Repairs, Repairs, Repairs….

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December 1, 2016

Can Cause a Taxidermist Nightmares

Recently, I was working through my work order backlog and I came across a Whitetail that I remember very well from when my client dropped it off right in the midst of the rut. It was covered in battle scars as well as fresh wounds. I asked the guy if he had hit it with his truck. Laughing he said no, that this buck had been in some hardcore battles with two other deer, one about the same size and another much larger brute. He had open wounds, his nose was ripped to shreds and he had a couple of lower front teeth missing. I could not believe there weren’t any breaks or chips in the antlers.

The client wanted to know if I could save the cape because he wanted to mount it, but only if we could use the original cape. I promptly said sure, no problem. WHAT WAS I THINKING? So we filled out the work order, he paid the necessary deposit and he went on his way. Now, eight months later his work order comes up and the wet tanned cape is thawing. I am now faced with pulling my foot out of my mouth and saving this man’s cape as I said I would do.

So in this article I am going to show you what I did to pull this off. Then when you are faced with a cape like this you can say “Sure, No Problem” just like I did. Remember, repairs are a part of taxidermy, and if done properly, you are the only one who knows where they are. Okay, time to stop talking and get to work.

Let’s do this thing!

We will be starting out with a wet tanned cape and it will be mounted on a W03-7119R from Head Quarters Supply. We have already test fit the cape on the form and installed a medium Gene Smith Quick Nose. Final prep has been done to the cape ie. ear cartilage removed, final splitting and thinning ect. So this is where we will pick up with this article.

As you can see there are many repairs to be made, from the nose to eyes and on down the neck. To start you need to go ahead and repair any holes in the hair line around the nose pad and lips. If it is in the fleshy part just leave as is, no need to sew these, they will be repaired later.

Using 4lb Berkley Fire Line, the Smoke colored in the dark haired areas and the Crystal color in the lighter or white haired areas. Make small stitches making sure to catch the very edge of the skin and bring the needle through at an angle. This will help to hide the stitches from the hair side. This particular Whitetail had many superficial wounds to the face and neck. Only once it was shaved did they start opening up and leaving small puncture like holes in the face and neck area.

You will need to sew these up as well. There is a lot of sewing to do on this cape. But to get the best mount possible it needs to be done and done correctly so you will have limited finish work to do once the deer is mounted and dry. You will most likely have bleeding or at the least very sore fingers when done.

On the back of the neck behind the right ear there is a fairly nasty looking scabbed over wound, for best results you need to cut this area out and sew it up.

Your client will never remember it was there. To do this, just part the hair and with a sharp scalpel cut the area out following along the edge of the good hair. If you take your time cutting, it should go right back together like a zipper.

Now once you have your form prepped you can mount as normal and let dry. Do not worry about holes in the nose pad. Line up your hair patterns using references. With a project like this you can really see how much shrinkage you have from mounting to dry. Notice how the wounds opened up as the nose pad dried out.

After the deer has had adequate time to dry you can move forward with your finish work as normal. The only difference is rebuilding the nose pad. First make sure there are no parts of the skin that has curled up and not stuck to the form. You can do this by clipping off any loose skin with a pair of small scissors. Next mix just enough Aves Fit-it Sculpt to fill in the open areas in the nose pad and with a small modeling tool apply it.

You should actually do this step first. This way the Fix-It Sculpt can begin to set up while you do your other filler work and painting. Once the filler on the nose pad has kicked, lightly sand the surface of the pad just enough to blend the filler and skin together. Be careful not to get into the hair line and damage the small hairs around the nose.

Okay, now you need to finish this nose up. Mix you some more Fix-It Sculpt, this time add a little black powdered Tempera paint. This will give you a medium grey color, which will provide a good base color for the nose pad. Next apply a thin layer over the nose being extremely careful not to get it in the hair.

Now, with a mold of a freshly harvested deer nose, with a liberal coat of Apoxie Safety Solvent firmly but carefully press it into the nose pad.

This will give you a bit of texture to the nose instead of a slick surface to work with. Next go ahead and paint the nose using your normal schedule. Then finish retexturing the nose pad using an applicator bottle with Liquitex. Apply a little gloss, and your repaired nose is complete.

