Bullwinkle finally came home.
I hit the jackpot at work, stumbling onto a big pallet made of oak. Once discovered it did not last long.
I think it worked out pretty good and am quite happy with the results.
The biggest challenge to this job was the only place we had room to put the head was above our entrance door. We wanted it there but there was no stud in the center of the wall, some framers just don't think about hanging big stuff on walls. We had to span two studs in order to center the plaque.
With having to span two studs a unique plaque was in order. After lots of templates this one was my favorite. The narrow vertical piece is relieved on the backside, leaving a 1/4" gap between it and the plaque about an inch deep. This leaves space for the braided picture frame cable to slide in. The cable is looped through the holes going into the brain cavity from the sides giving the most support possible. I was able to hang from the plaque and not have it fall off the wall so it should support 1/3 the weight.
The finish is quite easy, with a little help from your friendly oxy-acetylene outfit I was able to highlight the woodgrain very nicely by just waving the torch over the wood with a neutral flame. Rarely do I find a stain that I really like and shelac doesn't fit the bill like good old rustic does.
One benefit to this type of mount is the plaque can be installed and then the head simply lifted up and set in place and removed the same way if needed. I couldn't imagine trying to lag screw this thing to the wall while holding all the weight. That would land me in the hospital for sure! It is after all 9 feet off the floor.
Most of the designs I have seen to date have the skull permanently attached to the wood. Hopefully this will help some folks find an easier method for hanging that beast where it isn't easy to get too. This would work well with any game head I can think of. I used two #14-3 1/2" long screws to anchor to the wall and the small vertical piece has one screw going in from the back in three spaces, one in each laminated board.
The skull was done at Great West Taxidermy, south or Black Diamond. Kathy uses beetles which also helps keep skull shrinkage to a minimum. Over the dry out period the overall width lost only 1/2". Compare that to the 3" my BIL lost with his getting boiled and it makes a big difference.
Hope this helps some of you out!
Cheers,
Noel
I hit the jackpot at work, stumbling onto a big pallet made of oak. Once discovered it did not last long.
I think it worked out pretty good and am quite happy with the results.The biggest challenge to this job was the only place we had room to put the head was above our entrance door. We wanted it there but there was no stud in the center of the wall, some framers just don't think about hanging big stuff on walls. We had to span two studs in order to center the plaque.
With having to span two studs a unique plaque was in order. After lots of templates this one was my favorite. The narrow vertical piece is relieved on the backside, leaving a 1/4" gap between it and the plaque about an inch deep. This leaves space for the braided picture frame cable to slide in. The cable is looped through the holes going into the brain cavity from the sides giving the most support possible. I was able to hang from the plaque and not have it fall off the wall so it should support 1/3 the weight.
The finish is quite easy, with a little help from your friendly oxy-acetylene outfit I was able to highlight the woodgrain very nicely by just waving the torch over the wood with a neutral flame. Rarely do I find a stain that I really like and shelac doesn't fit the bill like good old rustic does.
One benefit to this type of mount is the plaque can be installed and then the head simply lifted up and set in place and removed the same way if needed. I couldn't imagine trying to lag screw this thing to the wall while holding all the weight. That would land me in the hospital for sure! It is after all 9 feet off the floor.
Most of the designs I have seen to date have the skull permanently attached to the wood. Hopefully this will help some folks find an easier method for hanging that beast where it isn't easy to get too.
This would work well with any game head I can think of. I used two #14-3 1/2" long screws to anchor to the wall and the small vertical piece has one screw going in from the back in three spaces, one in each laminated board.The skull was done at Great West Taxidermy, south or Black Diamond. Kathy uses beetles which also helps keep skull shrinkage to a minimum. Over the dry out period the overall width lost only 1/2".
Compare that to the 3" my BIL lost with his getting boiled and it makes a big difference.
Hope this helps some of you out!
Cheers,
Noel
