AIRASSAULT
PMA Member
Because of a controversial taxidmery topic on the Kisky site, I decided to make a list of things to look for when choosing a taxidermist. Some of the info pertains to that site because I am just going to copy and paste my thread from there. I figured some of the newbies may like to learn what to look for /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif
"With all the hype that the current taxidermy post is causing, I figured I would put together a list of things to look for the next time you step into a taxidermist's showroom. To prevent any credibility issues on my part, I am a 2006 Winter session graduate of the Northwest Iowa School of Taxidermy... Here's part of what 10k taught me...
EARS:
Try this on your own mounts at home and ask a new taxidermist if you may do so to some mounts in his show room--- Take your thumb and forefinger and pinch the ear (thumb on the inside, forefinger on the back). Pinch all the way up and down each ear. If it does not feel thin and solid and has a bubbly feeling and crackling noise, this is known as Drumming.. a.k.a Bad work! A mount with drumming ears usually means that the taxidermist didn't prep the ear liners well enough or just plain rushed the job and didn't make sure the adhesive was dry enough to continue.
Make sure the ear butts are level from side to side and not too far back on the skull and not too far forward.
Most deer have small black hairs that line the outer edge of the ear. Make sure this hair forms a nice, straight, smooth line all around the outer edge of the ear.
The ears should obviously be rotated down enough to prevent it from cupping water..
EYES:
Look for symmetry between the two. Make sure the front corners of each eye are level with eachother as well as the back.
Animals have 3 corners to each eye. Front, Back, and one in the upper eye lid (not as obvious). The front corner should be slightly lower than the back corner. The upper corner should be at about the front third of the upper eye lid.
A deer's eyes should look calm and relaxed. I see way too many mounts, including some in a recent post where the deer has the "Oh S***" eye bulge going on. The reason for this is because the corners are not properly set and the upper brow/eye lid is pushed too far up.
If you see white in the front corner of the left eye, you should see white in the rear corner of the right eye, vice versa.
Here's a big one that can be overlooked: Take a flashlight and shine it on the deer mount's eyes. The pupils will form an elongated rectangle. This "rectangle" MUST be perfectly horizontal to the ground as the deer hangs flat against a plum surface.
Make sure the eye lids are sealed tightly to the glass eye. (I like to put a crystal clear glaze on the lower eye lids to make it shine and look wet)
The eyes should have a nictitating membrane in the front corners. They are very cheap to buy and extremely easy to put in. A taxidermist who doesn't use them = cheap taxidermist and more than likely not a very good one. (Nictitating membranes are small pieces of skin that protect a deer's eyeball as it walks through brush/grass. The skin slides back along the eyeball to keep it from getting scratched.)
The tear ducts infront of the eyes should be tight and have hair touching hair on each side of the duct. If a taxidermist is lazy and doesn't thin the areas well enough around the eyes and tear ducts, the skin will dry and easily pull away as it shrinks.
ANTLERS:
The skin should meet flush to the base of each antler. You should see no gap between hair and pedicle.
If you look at most deer from the side and draw a straight line down the center of the lower third of the beam and continued toward the nose, this line should be relatively parallel to the bridge of the deer's nose. If the antler's seem to go straight down into the skull in a perpendicular manner, more than likely, the taxidermist didn't set the antlers right or take the time to measure from the beam tips to the tip of the nose.
The antler's should be cleaned of blood but should still have tree bark in the burrs from rubbing trees, unless customer prefers otherwise. Antler's should also be oiled with something such as LiquidGold. There shouldn't be any white residue left in the antler burrs from mache used to set the antlers.
Antlers should fit tight to the head with no wobble.
NOSE:
The nose should be symmetrical from side to side, i.e. where nostril meets the black skin should be the same on both sides.
The nostrils shouldn't look flared, unless on a flehmen pose...
The nose texture should match the original markings. Too often, I see noses that someone just put a bunch of random dots on the nose... Looks like crap.
The nose should look wet and shiny. A wet nose helps an animal collect scent particles.
Take a flashlight and shine through one nostril and look through the other. The taxidermist should have put a plastic septum in. (I get real technical and draw red blood vessels on the septum with a red pen). After all, it's the small, intricate details that count.
HIDE:
Should be clean and free of debris. Brushed and then have brush marks removed.
The throat patch should obviously sit centered on the throat.
Muscle lines should be excentuated. One technique that I use to make the muscles and creases stand out is to drive brad nails into the crease to hold the hide down.
The back of the form should have neatly trimmed hide.
Hair should not be standing where sewing took place. You should not be able to see any sewing seams.
If you shot the deer in the neck, it should not show. If it does, the taxidermist didn't do his/her job in making sure that all cut hair was removed.
The brisket seam should be perfectly straight and should run down the center of the brisket. I saw a pic on one mount on here where the hide was pulled too far down and the seam didn't start until about half way down the brisket.
There are also seams that should line up with the outer edges of the arm pits.
MOUTH:
The lips should be tucked just like the tear ducts, hair touching hair. One exception is the bottom front lip should show under the front of the nose. Look closely for small tears and holes around lips. This is a very thin piece of skin on the mount and some taxidermists will try to hide holes under the hair. It's visible if you look closely.
I'm sure I am missing some things. Maybe some obvious ones, but, I put this together quick and off of the top of my head. These are all things that you should expect from a quality taxidermist. There are other more intricate factors that I did not mention because the only way you should expect them is if you are paying for a Competition style mount. Some of the variables I mentioned may seem a little overboard for perfection, but, when you find a taxidermist that is taking time to create prescious details inside of the nose where most people never thought to look, more than likely, he is spending a lot more time to do the work on the visible areas. Hope this helps people in the future. I may add some more variables as they come to mind. For any of the other taxidermist's on here, feel free to add to my list."