With a little know how, time and patience you can pull off repairs such as this. Here you can see where the scabbed over wound was removed and stitched up. It looks much better than having that nasty scar showing on your client’s wall.

Now the battle scars around the eyes and down the muzzle are hidden. This gives you a much better final product and you were able to use the original cape.

I hoped I was able to share some repair tips in this article that will help you to save a special trophy for a client one day. For tips and other techniques click here.

DP

A different twist on pedestals Part 2

By

mshipman

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November 30, 2016

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On the last article we talked about the square tubing in the manikin. This article I will cover how I install the tubing in the base.
First I have a helper set the animal on the base to see where it looks the best. I step back and look at it while my help is holding it. I like to place it to where their is an equal amount of the animal on both sides of the base.
After the attachment point is figured out I trace around the square tubing with a marker. Then I set my larger receiver tubing on it and mark around it. I use a drill bit for each corner and finish up with a reciprocating saw. I stick a tape measure down in the hole all the to the bottom of the base and this is the length I cut my tubing. My wood guy builds my bases to where the bottom is removable. I remove the bottom. Then i temporary secure the bottom of the tube to the insides of the base to where i think it need to be. I then put the form on the base to see how level it is. If I need to move it side to side or lift the front up some now’s the time. Flip the base back over and repeat process until it’s where I want in. Then permanently secure bottom of tubing and replace bottom of pedestal.
This method may not be for everyone but it works great for me.

Stehling’s Taxidermy expands it’s freeze drying service

By

admnistrator

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November 22, 2016

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TTN- Stehling’s Taxidermy in Jefferson, WI has substantially expanded it’s freeze drying services to taxidermists and sportsmen. The Stehling’s purchased four more 36″ x 72″ commercial dryers to keep up with demand . They now have five commercial dryers . ” These new machines allow us to handle an even larger volume of freeze dry work and maintain consistent quality with a fast delivery time” said Aaron Stehling, co owner of Stehling’s Taxidermy. ” We have been getting requests to add services to our freeze dry offering” said Aaron, ” We now offer freeze drying services for mammals, velvet antlers, fish, reptiles,and turkey heads”.

The Stehling’s Freeze Dryers

According to Mr Stehling, this expansion means more savings and convenience for their wholesale taxidermist clients ” You can now combine wholesale shipments of specimens for conventional mounting and freeze drying. The finished product can be shipped back in the same box, saving you money on shipping both ways”.

If you are interested in more information on Stehling’s Taxidermy’ s wholesale services, please visit their web site www.stehlingstaxidermy.com or call 920.674.3724

Turkey Feather Repairs–making good look great

By

Aaron Stehling

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November 15, 2016

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If you mount any number of turkeys a year, chances are you run into birds with shot damage. Sometimes it can be hidden, but quite often repairs need to be made.

I prefer to make my feather repairs after the bird is mounted and drying. As you can see from this picture, the otherwise nice mount has some hackle feather damage right behind the head. The feathers took the full shotgun blast and were broken and mangled badly.

The first step is to remove the damaged feather area. I use a scalpel to cut the damaged skin and feathers tracks out in one piece.

I than have to take good hackle feathers from one of my parts skins. I cut out the feathers I need and wash and dry them.

I test fit, than lay down a thin layer of silicone caulking. This holds the feathers in place and gives you control of them for grooming.The new feather track is dropped in place and groomed to match the existing feathers.

The finished repair.

Google Chromes New HTTPS Requirements for Your Website

By

Taxidermy Talk

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November 8, 2016

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Google Chrome recently released their new requirements for website security. Starting in January 2017 all websites that collect user information will be required to use ssl secured https instead of http. Any website that does not follow the new guidelines could be flagged as being “not secure” in the website address bar. See Pic:

What is the difference between http and https?

HTTPS URLs begin with “https://mywebsite.com” whereas HTTP URLs begin with “http://mywebsite.com”

HTTP is not encrypted and is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle and eavesdropping attacks, which can let attackers gain access to website accounts and sensitive information, and modify webpages to inject malware or advertisements. HTTPS is designed to withstand such attacks and is considered secure against them.

What types of websites will need ssl “https” protection?

Websites that have or run the following applications should have https protection.

