I recently repaired an elk large 7x7 that had broke into at skull plate. No support except newspaper from Colorado dated 1986. Anyway when I hung it on wall I noticed movement, opened small area at crack in form which is 1/2 inch at top . The form has separated from bondo reattachment. Now hide is devastated from bugs that I had to reattach everything back to antlers and form with contact cement. Do you think one threaded rod screwed into from top , then mix up some foam and pour in would hold for awhile ? I told customer he would need new cape but still wants try to repair for now. Input would be helpful thanks.
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wire if he wants to be cheap. just rap around the head and horns, cinch down tight and bingo! cheap fix for a cheap customer! dont forget to supply him with a can or raid also.
I would not repair it. If you do he can try and blame you later for bugs in his house and spreading to other mounts. Tell him either you do it right or not at all.
if those bugs came from that guys house, chances are your studio could be infested with them too by now. Fumigate as soon as possible to prevent your own mounts from being eaten. Next, I would get that elk out of my studio ASAP and tell the customer it is beyond repair, and that you either going to remount it, or he can come and pick it up as is. Like Jim said, even if you do a good repair job, the guy is not going to be happy with it and will blame you for everything not his own stupidity.
As appealing as "repair" work is, you generally under charge, spend more time on it than you thought and it goes out of your shop below the quality you generally produce. Further, if its not "perfect" the guy will say you did it and turn away prospective customers. We did a few pieces a couple years ago and got stung. Our policy now is that we will repair work we did for free if it is a defect in workmanship. If its damage from the client we charge a flat rate of $50/hour plus supplies. We don't do repair work on other taxidermists work EVER. Even if its the last unicorn uncle joe shot we don't repair it. We will remount it, with a new cape. We don't touch an mammals for repair, we only remount antlered game, but if a client wants us to get them a replacement bear, wolverine or whatever we will do that. Well find a hide, buy it, put a profit on it for us, then mount it at our regular price.
Its hard to say no, believe me. But youll spend more time trying fix someones garbage than making money doing your quality work.
Hugh
What I'm worried about now is I've already fixed the antlers and worry about it ripping loose and falling on a kid . Have already sprayed shop and mount did not find any live bugs I could see in mount just remains . I don't have any other fur around right now, mostly fish and turkey. Luckily most of my customers pick up within two days of calling them.