PREPARING AND MOUNTING A VIRGINIA DEER HEAD
Well mounted trophies of the chase are a source of delight to the
fortunate sportsman who possesses them.
Antlered game heads that are mounted true to life in form and expression
may go far to beautify many dining rooms, dens, and hallways, enhancing
the artistic tone of the rooms in which they are well placed.
As in all taxidermy work, outline sketches direct from the fresh
specimen, top and side views, both before and after skinning, are of
great value in mounting deer heads.
As in other specimens, deer scalps for mounting should be as fresh as
possible. If a scalp is to be kept for some little time before mounting
it should be well salted.
Roll the scalp up and lay over night to drain. Next day scrape off the
first salt and rub in another thorough salting. Keep the skin rolled up
to prevent drying hard until mounting or sent to the tanner.
An ideal deer scalp includes the neck skin entire to swell of shoulders
and brisket. The incisions to be made for removing a deer scalp are
shown in Fig. 32. A good sharp knife will be required for peeling the
skin from the neck.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.]
Cut very carefully up under rim of horn bases when removing skin from
around them, using care not to haggle edge of skin. Use same care in
skinning out the face, splitting lips and eyelids and skinning out the
ears as in small mammal specimen. Remove the ear cartilages entire,
after skinning their backs, beginning at the thick top edge and
proceeding very carefully, looking out not to tear open the edges.
Scalps may be mounted raw or tanned. The ideal way is to use a tanned,
thin pared scalp, mounting it with papier mache upon a modeled mannikin.
The raw skin method is perhaps easiest of application, but in all ways
is not as satisfactory as the tanned skin method.
For mounting a deer scalp raw, if salted, soak out the salt by squeezing
through two or three baths of cold, weak carbolic water. Dry the scalp
thoroughly in fine sawdust, rubbing it into the hair and repeatedly
shaking until all moisture is removed.
With a small, hardwood paring "beam," shown in Fig. 33, clamped to edge
of table, and a sharp paring knife, remove all flesh from inner surface
of skin and peel out nose cartilage. Leave nearly an inch of nostril
lining around the openings.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.]
Pare all flesh from lips, leaving a half or three-quarters inch of the
lining all around them. Split white eyelid lining free to edge and leave
a quarter inch of it all around the openings. When skinning out the
ears keep the cartilages for models.
Poison all inner surfaces of the cleaned skin with arsenic water brushed
in well. Fold face, wrong side out, back upon neck. Fold neck skin flesh
to flesh over face, roll the scalp up, hair side out, and lay aside in
cool place over one night before mounting. The mannikin should be
prepared in time so that the skin will not have to lay wet for more than
a day before mounting.
It is well to prepare mannikin before skin is poisoned so that skin may
be used for fitting unless accurate outline studies are at hand. With
these the fitting is not necessary.
For raw-mounting the head, clean skull by boiling in a deep pail until
meat comes off easily. A little washing soda in the water will help
clean the bone. With a saw, cut through under side of brain cavity,
lengthwise on each side of axis bone. Cut the loosened piece out with a
chisel and remove brain.
Set the skull upon neck-board of suitable length (refer to studies)
mounted with screws upon a cut out neck base-board of inch thick wood,
as shown in Fig. 34. Fasten skull to top of neck board with nails driven
through holes drilled through the bone. If turned head is desired, make
opening in under side of brain cavity wider and nail skull at any
desired angle upon top of neck board. Screw upon back of neck base-board
a one by three inch piece with free end dropping a few inches below
bottom of base-board so that head may be handily set in a vise. This
will allow you to get all around it and the vise will hold it at any
angle, making sewing, etc., easier.
[Illustration: Fig. 34.]
Upon skull, for jaw muscles, and upon neck board wrap excelsior, packing
it hard as you go along, to required natural size. A raw skin will
settle better in drying if neck is slightly smaller than natural size.
To aid in wrapping close and firm to edge of neck base-board, drive a
row of small, broad headed nails half into the edge, two or three
inches apart all around and loop the winding-cord over these as the
wrapping proceeds. Drive these nails down when wrapping is completed.
(See Fig. 35 for finished wrapped excelsior head, ready for the skin.)
[Illustration: Fig. 35.]
Drop the dry ear cartilages into warm water. In this they will quickly
regain their natural shape. Using them as models make a pair of
duplicates of them of thin sheet lead which may be procured from a
plumber or hardware dealer. Split into the base of the cartilage so it
may be spread as nearly flat as possible and lay on the lead, drawing
around its outline with a nail point. Cut out the lead ears with a pair
of metal-shears. Hammer into natural concave shape with a bit of heavy
wood rounded into a ball at one end for the purpose. (For details of ear
making see Fig. 36).
