Thread: Putting Humpty Dumpty together again

Wondering if anyone can help me out, bumped into this fella this year, only shot he presented was a head shot. Skull is not in good condition, was held together by sinew but that's all rotted away and want to try and stabilize the antlers, they are quite fragile at the moment.
Not too sure at what my options are, if I would need to try and send him to a taxidermist or if there is anything I can do to keep him together. Any help/advice would be appreciated.

I do quite a lot of euro mounts and for smaller bones such as nasal bones I just use techbond superglue but for this kind of thing I'd suggest boiling the skull in soapy water to get the fat out and then use a 2 part epoxy glue to fill the back of the skull. For skulls that have been cut in half for shipping we drill holes and use wire to tie it together then fill them with epoxy but these skulls are for mounts, it wouldn't look too good on a euro.

Was also going to suggest some resin/epoxy.

Nice shooting btw

Originally Posted by MDub

I do quite a lot of euro mounts and for smaller bones such as nasal bones I just use techbond superglue but for this kind of thing I'd suggest boiling the skull in soapy water to get the fat out and then use a 2 part epoxy glue to fill the back of the skull. For skulls that have been cut in half for shipping we drill holes and use wire to tie it together then fill them with epoxy but these skulls are for mounts, it wouldn't look too good on a euro.

Yes. I head shot a 12" Tahr and did exactly that. Boiled with napisan, sieved the water to get all the bits and painstakingly glued him together again with a 2 pot epoxy. It looks fine now.




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Originally Posted by Tussock

I think it looks way better like that. I want a good stags head with a hole in it just like that now.

I am not a trophy guy. When I saw the photos I thought "that would look super cool, just like that, bare bone, mounted on a nice piece of timber". Then I thought, hang on a minute, I think that's what a euro mount is.

You put that on your wall, and I don't care what else you have, I bet people ask more questions about that one. I would not feel bad. But as I said, I'm not a trophy guy.

Me too but it has to stay on the wall in one piece which was sort of the point of his post I thought?

I would be interested to hear what you do and how it turned out

Yeah I thought epoxy resin would be the way to go, maybe even some fibreglass on the inside of the skull, it's barely hanging on at the moment, a good enough knock at the moment and it would probably separate.

Originally Posted by Gibo

Was also going to suggest some resin/epoxy.

Nice shooting btw

Ha cheers, I'll maybe try for a little bit further down next time tho.

Glue Dave. Glue. Tape would be ugly.

We're you above it or did it have its head down?
The angle of the hole looks high and flush.

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I have heard of them being done with a fibreglass cloth patch round the inside of the skull soaked in fibreglass resin and pushed / moulded to the shape of the inside of the skull

Originally Posted by gimp

Glue Dave. Glue. Tape would be ugly.

Glue might have worked for the representative 6 pointers that usually hit the deck at my feet, there's just too much timber in this one. No need to worry tho, I'm sure I'll be back to old ways soon enough.

And yeah he was a bit below me in a little gully.

We have one of these in our lounge, was taped together then some sort of expanding foam glue thing injected into the back. It's all sanded up and painted now do held together but I am with Tahr on this one, I reckon it would have been cooler to see that it was head shot.


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I was going to suggest expanding foam but dougie beat me to it. I've seen one cracked skull filled up with it. Cut the excess off it when it dries. Job done

Got some epoxy and some fibreglass cloth, I'll give that a bit of a go when I get time.

Superglue and baking soda. might be better than epoxy. Glue the pieces together with super glue. then fill any remaining cracks with baking soda and drip superglue into them. Sets instantly and fills the gaps.
Zap Zip kicker spray might help with super gluing the parts together too
https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/...-59ml/20988717

This is a suggestion only. I haven't tried this on any bones myself.

Originally Posted by MikeP-NZ

Superglue and baking soda. might be better than epoxy. Glue the pieces together with super glue. then fill any remaining cracks with baking soda and drip superglue into them. Sets instantly and fills the gaps.
Zap Zip kicker spray might help with super gluing the parts together too
https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/...-59ml/20988717

This is a suggestion only. I haven't tried this on any bones myself.

Baking soda accelerates cyanoacrylate glues so use Zap or soda. Zap Zip tends to yellow the glue.

Rubbing baking soda in and dripping the glue on should work, but it'll tend to froth and mound up, might need rubbing back.

B