I met a cop while on holiday who is a part time taxidermist, and had a long chat to him about mounting a pig head. He lent me some video's of pig and deer heads being mounted and a seminar by Rick Carter? (Is that the bloke?) And I thought "Bugger it, I can do that I'll give it a go!!!"

I have a question for taxidermists out there.

The two video's on pigs are from the US and both fella's didn't use the origional pig teeth, prefering to use moulded ones, saying that the real ones crack. Is that common? Do you guys use the same method?

Any tips you can pass on?

Thanks
Bakes

I always use Jaw sets. I buy the best I can because the detail really looks good.
Using the real teeth may cause problems down the road.
I try to convince the customer to have the skull cleaned also. It really makes a nice trophy along with the shoulder mount.

Thanks for the reply Bo-n-aro.

The thing I have against jaw sets, is that its not the pig you shot. On one of the video's it showed a pig being caped out and the teeth were very small, when it was completed the teeth were huge. It might be just me but thats how I feel.


At the moment I have a few teeth and jaws (upper and lower)that I'm mounting on a slice of African mahogany. I pour olive oil down the teeth and fill with cotton wool until about 1/4 inch from the top the seal it up with wax. The oil soaks into the teeth and stops it drying out and cracking, I've got teeth that have lasted 2 years so far. (They come out a bit yellow but!)

What problems down the road can you expect with using the real teeth? Is it just the cracking or is there something else?

Thanks
Bakes

Bakes,
A buddy of mine killed a monster pig. He had the origional teeth installed. It looks great. They may yellow a bit. I don't think you can stop them from splitting eventually. Just more work to use the origional teeth.

Daryl

I can see where it would save alot of time, especially if you were doing alot of mounts.

Bakes

What is the name of the video? And where can you purchase it from? Thanks

Big Mac
I can't remember the name but if you go to Taxidermy.net and have a look at "learning Taxidermy" you'll find some video's.

Bakes