Finished European Mount

Well, after a whirlwind of a Christmas...I remembered that I said I was going to post photos of my finished whitetail european mount.

Oddly enough, now the "whitewash" of Elmer's glue looks a little shiny...but I don't think it detracts anything. For now, part of what I like about this set up is the imperfections. Gives a good show at a first try and I'm curious to try it again and see how it turns out! Alas, that may be a couple more years down the road the way things are going...

But, not too shabby...not too shabby.


Front view close


Side view close


Good spot on the wall!


Roughly 30 days from the hunt to this!

This deer must really mean something to me. I still like looking at the mount (or even photos of it) and thinking back to that fateful day. And I kinda had an idea for a little side-job. When trying to decide on what to mount this skull on, I was kinda thinking about using barn wood. Couldn't find any of that I liked, so then I thought perhaps the crook in a branch of Ponderosa pine (as I shot the deer in a shelterwood unit of Ponderosa.) Then I thought about a round of pine...which led me to think I should try ripping a board out of pine with the bark still attached on the sides... etc...

The point is, you can't find that kind of thing pre-made anywhere. All I could find were polished plaques...so, I thought quietly to myself, there may be a market for it! Just think, different species, parts of trees, and cuts that you could choose from and match to where you harvested your critter. All mounting hardware (and instructions) included! How about THAT?

Google it!

First of all, I want to share the progress of my european mount! I will need to take, edit, and post a photo of the finished product later. But last Friday I procured a laminated birch board and a pattern for a plaque. I took that up to Butch's place and he helped me use a jig saw to cut out the pattern while we made a whole sleugh of firestarters. Following that, we started talking about how to attach the skull to the plaque...that led to drilling holes and mounting said deer skull...after putting a stain on the board of course. Overall, it turned out really well!

Saturday found me drilling holes in the wall, hitting a stud when I didn't expect it, dealing with TWO nearly dead drill batteries, ruining drywall anchors, rigging up a copper wire to hang it...having that not work, quick run to the hardware store, 30 minutes to find something right in front of my face...then 5 minutes to get everything assembled and hung on the wall. I suppose it would have paid to just do it right the first time, rather than trying to fake it. Oh well, it turned out fine in the end.

But the reason for this quick post is because of something I did this morning. I got into Google images and typed in "Neckus rufus" (sans apostrophes.) For SOME REASON, neckus rufus is something unique to me...as I (nearly) dominate 3 pages of Google images!! There are a couple other strange photos in there, but for the most part they're all mine! It's bizarre though, it has the photos from the neckus rufus post...but has photos of Glacier, camping on the Clearwater, Northfork photos, etc.

Try it, it's kinda fun!

Even though I knew better, at first glance some of the photos didn't look like mine! But they were! Not too shabby Tom, not too shabby.

Arts and Crafts

So last weekend was spent doing arts and crafts around the house!

First I made some firestarters. Pretty slick little things...they're made out of the bottom of a paper egg carton, some sawdust, some lint, and a LOT of wax. I've tested these things and they still burned (producing a 6-10 inch flame) in winds of 15-25 mph and rain! They're basically just candles with huge wicks.

If you care, here's the process:
1.) Cut the egg carton so only the bottom remains.
2.) Fill the divots about 1/3 to 1/2 full of sawdust
3.) Cover the sawdust with lint. Yep, just lint straight out of your dryer...hair doesn't matter.
4.) Melt a LOT of wax using a double boiler on the stove. It helps if you shave it first (melts faster) and it'll take about a full brick of canning wax.
5.) Pour the hot wax over the divots. What you want is it to soak through the bottom...saturating everything in wax. (It makes a mess so put some foil or something down.)
6.) Once cool, break off the individual divots and throw 'em in your pack.

If you SOAK them in wax, no amount of water on them should matter. I would imagine if they didn't light on the outside...just cut it open and light the dry part. I should do some more testing! Ahh, more experiments! Perfect.

Well, I made two dozen of those things...so I should be good for quite a while.