Ecommerce websites
Websites with Login zones (client login as well as admin logins zones)
Websites with Contact Forms or other forms that collect user information
Websites that offer downloads

What are the benefits to switching to https?

There are numerous benefits to switching from http to https including:

A more secure website that is less vulnerable to attacks and protects your users information.
Google looks favorable on websites that use https and will tent to rank them higher in search results.
Your clients will feel more comfortable using your website
It is good website/internet practice.

Is there a cost to getting an ssl certificate for my website and switching to https?

Yes, an ssl certificate would have to be purchased and put onto your website to make it secure. Depending on the type of encryption needed, the can cost between $60-$200 per year.

Most website just need the basic ssl for $60 per year.

There is also an initial fee for wrapping the new ssl onto your website. The price for this will vary depending on the size of your website and how much content or “urls’ need to be changed from “http” to secure “https”.

Is it mandatory that I secure my website?

Our answer to that would be yes. All website should be secure. However, if you run a basic website that does not collect user information and you are not concerned about your users seeing a not secure warning in their address bar then you would not need to get https protection. Though we would Highly recommend that you do.

All of our clients will be receiving emails over the next week with more information. If you have questions feel free to contact us : 920-723-1224

Alternative Approach To Drummed Ears

By

CJ Herring

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November 8, 2016

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Drummed ears are probably the number one failure for any new taxidermist who is starting out. It has happened to most of us when starting out, but in this modern day and age of taxidermy, there is absolutely no excuse for anyone developing drummed ears. We have come too far in taxidermy advancements to even worry about drummed ears anymore. But yet we are still seeing it in guys and gals who are starting out on their own.

The number one culprit for drummed ears is improper earliner preparation, followed by improper earliner sizing. Experience a combination of both and you’re guaranteed to get drummed ears after the deer mount dries and if not then within a few months.

There are many brands and styles of earliners on the market. The composition in materials used to manufacture earliners varies. Some are made of plastic and some out of fabric. I must note though I haven’t seen a fabric liner in some time being sold by the suppliers. The thing I liked about the fabric earliners is that little to no preparation was needed for any kind of adhesive to adhere to the liner.

Old fabric earliner from back in the day

I’m about to show you two little tricks that just may help you out when getting started in taxidermy. This earliner tip is aimed at the self-teaching individuals who are worried they didn’t get the liner sanded or roughed up enough to accept the hide paste. If your hide paste grips the ear skin when drying, but doesn’t get enough grip on the liner, it will pull away and drum during the drying process.

If I’m not going to Bondo an ear I’m inserting a liner and most likely a plastic liner. The particular earliner I most often use today is made of a plastic composite. They are very flexible, they hold memory and can easily be manipulated to accommodate ears back if need be. You can get these liners from T.A.S.C.O Taxidermy Supply in Wisconsin.

The first thing you need to do is size the liner. Chances are your earliner is bigger than is needed. This is the biggest mistake beginners make when using earliners. Your ear skin should never feel snug with a liner inserted. There should be plenty of play and loose skin. It should feel like that your liner is too small for your ear. With that said if you ever have to trim off more than 1/8 of an inch from your liner, order smaller earliners. The earliners I use is one size fits all and I have never had to go beyond the 1/8 inch to get them to fit properly. Don’t worry about all the slack in your skin. The adhesive will fill in the gaps, especially the gaps to the ears edge. This is why we card ears during drying and as the ear dries the edges will pull in tight to the liner and all that excess skin you had to play with will also tighten down. If your liner fits too snug to begin with, then you will run into the chance of that ear drumming while drying.

If you have not already, remove the ear cartilage from the ear and make sure you have and spilt the ear all the way to the edge. Do this while the ears are still wet from the tan.

So what adhesive do we use? Is there a magic adhesive for ears? To tell you the truth it does not matter what type or kind of glue you use for your ears, if your earliner is not properly prepared in advanced. This also goes for the ear skin itself. Make sure they too are roughed up with sand paper and that all tanning oils have been removed and the ear skin itself is dry. When I say dry I mean that you can no longer squeeze any moisture from it and the hair side is completely dried using a (on cool setting) hair dryer.

