Unique European Idea.... I think

[CM McKenzie]

I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind for about ten years now. I found this whitetail skull while feeding cows about that long ago.

I have searched all over the web, and have not found another one like it. After completing it, I know why.
I started a few weeks ago with the skull and a couple of quarts of Bondo.

 

[CM McKenzie]

More to come.

 

[Aaron N]

That could turn out looking great! If you could get it airbrushed to look like stained wood so it gave a carved appearance, you may be into something.

I’m looking forward to see how you finish it

 

[CM McKenzie]

I went a different route.

I have built a pile of saddles in my day. So I have a pretty good idea how leather works. I wanted to completely wrap it with leather. The problem you encounter. If you have leather that will mold to that extreme. It’s really hard to get it to tool.

I had to case the leather over night and mold it to the skull over a process that took several days.

 

[CM McKenzie]

The end of the initial molding process.

While I was waiting for everything to take shape. I drew out the tooling pattern on poster board.

 

[CM McKenzie]

Next.... I removed his face and prepared it for tooling.

 

[CM McKenzie]

I then had to slowly remold the leather to the skull. If you get the leather to wet or work to swiftly it will push all of the tooling out. This process I did over the course of a week or so. Just a little bit at a time.

 

[CM McKenzie]

Found a piece of wood on the ranch.

 

[BourbonTrail]

That’s cool…really cool.

 

[Trogon]

I've never seen that done before. I really like how it turned out. Thanks for sharing the whole process, it's an awesome piece!

 

[CM McKenzie]

Final product.... this is how it went on the wall today.

 

[K-man]

Beautiful work! And as you said, lots of patience required. Well done!

 

[Randy F]

That looks fantastic, well done!

Edit…I had to go back and look at the antlers as I ignored them as a looked at your process.
Really like how that turned out!

 

[CM McKenzie]

I’ll be honest....I didn’t start posting this when I first started it, because I wasn’t dead certain it was going to work. I was pretty excited when it actually came together.

 

[Cam Moon]

That turned out REALLY well! Certainly some skills and patience involved.
I'm quite impressed. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Berettaco]

Unique and beautifully done!

 

[Aaron N]

That is incredible! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Woodcarver]

Really like how it looks! Very unique

 

[Sarg]

Very nice, great work & thanks for showing us !

I just recently saw some Wooden Skulls with antlers added & they were cool to !

 

[VertigoBE]

Looks very nice! Thanks for sharing @CM McKenzie !