[Illustration: Fig. 36.]
With the skin and mannikin in readiness make up a batch of plaster of
paris in thin glue water, only enough glue stirred in so that it can
barely be felt when the fingers are rubbed together in the water. This
should retard the plaster setting for from four to six hours and give
ample time for finishing the deer's face. This compo. will set
immediately if used in a skin that has been treated with formaldehyde,
sulphuric acid, or alum, as the glue becomes tanned and impotent by
them.
Make this compo. thick and stiff and mix into it some chopped manila
fiber. For finishing one deer face and ear-butts about a quart and a
half of the compo. should be made. This should cover the face thinly,
fill the ear-butts, set the eyes, and fill nose and mouth details out.
In beginning the setting of the scalp into place, cover the lead ears
thinly with the compo. and slip them into the ear skins. The lead will
have to be partly folded together to accomplish this and spread again
when inside. If edges of ears have been torn open in skinning, sew them
up neatly from the outside, using a small round needle and small thread
before the lead is placed.
With the cartilages set, fill the ear butts with compo., squeezing it
out upon the lead a little way that it may brace the ears when set
finally.
Set the mannikin in the vise for convenience. Cover skull with a thin
layer of compo. where bone is exposed and slip the face skin into place.
Hold the scalp up now by tying a heavy cord under the jaw and behind the
horns. Draw the neck skin into place and tie it up with a piece of cord
about the neck near base. Now, for better convenience in sewing, remove
the head from the vise, set front of neck base on the floor and lean the
antlers against a chair seat, back of neck up. Draw corners of antler
cuts together back of the horns.
Begin at one horn and sew to joint of the Y cut. Sew from the other horn
and then continue down the neck to the base, using medium stitches and
drawing tight. This method of sewing a game head is the only exception,
in taxidermy, to sewing toward the head. For a raw scalp use a sail
needle and waxed ends. For a tanned scalp, a large fur needle and strong
linen.
With the sewing completed, turn to nailing the scalp to the back-board.
Turn the free edge of skin down over back of board and nail firmly with
short broad headed nails so that when the surplus is trimmed off a
turned over edge of skin two or three inches wide will remain, held
snugly by nails set two inches apart. Count upon finishing a raw head
all up at one go when using the plaster compo. This is the only compo.
which can be recommended to hold raw, haired skins down, as the material
must set before the skin begins to dry and pull.
Before turning to finishing the face, unscrew the holding piece from
back of neck-board and nail up the part of skin's edge that it covered.
Replace the piece and set head in vise facing you. Pinch and mold the
ear skin tightly upon the compo. covered lead and model the ear-butts
into shape firmly against the head.
Run a strong-threaded fur needle, with large knot at end of thread,
through middle of upper edge of each lead ear. Draw ears up to desired
position and wrap thread around a convenient part of antlers to hold
until compo. sets. Next loop a cord under each ear at base of cartilage
and tie over antlers to hold lower end of cartilage from sagging until
set. When ears are finished, press face skin into compo. upon skull and
massage it down to hold firmly.
Fill eyelids thinly inside flap of lining, place a little compo. in
hollow of sockets, and set eyes.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.]
Deer are usually quite fleshy just over the eyes. Place this filling
before eyes are set. Also press a little compo. into the hollows of the
suborbital glands and with the fingers work these fleshy eye details out
roughly and finish with a modeling tool, pressing the slits of
suborbital glands in deeply with a thick-edged instrument. See that the
face skin is worked down firmly and smoothly clear to the nose.
Fill nose and upper lip and model them into natural shape. Lastly, fill
chin and lower lip. Tuck lower lip up well under upper and model lips
and chin into proper relation to each other.
If any compo. has gotten into the hair wipe it out with a damp sponge.
Leave head in the vise until compo. is set and then hang in a well
ventilated place to dry. Do not hang near stove or radiator.
When thoroughly dried out, brush dust out of hair and finish the
eyelids, nostrils, etc., with wax and cotton, burned in, same as given
for finishing a small mammal.
If placing the head upon a shield, use at least four strong screws of a
length to go nearly through the two boards.
For mounting a deer scalp tanned, the preparation is very different.
Scalps may be had tanned at a number of reputable fur houses throughout
the country at a small cost. To get best results, send scalps and
rug-skins in to the tanner with ears skinned out and eyelids and lips
split and nose cartilage pared out. Tanned scalps, if kept from moths,
may be preserved unmounted for a long time.
When required for mounting, a tanned scalp need only be relaxed with
water brushed or sponged into the flesh side and, when soft, poisoned
with arsenic-water and folded together, flesh to flesh, over one night.
