Folks,

I have a question that I don't recall seeing asked in any of the forums that I frequent.

So now I have my guys up on the wall, what do I do as far as regular cleaning and maintenance? I know that a vacuum cleaner in a no no. What else should I and shouldn't I be doing?

Thanks!!

-Steve

Hi Steve!

About once a year take some furniture polish and spray some on a rag - just lightly - not enough to drown everything.

Wipe the mount in the direction of the hair to remove any dust, cobwebs, etc. Going against the hair will break the hair shafts and cause it to stand up.

The furniture polish can be sprayed on the horns to dust them.

If you smoke in your home you may notice a haze over the glass eyes. If so, take a soft hobby sized paintbrush and clean the eyes with windex. It should put the sparkle back in.

Other than that you should have no problem.

One other thing . . . wherever you hang the mounts in your home, NEVER let them be exposed to directly sunlight. If so they will bleach out rather quickly. I even covered the windows in my room with tinting film that blocks the UV rays from coming into the room at all. I have no problem with the mounts changing color over time.

Good luck!

JDS

JDS,

Thanks for the advice!

When you say furniture polish, do you mean something like Endust? Endust kind of attracts the dust (I assume that it has some sort of negativly charged ions) and doesn't leave much of a residue.

I have new blinds being made that have liners on them to block out the light. So I hope that takes cae of the UV.

Thanks Again,

-Steve

Hi, Steve,

Endust will be perfect. Just wipe with the hair.

The blinds will block a lot of the light but they won't block the UV rays.

I don't know if I can explain it right but I'll try . . . Even when you close blinds light still gets in a room by bouncing off blinds, etc, and then into the room. It may not show up as "sunlight" but the light is still there (obviously or it would be dark in the room!)

If light is getting in, so are UV rays unless the light goes THROUGH something to filter the UV rays out - such as the UV film applied to the glass.

I read this again and it sounds kinda like I think it should . . ,

JDS

JDS,

Thanks a bunch!

-Steve

Steve,

Stop! I hope you have not put furniture polish on your prized mounts yet!

As a professional mount cleaner, I have heard of numerous methods of cleaning including windex on the cape, a bar of Ivory soap, etc..., and furniture polish is about the worst. It will leave a sticky film, and will attract dust and grime in the future. Water would be a better option.

The best way to clean mounts is to carefully take them off the wall and outside. Use an air compressor with a small tipped nozzle to blow all the dust off the mount. (Be careful not to damage cape) After blowing dust out (dusting gets 3 times more dust out than using a shopvac) After dusting, use Seybrite (www.seybrite.com or similar cleaner. I have found Seybrite to be the best, but your local drycleaner can also provide you with PERC (Perchloroethylene), which is a very harsh and dangerous chemical (don't use it). I don't get a kickback from Seybrite, I am just a very satisfied customer.

Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.

Shep Humphries
shep@mountcleaner.com
www.mountcleaner.com