Who does european mounts?
Wisconsin
I'm having a hard time finding a taxidermist that wants to tackle an elk skull Mount mount. Anyone have any references? I'm located in Waukesha County.
You are over halfway there...do it yourself.
Sorry. dont hav a taxi close by you.
But all you need is a bucket of 90° water to submerge the head in for a week to ten days. (i use a quality fish tank heater) hopefully you have a large yard. Because this is what I imagine iraq smells likeminus- the diesel and gunpowder
The second step is a bath in Dawn to degrease for a day or two.
The last step is a peroxide bath for as long as needed. i mixed normal store bought peroxide with 40volume peroxide bought at sallys beauty supply.
Good luck in your search and great elk!
Agree with that, but also warn guys that do it thrmselves, to do it right, or it will yellow over time.
Maceration would be the easiest thing at this time, because beetle cleaning is unnecessary due to all the meat that is removed. By soaking the head in plain water, bacteria will eat and soften any remaining flesh. After a really good soaking, take a pressure washer and spray off the skull using a fan on your sprayer. Spray out the brain, and remove the remaining connective tisue with forceps. You must degrease before attempting to whiten. Many ways here, but sal soda in water under a very low heat is one way. change out the solution until no more grease floats to the surface. This will take a while. Do not cook the bone. Heat the water. By boiling the water, you can actually impregnate the bone with oil, and the skull will actually leach out grease later on, and your skull will yellow over time. Now if you really wanted to do it professional, I would say an acetone soaking would be in order. That is a lot of acetone, you probably don't have that supply, but it really removes any remaining fat because of their differences in specific gravity. Whitening is probably going to be 40 volume hydrogen peroxide from a beauty salon. A paste you can wipe on, then wash off, but again, 35% liquid is typically what professionals use. Wear butyl rubber gloves. It will burn you. Rinse well, and allow it to dry. Keep it off the antlers, it will lighten them.
The most important step is removing the oil in the bone. My skull guy is moving to Arizona, so I will be doing my own as well. In my opinion it was well worth it to have it done correctly. Too often they look good for a while and then over the years they turn yellow. Bears being the worst due to their porous bone and high fat content.
Kevin and I were typing at same time. Sorry about the double post. Same ideas though...
Good post Pete;-)
I just tried this method on a russian boar skull over the summer.
And for about $20 I am very happy with my first try.
Kevin, I used to do my own, but working with my skull guy, we came up with a combined method that had great results. A little of him and his dermisted beetle colony (millions of bugs), a little bit of my hooking him up with Viking Chemical company so he could get 35% hydrogen peroxide and acetone in 55 gallon drums. Now it's not as easy to get that H2O2, because of the danger of its nature as an oxidizer and how it reacts violently with base materials. Now ATF, as well as the DNR keeps an eye on its usage as well as disposal. He basically macerates (rots) the flesh. The bugs still do all the detail work, but microorganisms (bugs of a much smaller caliber) do most of the work. Isopropyl alcohol will work as a degreaser as well, but acetone gets rid of residual odor, and is much lighter than oil. Grease will fall right out of bone you might have thought was pretty darn clean. He only charged $50, and now I'm with you Kevin. Time to get my hands dirty, and I won't expect quite the same results. Another source of peroxide is Baquasill (spelling) swimming pool shock. It is 27% peroxide (very strong), and a gallon is like $15. Volume versus % are not the same deal. 27 or 35% is much stronger than 40 volume. The stuff you buy at a drug store I believe is 3%. So you can dilute the pool stuff with a five gallon bucket of warm water and do much better than 40 volume.
Nice elk condradulations. PM sent
The two part solution that the beauty shops use to bleach hair also works wonders on skulls. Pretty cheap and easy to get.
Try Dan Johnson Taxidermy in Oconomowoc.
Randy Mayes (Mayes Taxidermy Studio) out of Stevens Point does them and also has some cool "dips" for skulls if you are so inclined. -Might be a stretch for transportation for you depending on if you are ever in central Wisconsin...
Bucky's Taxidermy in Grafton. He's done 2 bear and 2 deer for my family.
Thanks for all the replies. I found someone. Lots of guys do skull mounts. Not many wanted to tackle an elk
I have a new design for the plaque for my moose skull and a smaller one (in the works)for displaying European mounts. These were made from butternut and are 41 inches long. Need a big plaque for a moose!