Meanwhile, I was making a European mount of the deer head outside. I bought a galvanized bucket and was using a loaner hot plate. Well, temperatures under freezing and the thin metal on the bucket didn't allow the water to get to a boil. Hmm, switched to the campstove and that got things going! I had skinned the head, dug out the eyeballs, and took off the lower jaw the night before...I heard the less time you boil it, the less the bones will start falling apart. But, I had to go through two little tanks of propane over two days to get it cleaned up to the point I liked it.

I heard about all the stuff you can add to the water to help. Sal soda, Dawn dish soap, sodium carbonate, etc. But 'ol Tommy was wandering around and couldn't find any sodium carbonate! (Thinking about it now...isn't baking soda sodium carbonate or something like that? Quick search said yes...sodium BIcarbonate. Oh well.) Hmmm. What about OxiClean? So I bought a bag of those things you add to your laundry to "boost" the cleaning process. The plus is that it makes the neighborhood smell like you're doing laundry rather than boiling brains and skull tissue. The negative is that I can no longer use OxiClean as all I think about is boiling brains and skull tissue.

Okay, so there I was, boiling this skull. (Antler bases wrapped in foil.) Every once in awhile I'd take it out and pick pieces off...which was pretty simple since I cut a lot off when I was skinning it. I made the mistake of pulling the brain out of the spinal "hole" with an old bent tent peg. That was a fairly disgusting job. The back part of the head then held onto the remaining goodies for way too long...so I cut that part off. NOW the brain cavity was wide open. Hmmm, next time it'll be simpler I guess.

Well, I set it out to dry overnight and I was surprised by how white it looked already! I had planned on going to a beauty supply store and getting some Hydrogen Peroxide that the professionals use (30-40% peroxide vs the 3% you get at the grocery store.) But to tell you the truth, it was white enough already so I skipped a pretty big, caustic step! I finally did a quick search on the active ingredients of OxiClean and found this out:

"The active ingredient in OxiClean is sodium percarbonate (Na2CO3•H2O2), an adduct of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)."

See what that means? It had the sodium carbonate to loosen the tissue and dissolve fat and whatnot. But it ALSO had the peroxide in it already! Two birds with one stone! Go figure. I have yet to see anyone who has tried this, so I'm fairly proud of myself for my guess.


Pretty nice for a 1st try!


Still had all the fine nasal bones too!


You can kinda see how the bases got slightly discolored...perhaps it'd be a good idea to spend more time covering them in foil...and HOLDING the foil in place with something. Again, next time.

Well, I got looking at this thing...feeling pretty proud of myself when I noticed there was still some goobers in the sinuses. Hmm, no matter how much I tried (using Sarah's dissection equipment) I couldn't get it all out without taking out those fine nasal bones. So, I cut them out. I mean, this isn't a museum piece...it's a way to celebrate the deer as well as provide my kind of house decorations.

The more it dried out, the more I was noticing that I boiled it too long. The stuff holding the bones together was boiled out to a certain extent...making it fairly brittle and "wiggly." What to do? I thought of just using superglue...but then remembered seeing something about painting it with Elmer's glue. Yeah, no kidding! I went to the store and bought some cheap Crayola brushes and found the perfect glue! CLEAR Elmer's glue! Who knew?

After painting the bottom, I noticed it dried without becoming too shiny. So I proceeded to coat the entire thing in glue. It holds everything together and seals the bone...especially the jagged pieces...making the whole thing relatively smooth. I also don't ever have to worry about the teeth falling out; pretty slick!

Now, I just need to find a suitable piece of wood to mount it to....something I haven't quite figured out how to do yet. I'm thinking a couple drywall bolts (to expand onto the inside of the brain cavity...out of sight) and countersunk holes in the back of the board. We'll see. It may just come to some pilot holes followed by some wood screws.

Overall it turned out pretty well for just a little bit of work. I had fellas at work asking why I didn't just take it to a professional. $200 vs $40 and a little bit of elbow grease?

If nothing else it was more interesting my way and I have a good story to boot.