Cleaning Skull Plate

I don't do many, as a manor of fact I have only done one plate job, I used one of the kits from vandykes, it covers the plate completely. When I was young we always hung those in the shed until they smelled ok. then put them on our "wall of shame" for the deer that should not have been short or the ones that needed to be shot ....LOL

 

So you are wanting to do an antler mount with the deers skull cap?

What you do, or what I do, is split the deer from the chin to the throat. Than do a "Y" incision between the antlers and skin it out. Rough flesh and salt and tan it.

As far as the skull plate I pull the membrane out of the brain cavity and cover the entire skull cap with powdered borax. Let it set in a dry place for about a month and than dremal off all the meat and membrane.

Than mount it to a antler plaque form. Than stretch and sew the hide back on. You can use some hide paste to glue it down. Wrap it around the back and staple it.

 

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hmmm dont like it as much as a skull fo sho! But good luck either way.

 

That is what the customer wanted and that's what he got. I am not a dedicated 100% skull guy. I do them for the extra cash flow in the shop and they are easy.

 

you really need to get your hands on a kit or video or something. this isn't that tough. borax doesn't clean the skull but rather dries and preserves any tissue on the bone making it easier to remove it. you borax it AFTER you scrape as much meat off the bone as you can with a knife. again buying a kit that comes with instructions will help alot.

 

That looks nice Michele!

 

No need to simmer. Just get all the meat and membrane off. Put borax on it and let it soak up the moisture and clean it off. You can use whatever type of hide you want but I would stick with the same species as the antlers.

 

No you don't have to simmer. Just remove all the meat you can and cover that sucker in some powdered borax. Let dry for a month or so and them dremal the skull plate enough to get off the dried membrane.

 

The guys I hunt with have done it this way for years:

Skin the skull back to the antlers, keeping about 1" more than the size of the skull cap (I normally keep the skin from right above the eyes back). Use your knife to remove any meat you can get from up under the skin around the antlers (we don't cut the skin off). Dissolve as much salt as you can get into boiling water, and then soak the skull cap in the water for a week or two. Pull it out, drill some holes above the antlers, screw it to a plaque, and mold the soft flesh around the antlers. Let it dry by the fire and you're good to go.

Now I'm NOT a taxidermist. However, we've got skull caps that have been on the wall for 20 years with no problems... this way is quick and easy, and seems to work. I'd be interested in hearing what you guys have to say about it, though. Let me know what you think.

 

I always simmer the meat off the skull plate. Takes a couple of hours and is ready and is no where near as much work or time as scraping the meat off and drying with borax. My father has simmered the plates for over 30 years in the taxidermy game and has never had a problem.

 

When I'm cookin skulls I throw the antlers in for 10 min. just enough that you can knock the meat off in a few seconds.