Home Taxidermy for Pleasure and Profit Part 3

Salt 1 qt.

Alum 1 pt.

Boil to dissolve salt and alum; use like preceding.

If skins are to be kept some time they should, after a preliminary pickling, be put in new, fresh pickle and it should be occasionally tested with a salinometer and kept up to the original strength. Dirty and greasy pickle should be thrown away, but if clean and of low strength it can be brought up by adding new pickle of extra strength. It will do no hurt if more salt, even a saturated solution, is made of either of the foregoing.

While the salt and alum or acid pickle will keep our animal skins safely and in a relaxed condition ready for further preparation at any time, it will not answer for bird skins. For this we have a solution for keeping bird skins soft:

Glycerine 2 parts Carbolic acid 1 part

After skinning the bird and applying some a.r.s.enical solution to the inside, brush this solution liberally over the entire inside of the skin. Pay special attention to the bones, wing and leg, skull and root of the tail. If necessary the skin may be packed flat for s.h.i.+pment. One treatment will keep all but the larger skins soft for several months.

The feet, of course, will become hard and dry and must be relaxed as usual before mounting.

Every taxidermist needs to be more or less of a modeler, and one of the most useful materials is:

PAPIER MACHE.

Wet wood pulp 10 oz.

Glue (hot) or LePage's (measure) 3 oz.

Plaster paris, dry 20 oz.

This formula may be varied at the convenience of the operator. Work the glue into the pulp and knead the plaster into the ma.s.s. The more glue the slower it sets and a few drops of glycerine will keep it soft several days. Made with little or no glue it hardens quickly.

If the paper pulp is not at hand it may be made by tearing old newspapers or sheathing paper small and boiling and pounding till a pulp results. This composition is much in use in Europe in the making of many familiar toys and similar objects.

For modeling open mouths, finis.h.i.+ng mounted specimens, making artificial rocks, stumps and boughs, it is very desirable.

WAX FOR OPEN MOUTHS.

Beeswax 1 part Paraffin wax 1 part

Melt and color with tube oil colors. To color dip up a spoonful of melted wax, squeeze some tube color in and stir until stiff. Place the spoon in the hot wax and stir till evenly mixed. Do not try to put the color directly in the hot wax as it will not mix evenly so.

Wax should be melted in a water bath, like a glue pot, as excessive heat will darken it. Cakes of wax of suitable colors may be had of the supply dealers and are most economical when no great amount of work is done.

The same parties supply the paper pulp previously mentioned.

CHAPTER IV.

PANELS, s.h.i.+ELDS AND NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL MOUNTS.

The preparation of a suitable setting for almost any mounted specimen will add greatly to its attractiveness. If you know where it is to be placed it is not difficult to make it suit its surrounding. For instance, a head of big game for hanging in a dining or ball room is suitably mounted on a polished and carved hardwood s.h.i.+eld. While this would hardly match its surroundings on the wall of a log camp, a rustic panel of natural wood with the bark on would perfectly suit the latter place.

Heads, horns, and antlers are usually mounted on what are called s.h.i.+elds. Fish and trophies of dead game birds and small game on panels.

Single specimens are placed on severely plain wooden bases (museum style) or on those simulating branches, rocks, stumps or earth. These are artificial, but those built up in part at least with natural objects are most pleasing.

As we can not produce the best patterns of s.h.i.+elds without special machines we must patronize either the supply dealers or the wood working mill for such. If convenient to a mill equipped with jigsaw and moulder they can be made up after your own patterns.

[Ill.u.s.tration: s.h.i.+ELDS--VARIOUS KINDS AND SIZES.

(A) Suitable for moose, caribou, deer, fox by making or ordering according to size wanted; (B) Moose, caribou, deer; (K) Round s.h.i.+eld; (E) Bear s.h.i.+eld; (Q) Combination--head and feet.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: s.h.i.+ELDS, FOOT AND HALL RACK.

(C) and (D) Deer s.h.i.+elds (J) Four Feet Rack (V) Hall Rack]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GUN RACK, FISH AND GAME PANELS, HALL RACK.

(I) Gun rack (F) Fish panel (H) s.h.i.+eld, combination head and feet (S) Hall Rack, small.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME s.h.i.+ELDS AND PANELS.

(M) s.h.i.+eld with carving (G) Panel for game, x, y, z, aa, bb Deer foot thermometers (L) Deer foot thermometer and small animal panel.]

Some of the sizes most used are approximately as follows for mounted heads:

For moose, elk, caribou.

2030 inches.

For deer, goat or sheep.

1218 or 1621.

For fox or lynx.

810 inches.

For bear or wolf.

1215

For birds, small fur-bearers and fish.

68 in.

Oval panels for mounting fish.

922 1540

For dead game.

1015 1424 1725

For mounting horns of elk and moose the size for deer heads will answer nicely, while deer antlers are suitable with a s.h.i.+eld of the fox head size.

In order to draw a symmetrical pattern for the woodworker, take a piece of stiff paper of the right length and width, fold it down the middle, draw one half to suit and cut out with shears. The style of moulding called Ogee is to be preferred. A simple diamond, heart, or oval shape can be made at home with beveled or rounded edges, or if your tools include a turning saw (which is most useful for a variety of purposes) you may try a more pretentious s.h.i.+eld. To achieve this, make your pattern as just described and after marking it on a piece of wood from 3/8 to 7/8 inch thick, cut out with the turning saw. It should be held in the vise for this operation. Place this cut out s.h.i.+eld (1) on a piece of board of similar thickness but somewhat larger and with a pair of compa.s.ses mark out another 1/2 in. or so larger all around. (2) Also mark the same distance inside the edge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOME MADE s.h.i.+ELD.]

With a wood worker's gauge or something similar make a mark around them both near the lower sides. Now with draw shave and rasp work the edges off both Nos. 1 and 2. No. 1 on a bevel, No. 2 rounded. There should be a number of holes drilled and countersunk in No. 2, from the back, and when the two parts of the s.h.i.+eld are properly adjusted they should be drawn closely together with screws too short to penetrate the face of the s.h.i.+eld.

If the adjustment is perfect the screws are to be drawn and the surfaces which come in contact coated well with glue, then drawn closely together and laid aside until thoroughly dry, when it should be well sandpapered before varnis.h.i.+ng.