For those who are starting out, learning and don’t want to invest in a tub of high quality taxidermy adhesive, run down to Walmart and grab yourself a small can of plain old Bondo, or better yet Bondo Hair if you can get it. Bondo Hair has fiberglass strands mixed into it making it stronger and most Wally World’s carry it. If you have access to dry saw dust that’s great. Get some of it, about a pound of it. If not then head over to TSC (Tractor Supply) and pick up a bag of Equine Pelletized Bedding for about $6. The pellets are nothing more than pine wood pellets.

Crushing some wood pellets to make saw dust

To turn the pine wood pellets into saw dust, throw some in a bucket and dampen really well. Don’t soak them just get them damp. I use a spray bottle filled with clean cool water. When the pellets are good and damp, they should crumble very easily, creating sawdust. Use a blunt object and mash them up. The picture should explain what I do. Remember you don’t want to soak the pellets, just dampen them. A spray bottle works well for this.

Now that we got all that out of the way let’s get going. We have test fitted our ear, our earliner is properly trimmed and our ear skin is all ready to go. We are going to spray down the earliner with spray adhesive which can be bought anywhere hardware and or paints are sold. Give it a good coating and allow it to set up. It should be very tacky at this point. Take the liner and rub the sawdust into the liner. It should stick to it. Cover both front and back of the liner. Repeat this step several times until you get a good coating of sawdust on the earliner. When all done give the saw dust on the liner a good spray. Allow to dry for 15 minutes or so.

Now it’s time to mix up our Bondo. Mix it a little thin by adding resin to it. We don’t want it lumpy or thick. We are just using the bondo as a substitute adhesive which will grab onto the earliner and ear skin. The saw dust on the liner serves as a rough surface, which is excellent for any adhesive to adhere too. Many will argue that bondo is not an adhesive, but it sure does stick to anything and everything. Next poke a pin hole or two in the tip of the ear. This will allow air to escape. Paint the earliners with your bondo mixture the carefully insert it in to your ear. Taxi the ear skin into place. Make sure your hair patterns are lined up. At this time you will groom the ear until the bondo kicks in and hardens. After you mount up the deer be sure to card the ears.

Never throw away them yogurt cups. Bondo mixes well in them

So now that I have covered the saw dust tip, I’m going to show you another way of doing it if you’re like me and use a high quality taxidermy grade earliner adhesive. I call it the perforated effect because you’re going to do just that. A good tool to use for this is a leather punch. Simply pierce the earliner from ear tip to base, spreading out over the earliner. Again you should have already test fitted your ear and trimmed as necessary beforehand. Apply your adhesive onto the liner front and back. Make sure the glue fills the holes you made. Next poke a pin hole or two in the tip of the ear. This will allow air to escape. Carefully and gently insert the liner into your ear and taxi the skin. Once the skin is in the correct position and all of your hair patterns line up go ahead and put a few staples into the ear and through the liner. If you catch any inner ear hair be sure to pull it out from under the staples. These staples will be removed once the ear is totally dried and set which will be in about a week or two. Now go ahead and groom your ear. Don’t for get to card the ears once you mount up.

All done but feel free to punch some more holes

The whole idea behind the perforated earliner is to allow the inner ear glue to meet the back ear glue. Your adhesive will never pull away from the earliner when done like this. The whole concept is to prevent drummed ears. 9 out of 10 times it is the adhesive that separates from the earliner allowing for a drummed ear. If your ear skin is separating from the adhesive, then you are not getting the oils out of the skin and or your ear skin was too wet when you went in to set the liner.

Tuning Your Fleshing Blade

By

D.Price

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November 8, 2016

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[avatar user=”D.Price” size=”thumbnail” align=”center” link=”file” /]

HOW THE CUTTING EDGE WORKS

Tuning your fleshing blade is an art in itself, above and beyond running the machine. To understand this process you must first know how the cutting edge or wire works.

First lets touch on how the wire is created to begin with. The blade is attached to a machine that grinds both sides of the edge at the same time. This process uses two different stones that create even bevels on both sides of the blade.

Once the edge is razor sharp it is rolled to an angle slightly less than 90 degrees. This is done by using a mechanical device that has roller and a tension spring in it and a handle for controlling the pressure applied to the bevel.

