I just received my animals back from a trip I took in September. When I looked at the warthog teeth, both of the bottoms ones had been split open down the middle. The pieces of the teeth from each side had been taped together. Is there a reason for this?

Thanks,
Jeff

Let me know if I am reading this correctly? There is a large top tusk on each side and a small lower sharp tusk on each side. The smaller lower tusks were each split in half and taped back together. If that is correct your guess is as good as mine as to why this was done. I have never heard of this happening. The lower tusks are hollow most of their lenght and sometimes chip and crack near the base but this sounds like they were cracked open on purpose.

Warthog and bush pig teeth tend to split, sometimes months after mounting. That is why many taxidermists use replicas instead, but I like the real thing!
Jim

I live in so. Az and ALL my small tusks have split as they dry out. I had some sitting on the coffee table in the family room and heard a POP one evening and later discovered that a small tusk had split. I don't know what you could do to prevent it. The large tusks seem to be ok after several years. These tusks were all over 3 years old.

Hey Dude,
I am en ex Zim hunter and now hunt a little in Sweden. I have heard of the bottom tusks splitting before but never knew what you could do to stop it. Here in Scandinavia it is pretty common with Wild Boar tusks and to minimise the risk the guys use a mix of 30% Turpentine Oil & 70% Paraffin Oil to treat the tusks. Dip them every day in the mix for a couple of weeks to a month(but minimum 2 weeks) and then let them drip dry. After that melt a stearin candle into the hollow part of the tusks. The easiest way to do that is to set the tusks in a sandbox or something - otherwise you may have a couple of stearin blisters on your fingers. Obviously this has to be done in steps coz as the stearin hardens - it shrinks. Fill the hollow completely & then the tusks are ready to mount. It isnt bulletproof, but if you have a special set of tusks its worth trying as it usually works.
A friend of mine here is thinking to try and fill his tusks with Silicone sealant as an alternative, but has not had time to try it yet.
Regarding the tape - I assume that some good natured person has taped the fragments together so that you can have a crack at the tried and tested superglue alternative ;-)Good luck!

That is a real puzzle. I have some teeth that have been laying around since the early '70's, never mounted, and none are or were split. (Sold some at gun shows)
I had that happen to an elephant tusk once. It was laying by the reloading table when it cracked or exploded. A load noise and flying ivory bits was a bit of a shock.

theres an easy solution, prop the tusks upright, and fill to the top with your favorite epoxy and let harden. As a dedicated pig hunter I learned long ago they nearly always split if you dont. you might be able to carefully tape the split ones together and epoxy them back to shape.

TSJ does exactly what my taxidermist does, fills the root canal with epoxy resin.

When doing the epoxy thing, a PH friend of mine puts the tusks into wet sand then fills them up with epoxy/resin.