The process of mounting a tanned scalp differs from the raw in that it
is set up on a wire and plaster shell, more carefully shaped than the
excelsior form. The entire scalp is stuck down to the shell with compo.
No. I rubbed well into the skin and upon the shell. The face and ears
are set and finished with compo. No. II, which, as before stated, is No.
I thickened to the consistency of modeling clay with plaster of paris.
This method gives much finer and more permanent results.
For details of plaster and wire mannikin, see Fig. 37. This type of
shell is made as follows: Set the cleaned skull upon neck-board and
back-board same as for wrapping excelsior neck.
Half-inch mesh chicken wire will do, if no free mesh wire can be
procured, for building the frame. The wire neck is best placed in
halves. The shaping will require considerable cutting and neat
manipulation with pincers and hammer and tying with bits of wire. Use
staple tacks to fasten wire to edge of back-board. The wire shell should
be smaller than natural neck to allow for coat of plaster and fiber. For
this make up not more than half a wash basin at a time, mixing the
plaster with plain water in the ordinary way. Make the batches middling
thick, enough so that it will not drizzle from the wire.
Pick a quantity of fiber into small handfuls. To apply, dip a film of
the manila fiber into the plaster, drag it out over edge of dish to
remove surplus plaster, and apply to wire shell. Work fast enough to
keep ahead of plaster setting. Wipe each application out smooth as you
go. Apply a thin coat, very smooth, all over the skull and model on the
jaw muscles with the plaster and fiber.
When plaster is set, surface the shell and remove all inequalities by
paring with an ordinary small butcher-knife. Allow to thoroughly dry and
apply a good coat of medium thin shellac. Have this type of mannikin
completed, dried, and shellaced before moistening and preparing the
tanned skin.
To prepare mammal skins in the field, for transportation and keeping,
remove skins carefully, same as for immediate mounting. Salt thoroughly,
rubbing in well, and roll up to drain over night. Next day shake out the
first salt, which will be found saturated with juices, rub fresh salt in
all over, and roll up over another night. In this condition small skins
may be sealed in glass jars or friction top tins and kept damp thus for
some time.
To make a preserving "pickle" for keeping skins wet, boil salt in water
until heaviest brine possible to make is produced. Add a tablespoonful
of carbolic acid to the gallon while hot. Stir well. Let the solution
cool thoroughly before submerging skins in it.
Skins should always be put through the double dry salting before going
into "pickle." Keep in covered earthen jars.
For making up into rugs, send animal skins to a good tanner, first
skinning out the ears and paring out lips and nose.
To make an open-mouthed rug head, use the natural skull when possible.
Set the jaws open solidly with plaster of paris and at the same time lay
a plaster core between lower jaw for the artificial tongue. Set the
skull upon a cut-out base-board as shown in Fig. 38.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.]
Drive nails half in all around back and side edges of this base-board
and wrap on filling of excelsior for jaws and flare of neck. Drive the
nails down tight after wrapping is completed.
Mount the head before stretching the skin. Relax the head with water and
poison same as deer scalp.
Use plaster and glue-water compo. as in raw deer scalp. If a snarling
expression is desired, model the wrinkles on the muzzle with an edged
wooden tool. Tuck the lip lining well under the filling, so they will
hold in place when the plaster is set. Finish details of face same as in
other mounting.
Finish the tongue and gums by melting colored wax and cotton upon core
and bone with hot iron, modeling and carving to shape when cool. After
the head is mounted and set, stretch the skin. Moisten the flesh side to
soften it up well.
Nail down the rear end upon floor to its widest spread, with hind legs
pointing back on a slight slant. Draw the skin forward and spread
forelegs and front end to widest extent and nail down in accurate line
with hind part. Now work from side to side, nailing skin out to its
widest extent and in symmetrical lines. Always stretch a rug-skin hair
side down. A slight wash of arsenic-water may be applied after the skin
is stretched and while yet moist, care being used not to mess the hair
with the solution.
When dry, the skin is ready to line. Lay the felt lining upon the floor
and the skin upon it and cut around the skin, allowing three or four
inches for pinked edge.
With a pinking iron cut scalloped edge and enough of a narrow strip to
gather fully all around just inside the outer edge. Lay skin on lining
and mark its edge with tailor's chalk. Sew the gathered edge just inside
this chalk mark so that the stitch will be covered by the skin.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.]
Quilt skin upon the lining with a good layer of cotton wadding between.
Be sure and not draw down a bunch of hair under each loop. Tie the
knots neatly on under side.
Fig. 39 shows incisions to make in removing a pelt for a symmetrical
rug. Rug skins are best dried with no preservative whatever. In drying
skins, stretch them symmetrically and dry in the shade.
[Illustration]
PREPARING AND MOUNTING A COYOTE