for the taxidermist here,there are 2 taxidermist in my area . the 2 seem to do thing alot different when it comes to preparing deer forms for mounting.

both do some opening up of tear ducts ,nostrils and lips with a dremel tool,but as far as the rest of the form one of them completly scrapes down the whole form with a wire brush to ruffen it up so the glue will hold better. the other pretty much just leaves it like it comes and mounts the deer. is all of this extra work on a form needed or will hide glue stick ok without doing it. seems like he spends alot of time doing this,he also usually cuts muscle tone deeper on most forms.

IMO, the form should be roughed up a bit to hold the glue better. This helps hold the detail in your finished mount and helps keep drumming to a minimum.

The form should absolutely be roughed up so the adheasive has something to bite onto. If fact, alot of adheasives even say on the directions to rough up the form. This is just an assumption, but I bet the taxidermist who roughs up is forms probably produces an overallbetter looking mount. If the other is taking shortcuts on form prep...chances are he is taking shortcuts other places too.....JMO.

To be honest preping a form doesn't take much time at all for basic heads. 10-15 minutes maybe. Dremel the nose, open tear duct and mouth, ruff the form, and dremel the stitching seam. Carving extra muscle detailand such takes a little more time but not that much. I agree with Zubba. Preping forms is a very tiny proces but makes a big difference. WCL

I just got done repairing a lifesize beaver for a guy. The whole back seam was split about 2" wide, all the stitches pulled threw. After working on it, the form was not ruffed up and the funniest thing is these guys think they can save money and not use hide paste. If the hide paste was used the stitches would not have pulled apart. At least the skin was actually tanned LOL! There are a couple other taxidermist within the 30 mile radius of me that just dry preserve and no GLUE, what a bunch of idiots. It may look good when it leaves their doors, but give the mount some time and the cutomer ends up with crap.

there is a film left on the form its best to take it off so the hide will stick better i use a little butane torch and lightly go over the form the film will pop right off then i do some detailing on the muscles you have tobe careful because the form is very flameable but it doesnt take very long to prep it at all

You really need to sand down the whole form to get rid of the mold release on the surface. Just take some course grit sand paper to it and it only takes a few minutes.

We use Mannikin Prep instead of sanding, I found it cost less money to buy the prep than it does to sand it and figure the charge per form. We do quite a few mounts and any thing that can save money and time (which is money) works well in my shop. This is just my thoughts.

I'm with coonhunter on this one. I simply burn the mannikin with a small torch. It beats all the hand sanding, and cleans out the muscle lines easier. Once I lightly burn off the mold release, then I do a quick fine sand as extra insurance. Its also alot easier to sand once the mannikins been burnt. Saves time & $!