Antler Mounting Instructions (my way)

Nick · January 17, 2006

I seen the other antler post and that reminded me I took a couple pictures while in the process of mounting mine so I could show you all how I did it. Ok, here it goes.....

First you want to make sure all the skin and meat is off the skull plate and its all dried up. Make sure all the sale and anything else is off of it.

Theres alot of "eye-balling" involved in how I do. So I'll take my antlers and hold them up against a wall on the angle that I would want them to hang. Then I'll start taking a little bit of the back of the skull off at a time with a table saw using a fence. Then I'll go back to the wall and look to see how much moire I need to take off and at what kind of angle. I'll keep going back and forth until when I hold the antler against the wall, the back of the skull is flush and the antlers are how I want them to hang.

Next step, is to get a piece of luan (sp?) and draw the shape you want the skull to be. This takes alot of eye-balling as well. I usually make mine kind of a heart shape on the bottom with a straight arch just big enough to cover the top of the skull. Make sure you hold the antlers up to your shape and make sure that it is just big enough to cover the whole skull plate. Them get a jig saw and cut out your shape.

After your shape is cut out, doing the eye-ball thing again, use a clamp and clamp your antlers (by the skull plate) to your shape made of luan axactly where they need to be to look straight. Then find a couple screws long enough to screw through the luan and into the skull without going all the way through. Before you put the screws in....pre-drill, then put in your screws. Heres a picture of where you should be at by now.

Now the fun part. Get a can of Durhams Rock Hard putty. This is the best stuff to use for this!! You can find it in most hardware stores. You need to get an old butter container or some type of container you can throw in the trash once your done, and mix the putty with water. Add just a little bit of water at a time and make it so its pasty so you can form it without your shape collapsing. Now you can start putting the putty ontop of your luan and begin forming the shape. Make sure you fill all the little holes in and make it one flat, smooth surface so it looks like one piece. Make sure once you mix the putty, you start doing your forming right away! You will probably have to sit there with it for an hour or so playing and forming it.......Just keep eye-balling and forming the putty until your happy. Tip- once you get your form close, dip your fingers in water to form and smooth the surface. MAKE SURE THAT THE SURFACE IS SMOOTH BEORE IT DRIES!!! This stuff is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to sand or file. Key with this whole step is eye-balling as well and making sure everything is even on both sides. Here is a picture of what it should look like after the putty phase.

Give your putty job about a day to dry. Then find a nice piece of cloth, leather, vinyl, or whatever type of material you want to put on your mount. Hold up the material to the base of the antlers and cut a slot in the material as close to the middle of each antler as you can. Make the two slots about an inch to give yourself enough material to work with. Then cut in the slots a hole about the circumference of the base of the antlers. Once thats done you can put the material on the antlers. Now get a staple gun and 3/8" staples. Starting at the top, stretch your material over and staple it to the back into the luan. Then work your way down each side, stretching and cutting the material as needed. You will have to cut V-slots in the material on the back once you start stretching and stapling. You basically just need to take your time with this and make sure the material is tight without any wrinkles until you get it stapled all the way around. When you get it all stapled, just use some liquid nail to glue down the slots you made in the material for the antlers to go in.

Now your ready for a plaque. Its your choice on what kind of plaque you want to use. I just draw up a shape on a pice of board that the antlers will look good on, cut it out, router, and finish. What I used for this mount was a door off of a cabinet that already had a finished look on the face. Once I cut it, I routered the edges and used black shoe polish to make the routered edges black.

Now, hold your antlers up to your plaque and hold them on there how you want them atached. Then take a drill and drill a hole theough the plaque and into the top of the shape the antlers are on, without goinhg all the way through. Do the same on the bottom. Then take a couple of screws and snug the antlers to the plaque.

To finish it off, I take some gold rope to put around the base of the antlers and attach it with some super glue.

Thats all there is to it. It sounds hard and can be at first. But if you take your time it is definately something to be proud of and will last forever. I learned this a couple years ago from one of my dads cousins. This year I used the fork-horn I got to do one on my own. Heres the final product.

rockefeller66 · January 18, 2006