Finished one of my European projects. I sorta like the home made plaques.
Finished one of my European projects. I sorta like the home made plaques.
Good stuff LC! Amazing how dense that bone and antler is on a moose compared to a whitetail. Turned out real nice.
Shoulder mount is about $1,500 and this cost time on my part. I had the butternut lumber on hand from our woods. This is how the Clairol Basic White stuff bleaches bone...not as hazardous as high octane H2O2.
Who does these in the new Richmond area???
Live in Spring Valley and do my own. Easy to do but if you think you can't handle it there is a woman in St. Paul that can do them. "Remains to be seen" she's usually 6 months to a year out...
Anyone do this up in the Appleton area? I want to get my son's first deer done like this.
Do your own...it's not hard.
Ron n Gun has been known to do them for the voluntary fee of one backstrap.
http://european-skull-mounts.com. He's out near greenwood and does a really great job
Great elk. No matter what you decide we would like to see the final result.
This is another variation of the plaque for hanging European mounts. I made a mistake with the router so I filled in the divot with epoxy and painted the thing. This are the colors of Magnus Stingers....I still need to neaten up the lines so they are crisp.
Some of the supposed "meat hunters" shoot the first little buck they see. Often times they throw the skull away and perhaps you can snag one and practice so you can learn the ropes of doing European mounts. That is how I did my first one-I found a skull that had been discarded on one of my winter forays. Be VERY careful around rotting flesh. I've heard/seen horror stories of the "flesh eating bacteria" doing some very nasty things.
This is how the second Euro turned out this year. I used a redesigned plaque that I turned out in the shop. Guess I should make the plaque about 1/3 smaller so the thing will look more balanced. The antlers are about 18 inches wide but look smaller.
You're right lame, looks really good but the plaque needs to be smaller. The other euro thread suggests painting of the mount, have you ever thought of or heard about burning one? I don't mean putting it in a fire just using a torch to give it that kind of look.
I have no idea why you'd want to burn it after all the work of getting it clean.
I'm thinking a light burn, enough to accentuate the high and low points. I did a sign with my family name on it this summer out of pallets and used the torch on it to give it a unique look. It turned out awesome. It's dark now or I'd go take a pic and post it. I've also done it on floors and furniture that I've refinished over the years. In wood, especially aged wood it accentuates the beauty of the grain. I'm going to try it on my basket 11 and post the results.
So I said I would post the results of burning and paint dipping my euro mounts. I used my first bow buck, a basket rack for the paint dipping. The process was very easy. Brown primer and three colors of green.
The more heavily burnt one is the buck I got this year. I caused a little damage to the face when I was power washing it. (It was my first try removing the meat that way and I had the pressure too high.) I simply used my torch turned way down and worked it slowly over the skull.
The third one is a buck my friend shot during gun season. I turned the torch up a little and held it a little further away. I moved it fast enough to just darken the ridges and lines.
All three processes were very simple and I think they add a unique spin to the mounts.
I will make the plaques for them sometime in the near future.
Here is the final product, burned and dipped one. Excuse the pic but I'm not a photographer.
great work. another great source for doing it yourself euro mounts is ron's blog. he explains step by step with pictures. i followed his directions and the final product was bat shit crazy good.
There was another thread here regarding European mounts using 40% HP from beauty salons. I cannot find that thread.
Can those that use that product tell me how much do you use on a skull? I ordered some online and received it the other day but it is only 4 oz. It looks like that is not enough so do I need more for one skull?
Smokey,
I remember that thread too. I use Volume 40 and Basic White mixed together. Mix it per the instructions and paint it on liberally. Then I wrap it up in plastic wrap and put it in front of a space heater (try not to melt the plastic or start a fire). Rotate it a few times. After an hour or so I hosed it off.
It's a personal preference but after it's dry I spray a light coat of satin lacquer on it. This is my 3rd European mount (elk from last season). Feel like I'm finally getting the hang of it. Went from mountain to wall in 3 days.
Thanks. What I would like to know is what amount of those products does it take?. I have 4 oz of 40% but need to order some of the Basic white it sounds like.
Do I need more than 4 oz?
Here's this year's bull. I'll do my own deer euros but I paid someone for the elk
Smokey-Go to a beauty shop and they'll sell you a kit. One kit will do a moose!
wow that was amazing such detail. i hope you are back to stay;-)
