. Rick Carters video is really good if you havent bought it yet.
I've heard this stuff about how you shouldn't use the real tusks because they crack etc. But my customers (so far 100% of them) want the real tusks used. Infact they scoff at the idea of using fakes. My advice to help keep your tusks from cracking is don't boil them. Let them rot out. Then fill them with apoxi sculpt. I've never had a single customer complain that their tusks cracked. Could be because I live in a high humidity climate? Could be because where I'm from we don't have extreme temperature fluctuations? I don't know. But none have cracked here in Hawaii. I know that when I was younger and I boiled them to make necklaces they would crack then, sometimes.Or if I let them hang on the rear view mirror of a car in hot weather for days on end.
Living where you do in such a high humidity environment, it will most likely take longer for yours to disintegrate that they would in Arizona or some place hot and dry like that. In a house with humidity control, it's going to happen quicker. The tooth is not hollow but it does have moisture inside it. If you want to see the process at work, go to a museum and check out real ivory tusks and look at the spiderwebs and cracks that have formed over the years.
If the tusks are from a young hog then yes, they MIGHT crack if prepared incorrectly.
All you have to do is take a small file and slighty righ uo the inside of the tusks after they have been cleaned and fill them with 2 ton epoxy or fiberglass.
I have mounts in my shop mounted over 30 years ago using the same methd and the tusks havent got a single crack on them.