Tried and true, for wall mounts
With the head arranged, with the bottom of the lower jaw resting on a horizontal surface, antlers up:
1) Saw vertically, down through the skull, through the hair and skin, BEHIND the antlers, making sure to leave enough skull, so the back of the main beams clear your wall plaque.
2) Using a knife, cut vertically, down through the hair and skin, 1" to 2" in FRONT of the eyes, then skin out the skull back to the CENTER of the eyes.
3) Saw vertically, down through the skull, at the BACK TO CENTER area of the eyes, with the hide pulled back out of the way, toward the antlers. Stop when jelly is coming out of the eyeballs.
4) Saw horizontally, back through the skin and hair, through the TOP TO CENTER area of the eyeballs, until you intersect the cut from step 1.
At this point, you can discard the remainder of the head.
5) Remove the brain, eyeballs and front cheek meat from the skull cap and trim the eyelashes.
6) Trim front eye socket bone "corners", with side cutters.
7) Remove any visible flesh, but do not skin the hide off of the bone, to access it. I little bit of flesh, such as that at the back of the skull, under the hide, is OK.
8) In a cool dry place, lay the rack so that the convex side of the skull cap is up and cover with a generous amount of table salt, including the flap of hide, from step 2. Work the salt into any little openings and don't worry about getting it in the hair. Check in 2 to 3 days. When the salt is getting moist, shake it off and reapply. In 2 to 3 more days, when you see that the skull and flesh are getting dry, turn over and work salt gently into the hair. Then, spray WD40 on the hair, fully saturating it. Periodically check to make sure that the bone and flesh are dry and reapply salt and WD40 to the hair, every 2 to 3 weeks for 3 or 4 months.
9) Shake, then brush any visible salt from the hair. Wipe any residual salt from skull. Remove any dried flesh that is easy to access. Use your nose. If you smell anything, you did not use enough salt and WD40.
10) Predrill BACK of skull, in two locations, where the skull is solid, under the antler bases. Do not drill all the way through and use a drill bit that is a couple of sizes small than your wood screws.
11) Make a paper template of the profile of the back of the skull, including the two holes. Locate the template as required, on your wall plaque and mark, then drill the two screw holes.
12) Fold flap of hide, from step two, over cut off surfaces of the skull, from steps 3 and 4 and "pinch" it between the back of the skull and the plaque, when you tighten the screws. The flap may be a bit stiff from the salt drying, so you may need to work it a bit, so it flexes for you.
Like any recipe, you can adjust to suit your personal taste.
Once you do this twice, the steps will become automatic and the entire process will be much more waiting time, than processing time.
Your natural skull caps will keep their hair and be scent free, plus your friends will want you to do theirs.......enjoy
