Hide Paste Headaches! Please Help!

Changed to Pro-1 for everything.... Never will I go back to dema-grip or latex caulk.

Very high quality product... Pro-1

 

Yep pro 1 best on the market, you can tint it colors to use , like pink for ears and nose or brown to use in habitats . It is expensive to ship and is why I buy it 5 gal at a time and go to Taxidermy shows they go to to stock up and save on shipping

 

I still use dextrine and water, you can usually purchase at any large food ingredients distribution company for approximately $55 for a 50 pound bag. Probably do about 60 deer out of one bag. Yellow and white dextrine have similar results. I think of using higher priced glue but haven't seen the need to.

 

First if all, the cost of glue should never be a consideration. If you aren't adding that into what you're charging, then you're as dumb as your customers.

Second using cheap caulk and dextrine may have been ideal during the days of paper forms. No one markets paper forms. Those products certainly work SHORT TERM ON FOAM FORMS. Hoping that it lasts the life of the mount is just about as dumb as paining your forms with shellac. If the mount is hung in high/low humidity or high/low temperatures, the long term IS GOING TO BE DRUMMING. This is a perfect example of the difference between a glue and an adhesive. The cheap glues simply hold the hide in contact with the form by mechanically creating a vacuum of sorts. Once it cures, there is no chemical bond between the hide and the foam form. Conversely the adhesives do form a chemical and mechanical bond between the form and the hide so it ADHERES. If you've ever torn down a paper form, you can feel a slight mechanical bond but its dependent on the shellacked adhering to the paper and not to the hide bonding to shellac. Tear down a foam form mount done with dextrine. It peels like an orange. Simply wrap your mount with a wet towel. Now try that with the epoxies or adhesives like Pro-1. If that glue is cured, you're going to rIp chunks of foam out.

Bottom line: if you concern yourself with a mount only until it clears the shop, use cheap crap. If it's your animal and you want it to look as good 20 years from now as they do when they leave your shop, buy quality ADHESIVES.

 

We visited Biltmore in Asheville a few weeks ago. Awesome old moose and elk mounts hanging high in the un-air conditioned dining room. I suspect Jonas used dextrin on them 125 years ago!

 

Joey, I also suspect they were (1) originally .mounted on paper forms and (2) considering that those mounts would be 124 years old, they have been "refreshed" several times.

 

You may be correct, but they appear original. Visit Biltmore and give me an assessment!