Hog Tusks....need advice.

I am not a taxidermist and this may be a really bad idea...Please don't try this without better opinions! Just a thought.

But is there any problem with using a dremel with a cutting wheel to cut the jaw bone out right around the tusk so that you could remove them by hand or with pliers, with a towell or piece of weather stripping in between the pliers jaws and the tusk?

 

I get that 'all' the time down here. (But they want the whole Jaw used instead of the repro ones : )
I just simmer till hot, maybe 10 minutes, and pull them out then fill with some type of filler. No biggie. ;D
There are mounts around here 80 + yrs old and no cracked tusks, but then there are some shockers too.

 

Cutting them out with the dremel is how we do it ,cut the bone not the tusk. As far as splitting the corners on the outside of the tusk is what splits off first, filling them does nothing to stop this.

 

Michelle,

I fill the tusks with either smooth cast or fantastic cast to keep them from splitting. Wrap tape around the tusk first in case you overfill the tusk. Put it softly in a vise or somthing else to hold it level and top it off. But as Bill said it may still split. Also be sure you charge extra for the real tusk as it takes much more time to boil, prepare the tusk, dremel out the jawset etc($50-$100). And be sure that you put IN WRITING on the work order that you don't guarantee the tusk wont split. Sometimes you gotta be honest even if it hurts and you are the expert, not the client.

Hugh

 

To keep them from splitting we fill them as previously suggested but we also spay the outside with a few coats of matte finish poly. This keeps the air from getting to them and drying them. Havent had any problems yet and been doing them for years. Good luck.

 

Always use the real tusk, and real jawset..I like to just simmer like Samantha stated and you can wiggle them until they come out, Cut them I leave the Whets hole , but I do cut the Tusks off with a dremel about 3/4" below the gumline, then I go to Tap Plastics and get some casting resin..turns ivory white when dry, and just fill them up, Whets too. I don't charge extra for the real jawset or reall tusks, You can actully make a little more money using the real stuff, I mean whats a decent jawset now days $40? and it never looks real!

 

Wrap a towl around the jaw and one around the tusk and wriggle. You may have to push it in a little bit to "break the seal" Then keep wriggling till it pops out. There will be some meat like stuff in the middle of the tusk but that will come out with a flick! Oh I also put in a bit of dish washing liquid in the boiling water as well.

 

Your not wiggiling hard enough 30-40 min is all you need you need to wrap a towel around and really pull side to side hard! the seal will break....if you kept boiling them tape them and fill them right away, or they will split for sure!

 

Hold the jaw with the smaller insisors facing you. Pull the tusk toward you, up and back in one motion. A vice helps to hold the jaw for the stubborn ones.

 

you will find if you give them a quick hard push into the jaw first, then wiggle them out they will loosen up, I rot all mine now, takes 3 days in the sun in a plastic bag, and have boiled pig jaws for the last 20 years,
Never once have I had one split or fall apart or crack, maybe they make them tuffer here in New Zealand,

But I have a huge laugh when a Taxidermist wants to replace the original ivory in a pig with plastic crap, that goes back to the skills of some of the taxidermist out there in this world nowdays

The trophy is the ivory?? what am I missing here? and they want to put false teeth into there customers mount. the teeth in a pig tells a lot of histroy on that boar, If I replaced any of them my clients would put there dogs on me,

???

 

I've heard a method of getting all the water out of them with soaking them in alcohol, first 30%, then 50%,etc and when it's done with 100% they are soaked in parafin oil what should restore them. Don't know the exact method, maybe some of the pro's are familiar with that method. And Kiwi, I know one major reason for replacing tusks is that customer want's tusks in panel and still a head mounted. So he can scored the tusks.

 

You have to push the lower tusks BACKWARDS to get them out !

I fill mine with fiberglass resin and coat them with clear matte finsih spr and have yet to have a set crack or split/