"With all the hype that the current taxidermy post is causing, I figured I would put together a list of things to look for the next time you step into a taxidermist's showroom. To prevent any credibility issues on my part, I am a 2006 Winter session graduate of the Northwest Iowa School of Taxidermy... Here's part of what 10k taught me...
EARS:
Try this on your own mounts at home and ask a new taxidermist if you may do so to some mounts in his show room--- Take your thumb and forefinger and pinch the ear (thumb on the inside, forefinger on the back). Pinch all the way up and down each ear. If it does not feel thin and solid and has a bubbly feeling and crackling noise, this is known as Drumming.. a.k.a Bad work! A mount with drumming ears usually means that the taxidermist didn't prep the ear liners well enough or just plain rushed the job and didn't make sure the adhesive was dry enough to continue.
Make sure the ear butts are level from side to side and not too far back on the skull and not too far forward.
Most deer have small black hairs that line the outer edge of the ear. Make sure this hair forms a nice, straight, smooth line all around the outer edge of the ear.
The ears should obviously be rotated down enough to prevent it from cupping water..
EYES:
Look for symmetry between the two. Make sure the front corners of each eye are level with eachother as well as the back.
Animals have 3 corners to each eye. Front, Back, and one in the upper eye lid (not as obvious). The front corner should be slightly lower than the back corner. The upper corner should be at about the front third of the upper eye lid.
A deer's eyes should look calm and relaxed. I see way too many mounts, including some in a recent post where the deer has the "Oh S***" eye bulge going on. The reason for this is because the corners are not properly set and the upper brow/eye lid is pushed too far up.
If you see white in the front corner of the left eye, you should see white in the rear corner of the right eye, vice versa.
Here's a big one that can be overlooked: Take a flashlight and shine it on the deer mount's eyes. The pupils will form an elongated rectangle. This "rectangle" MUST be perfectly horizontal to the ground as the deer hangs flat against a plum surface.
Make sure the eye lids are sealed tightly to the glass eye. (I like to put a crystal clear glaze on the lower eye lids to make it shine and look wet)
The eyes should have a nictitating membrane in the front corners. They are very cheap to buy and extremely easy to put in. A taxidermist who doesn't use them = cheap taxidermist and more than likely not a very good one. (Nictitating membranes are small pieces of skin that protect a deer's eyeball as it walks through brush/grass. The skin slides back along the eyeball to keep it from getting scratched.)
The tear ducts infront of the eyes should be tight and have hair touching hair on each side of the duct. If a taxidermist is lazy and doesn't thin the areas well enough around the eyes and tear ducts, the skin will dry and easily pull away as it shrinks.
ANTLERS:
The skin should meet flush to the base of each antler. You should see no gap between hair and pedicle.
If you look at most deer from the side and draw a straight line down the center of the lower third of the beam and continued toward the nose, this line should be relatively parallel to the bridge of the deer's nose. If the antler's seem to go straight down into the skull in a perpendicular manner, more than likely, the taxidermist didn't set the antlers right or take the time to measure from the beam tips to the tip of the nose.
The antler's should be cleaned of blood but should still have tree bark in the burrs from rubbing trees, unless customer prefers otherwise. Antler's should also be oiled with something such as LiquidGold. There shouldn't be any white residue left in the antler burrs from mache used to set the antlers.
Antlers should fit tight to the head with no wobble.
NOSE:
The nose should be symmetrical from side to side, i.e. where nostril meets the black skin should be the same on both sides.
The nostrils shouldn't look flared, unless on a flehmen pose...
The nose texture should match the original markings. Too often, I see noses that someone just put a bunch of random dots on the nose... Looks like crap.
The nose should look wet and shiny. A wet nose helps an animal collect scent particles.
Take a flashlight and shine through one nostril and look through the other. The taxidermist should have put a plastic septum in. (I get real technical and draw red blood vessels on the septum with a red pen). After all, it's the small, intricate details that count.
HIDE:
Should be clean and free of debris. Brushed and then have brush marks removed.
The throat patch should obviously sit centered on the throat.
Muscle lines should be excentuated. One technique that I use to make the muscles and creases stand out is to drive brad nails into the crease to hold the hide down.
The back of the form should have neatly trimmed hide.
Hair should not be standing where sewing took place. You should not be able to see any sewing seams.
If you shot the deer in the neck, it should not show. If it does, the taxidermist didn't do his/her job in making sure that all cut hair was removed.
The brisket seam should be perfectly straight and should run down the center of the brisket. I saw a pic on one mount on here where the hide was pulled too far down and the seam didn't start until about half way down the brisket.
There are also seams that should line up with the outer edges of the arm pits.
MOUTH:
The lips should be tucked just like the tear ducts, hair touching hair. One exception is the bottom front lip should show under the front of the nose. Look closely for small tears and holes around lips. This is a very thin piece of skin on the mount and some taxidermists will try to hide holes under the hair. It's visible if you look closely.
I'm sure I am missing some things. Maybe some obvious ones, but, I put this together quick and off of the top of my head. These are all things that you should expect from a quality taxidermist. There are other more intricate factors that I did not mention because the only way you should expect them is if you are paying for a Competition style mount. Some of the variables I mentioned may seem a little overboard for perfection, but, when you find a taxidermist that is taking time to create prescious details inside of the nose where most people never thought to look, more than likely, he is spending a lot more time to do the work on the visible areas. Hope this helps people in the future. I may add some more variables as they come to mind. For any of the other taxidermist's on here, feel free to add to my list."