You can turn the edge in different sizes by controlling the bevel size and pressure applied when turning. The wider the wire the thinner the lip will be. This causes the edge not to last as long. For that reason I prefer a narrower, heavy edge. This will also allow you to control the cut better by tuning the edge.

HOW TO TUNE THE CUTTING EDGE

You want to lift or open the wire with your left hand. You do this by lightly placing the short bullet shaped steel under the wire and slowly lifting. This will manipulate the edge to where it will cut deeper.

You close or turn down the edge with your right hand By laying the longer steel on top of the blade. Now lightly lift your right hand to close off the cut size. This is a very delicate process, you do not want to be heavy handed with this.

DO NOT cross your steels while tuning. This will cause friction and heat that will only prematurely end the life of the cutting edge.

This is an art that can be learned with the right guidance and knowledge. I go into much deeper and live demonstrations in my online video series “Mastering The Fleshing Machine A-Z PLUS”. These videos show you how it is done in the commercial tanneries every day. They are a must have if you own a round knife or fleshing machine.

DP

Replica fish mounts–what the taxidermist needs

By

Aaron Stehling

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November 6, 2016

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This article was originally written for sportsmen on what a taxidermist needs to provide a matching replica.

Replica or reproduction fish are mounts that are completely artificial. They are commonly used if a fish was caught and released, the fish does not make a good skin mount, or for interior decorating projects/wildlife dioramas.

Replica fish are molded off of real fish. Once a mold is made, a cast is pulled and made ready for a production mold. A high quality production mold can produce hundreds of casts, or as we call them in the taxidermy industry, blanks. The replica fish blank goes through a cleaning and grinding process to remove mold release and flashing. We then have to repair seams, add glass eyes,gills and put fins back on. Then its off to the paint booth. A good taxidermist can recreate the colors of the fish you caught onto a replica fish with great accuracy .

You do not have to bring your fish in to a taxidermist to get a replica made. There are thousands of molds available for almost all of the common fish species caught. However,not all of these molds are of the best quality or made the same. Many of the newer fish molds offer higher quality and more lifelike poses, including full open mouth and gill detail. Ask your taxidermist for examples of their recently completed replicas to see if you like what they are offering.

Now that you have caught the fish of a lifetime, what does the taxidermist need ? While we can recreate a replica off of a good description,the more information we can get on the fish the more accurate the mount will be!

Pictures

Pictures are one of the most important things you can get before you release your fish. This is what the taxidermist will use to recreate the colors on your replica . Try taking pictures at different angles and in different lights. The more pictures the better. Most smartphones have cameras that are more than adequate for this.

Length & Girth

Take your length measurement from the tip of the jaw to the tip of the tail.The girth should be measured at the part of the fish with the greatest diameter. Normally this is around the center of the fish. A Tailors waterproof tape measure works great for this. The taxidermist can normally find a blank close to your size fish, but being a little flexible on the exact size is appreciated.

Weight

While getting an accurate weight on your fish can be helpful, it is not as important as pictures and measurements. If your goal is to release the fish alive, you may want to skip this step.

Good Description

Making notes of certain colors or features that make your fish unique is important. Write down anything that jumps out at you after your fish is in the boat.

A few notes on catch and release fishing

Obviously, the goal of C & R is to get the fish back in the water as soon as possible. Avoid holding the fish by it’s jaw. This is not a natural position for a fish and can cause internal injury. Keep the fish moist and avoid over handling the fish. Fish have a slime coat that helps protect them. Removing too much of it can open the fish up to infection . Big fish are often thought of as being ” tough”, but big fish are old fish and may not take the release as well as younger fish. Also many older fish are no longer fertile, even if they are carrying eggs. In some situations it may actually be better to keep larger, older fish and release the younger more vigorous fish. Warmer weather and water temperatures can also increase the mortality rate of released fish. Under ideal condition the mortality rate of fish is around 10%. In warmer water it can hit 25% or higher.

Good Fishing !

Aaron Stehling is a full time taxidermist in Jefferson WI. He is the owner of Stehling’s Taxidermy LLC, a second generation studio that has been in business for over 40 years.He is also administrator on www.taxidermytalk.com forums. Aaron is an online instructor on www.taxidermyinsider.com. Questions or comments for Aaron can be directed to a.n.stehling@gmail.com