Came home a few months ago, and the dog got a wild hair up his arse...completely destroyed two fans...looked like a massacre. Currently the fans sit in vases, which also look quite nice, and for some odd reason he left the beards alone...

I've got pictures of the fans, intact on the birds, and was just wondering if anybody had ever reconstructed one. He didn't eat any of the feathers (well, maybe a little down ), so I have the entire fan, just not in order.

I'm thinking I could cut a half-moon shape from styrofoam/florists foam and just start inserting the quills to match the photos. Just wondering if anyone else has ever attempted this....

S&R

I've never done it personally, but I've read that some people when cleaning their fans to prepare to mount them actually separate the feathers to clean off as much meat as possible. If I recall, they just pin the feathers back in the order they are supposed to be in and use a glue gun or bondo to hold them together. I hope you are able to salvage your trophies. I still have the fan (and beard) from the first bird I shot, but unfortunately I didn't know what to do with it, so I kept it folded up and salted it. I didn't realize it would dry and stay in that position. One day I'm going to try to soak it and relax the feathers to make a proper mount.

cut you a small half moon from cardboard.lay the feathers out on it in an order,starting from each side.when you got the main ones.run a bead of hot glue across the quills about an inch from the tip. then take the next size feathers and do the same,then the next size,till you are finished.then cut a circle of leather or felt cloth,lay the fan in the center and fold it over and sew inbetween each feather.your done.

If you still have the bottoms of the quills intact you're all set. That's exactly how I do all my fan mounts, got the idea out of a Fur-Fish& Game magazine and it's awesome. I take each tail feather out and clean off all the meat, then lay it on the table where it's supposed to be in order. Then I do the same with 3-4 layers of the other tail feathers, and set them aside. Cast the main feathers in two-part fiberglass boat repair (lay them on wax paper), then after that dries hot glue gun the rest of the feathers on a layer at a time, then mount it to a wooden plague, it will come out as flat as possible and will never rot from meat spoilage.

I think they come out great, here's a few photos of the process, I took them cause someone else was asking me how I do it that way. The first photo is the main feathers in fiberglass and the first layer of secondary feathers with hot glue

This photo is of all the secondary feathers glued to the fiberglass

And here is a finished product, one of my favorites with three beards mounted to it.

Try the hot glue gun method. Lay the feathers one by one like you want them. Takes about two hours.

I do all my fan mounts that way. Should work well on reconstructing yours.

Hal