TimberlandTaxidermy

As I said, if you do that you are left with quills and skin. EXACTLY like my picture. Nothing short of complete removal of fat and meat ensures no future problems.


Making sure I do things 100% correctly is what keeps me busy. ALL quality bird taxidermists I know clean the feather quills on a turkey (or any other bird) exactly like I have.

...yet will never look as good as it could have.

It's not that they couldn't do it themselves, they just don't want it to look like they did it themselves. There is a segment of the population that demands quality, and it's those people that make up the majority of my client base.

Topgun 3006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Topgun 3006
...I take a penknife and remove all the meat and fat from the entire base area

Yep, I said the base area in that quote and I don't call the base area way up into the quill area you're talking about and don't touch any of it to the extent you show and I'll bet very few others do, including some of the taxidermist videos I watched showing the procedure they use. Hey, I'm pretty anal and a perfectionist myself in everything I do and to you and your last post I say BS!!! The part we're talking about is covered up and has nothing to do with the appearance of the fan unless someone does such a lousy job removing what they should and not preserving it such that it falls apart, LOL!!

TimberlandTaxidermy

I guess the readers of the thread can make their own decisions, as you have, about what extent they want to go to when removing fat and meat. I have been a professional taxidermist for nearly 15 years, and have probably done hundreds of birds/tails over the years. My professional advice is to clean them so there is nothing there to rot. No one has to take my advice, but those that do will be happy with the results, and can rest assured their mount will not attract the dermestid beetles that can destroy other mounts, as well as clothing and furniture. I like a little peace of mind.

If you are not worried about carpet beetles, or don't mind a temporary odor from the rotting fat, then by all means take a shortcut and just do the bare minimum. Everyone gets to decide for themselves.

Topgun 3006

Must be pretty slow in your taxidermy shop if you have all this free time to spout off on a website about how great you are and us poor peon DIYers will just have to live with our bug infested mounts, LOL! Thanks for your info. though and I'll keep the $150 you're charging for your fan mounts and buy a couple tanks of gas for my Wyoming trip this Fall!! Sorry, as I guess I'm a little testy with this friggin heat wave we're having right now! You have a good one as I see on your website that you do good work and I didn't mean to imply that you didn't.

Bluffcountrywoodworks

What you typed seems like a rage post. Cole at Timberland Taxidermy is really good at what he does and he has many happy customers to prove it. I would trust the words of a proven professional and licensed taxidermist versus DIY'er words any day.

Although it's possible to get the same quality doing it yourself, you'll probably save time, hassle, perhaps money by having a professional do it.

Cheers!

Topgun 3006

All I did was say that the way most of do ours is not the way he does and it's not necessary. Then he came back and used very derogatory words to describe what I feel is a very nice looking job that cost me only a few dollars for the plaque, and not $150 that he charges on his website. His work is very good and I said so in my followup post, but as I stated earlier, I like a more natural appearing fan than one like his that is combed to perfection with each feather postioned like it was synthetic and unnatural. Everybody to his own, but I didn't see anyone come on this thread and say they did their birds like he does and other's descriptions of how they do theirs was exactly as I mentioned that I do mine.