BNagel here with a question:

Following up on the "Polishing kudu horns" thread, is there a way to fill in the cracks with something that will give back a little of the original (lighter) horn color?

Wilbert's Lemon Oil, Old Craftmen's Lemon Oil With Beeswaw and so on (even Liquid Gold as my hometown taxidermist uses) shine the parts I can get a brush / cloth on, but the boiling process used for skull preparation of my "European" mount not only darkened the lovely "walnut meats" color but produced small dry cracks. Pix of SA-side shield mounts and some of the Trophy Room forum pix of kudu mounts show no cracks and look to be simply dried versions of the original even though the skulls are nice and white from whatever preparation they got.

In Texas, some folks use the fire-ant mound method to strip away all but the desired horn + skull, this process taking several weeks to achieve what goes on the shield / plaque.

Any ideas???

Thanx

B

You should of never applied oil of any kind to a horn because that alone will darken them. You can fill the cracks with spackling paste, sand very lightly and then use a airbrush to get the natural colors back with some good taxidermy spray paint. NEVER oil horns unless you want them very dark and or black. www.jamesmarsico.com

sculptor

Not a "taxi" myself. There's always the next set -- thanks for the response. I like the dark look for my European / shield mount and will get the cape done up with reproduction horns by my local wildlife artist.

B