Discolored buffalo boss

[Rumrunner]

You spent a small fortune to harvest a really nice buff, now is not the time for DIY. Take it to a well thought of taxidermist that has experience with African mounts. Sometimes it’s best to leave it to the professionals.

 

[Tucketed]

Orange glow will give it moisture and darken it up.

 

[Flipper Dude]

I use furniture polish on mine. Paint it on with a foam brush. Will look too wet and dark at first, but the horn soaks it up


Wet here, or freshly applied

Dry here. I couldn’t find a dry pic of buffalo.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I use furniture polish on mine. Paint it on with a foam brush. Will look too wet and dark at first, but the horn soaks it up


Wet here, or freshly applied


View attachment 744737



Dry here. I couldn’t find a dry pic of buffalo.


View attachment 744738

We send all clients' skulls out the door with paste wax on the horns/antlers. Brings out the colors nicely but will not change color which seems to be what OP is looking for. Client can buff up the horns to a rich shine or leave them dull and natural looking.

Waxing horns will not harm them. It helps preserve them.

 

[steve white]

+1 on brushing and cleaning, then maybe the black bear hair dye. As it is, it does not look like it did originally.
Nice hard boss BTW

 

[roklok]

View attachment 744739

Maybe I should go this route !! Then use the leftovers on myself, my "boss" is definitely getting discolored as well.

 

[great9.3]

For my kudu trophies, I used a colorless, beeswax-based product. However, there are also dark waxes; perhaps one of those would be a good solution for your problem?

 

[outwestidaho]

It looks like the skull was upside down when they boiled it. The horns makes contact with the bottom of the pot. Hence causing them to burn. That's what it looks like. We see it a lot. With just a photo its hard to tell, but if you chip some off the surface and it looks the same underneath than its most likely burnt.
We fix with epoxy's and than airbrush and add some dirt. We don't like a polished look unless that's the way that they were. Yours doesn't look like it was polished in the dead scene. The fix for you at home is to put multiple sanding sealer on it (burnt spots). Than find a paint that matches the rest of the horn and paint the boss to look the color you want. Sanding sealer will seal the pores in the horn that are burn and let the paint color properly and not have a polished look.

 

[Sika98k]

Definitely not bark. I’ve never tried shoe polish but I don’t think much different than the oil the taxidermist uses.

Guaranteed the shoe polish will be cheaper than the taxidermists oil !

 

[375Fox]

Guaranteed the shoe polish will be cheaper than the taxidermists oil !

Mine has never charged me. They’ve done it while I wait.

 

[Tim Blackwell]

50/50 linseed oil & turps is what many taxidermists use on horns. Paint on, wipe excess with a rag.
It will darken them somewhat but it replaces the natural oils snd protects them from further degradation.

 

[MarkB]

First question is? Do you want them to look like they did when you shot it? Natural and real? Or do you want a black goo all over them? I recommend you follow @buck wild advice if a natural proper look is your desire. If not real but pretty and shinny black is your desire paint with shoe polish, black paint or something like that.

Me I like the as shot look on all my stuff and spend the extra time to do. Taxi supply houses have the correct paints to use, yes it takes time to learn how to do, paying a taxidermist to complete as you like will pay off far longer when you look at them for your life time. You will not remember the small amount of cash to get it done "right". Looking at shoe polish horns may not elicit the same feelings.

MB

 

[roklok]

I wanted to share an update. I was able to get my buff looking the way I like it. I experimented with a couple things on the back of the horn in small areas where it is not readily seen. Just for Men hair dye in dark brown was a bit too dark for my liking, almost black. Kiwi brown shoe polish was too light a shade, and I was not able to source Kiwi dark brown shoe polish, it may be discontinued.

I ordered some Meltonian dark brown creme shoe polish and it ended up almost a perfect match.

I applied the creme polish with a soft bristled shoe brush, and worked it into the horn while heating the horn with a heat gun. This caused the polish to melt and penetrate the horn. I then worked the entire horn with Ballistol on the brush. I let the horn absorb the polish and Ballistol for a few hours and wiped away excess. Initially the horns had a somewhat glossy look but as time passed and the Ballistol finished drying and being absorbed it dulled down nicely. I was told by my PH that Ballistol works well on elephant hair bracelets to keep them from drying out and cracking, hair and horn are both the same basic substance. Here are a couple pictures as it looks now.

 

[Hedge774]

That's perfect. Done deal! Good job!

 

[hoytcanon]

Looks great, good job.