Euro-mount two skull stand project

[kmack]

So a little over a year ago, I built a wall mount for a set of antlers from a deer my FIL shot to honor him. (See the that thread HERE).

About the same time as that project, I started dreaming up an idea to display two Euro mounts that my daughter has. One is already on a plaque on her wall, but her other buck from 2018 hasn't made it up there yet. Since she will be going into her last year of college later this Fall, I wanted something that she could display after she moves out of her dorm and our house!

This started with a piece of cedar log that I picked up off the side of the road about 5 years ago. (That cedar was actually acquired in order to make some mounts for three turkey fans I did awhile back)

It was a piece that has a branch split and it turns out that the log would stand on it's own. The angles of the cuts on the branches were almost perfect, but required some massaging with the chainsaw. After remaking those cuts last year, I put the log back outside so the cuts could weather some more. I didn't want to strip the bark off either since I liked the look. Daughter liked that idea also.

So here is where it stands (see what I did there? ) after this weekend. It is roughly 46" tall and is about 2-1/2 feet wide.



It is anchored to the base (11"x11") with 4 - 3" wood screws and is very stable. The skulls are set in place on 2 - 16d double-headed nails each with the heads ground down so they could slide up into the base of the skull. This makes the skulls look like they are just "hooked" onto the log.





At this point, I'm unsure what to do for the base. Originally, I was thinking of the weather fence board look like the previous project listed up top. But thinking about it now, I think the grey look of the wood would wash out some with the grey look of the cedar. I have some broken down pallet wood that could be sanded and stained and put on as trim around the base, but then what do I put in as a filler around the base of the log? Some rocks, maybe? Some (fake) grass?

Looking for some ideas...

I saw the other thread with the 2 shoulder mounts and how he did the fake rocks around the base. I'm not sure I'm up for that kind of work here, and it's a pretty small area on this one. The bottom of the log is roughly 5" x 7" (give or take) so it doesn't leave a lot of room left on the base.

[kmack]

Also, the base is a piece of 1x12 that was cut down to 11x11, and then has 2x4's screwed underneath, laying flat. So it's about 2" thick...

[twosixteens]

I bet a couple shed antlers and a little hot glue to keep em in place would look nice on that base

[K. Lane]

Here is a screenshot of something I did for some of my euros




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kmack]

@K.Lane,
What plants are those? Real or fake?

[K. Lane]

@K.Lane,
What plants are those? Real or fake?

They are all fake plants and fake grasses....you can find all of it at Hobby Lobby...The box is a wooden planter that I picked up in the garden center of Lowes for around $40 or so....it is and 36'' long and about 8 or 10'' wide

[kmack]

Thanks for the info!

[kmack]

Little update...
It has been determined that this would benefit from being placed higher up, on a pedestal of sorts. Basically, if I want to put this in the house (or my daughter's place) it needs to be higher off the floor. Our (and her) dogs are big fans of deer antlers to chew on... So, time to modify the mount!

But I'm not sure how to go about making the pedestal. A carpenter I ain't!

I'd like to build it so that I could use either pallet planks or some nice 3" or 4" wide planks to panel the outside (if that makes sense). I'm thinking the final look would be with a nice wood stain as a finish. So everything would be sanded down smooth.

Ideas on how to go about this?

Might look at the planter box like you did @K. Lane.

Also, I'm still working on the fake plant idea, just haven't been real keen on visiting a Hobby Lobby or such place with all this CV-19 crap still lingering around...

[kmack]

Reviving an old post here to show a (finally) completed project!

Had a big change in plans with this stand. This was originally meant to be a stand for my daughter's euro mounts, but due to some reorganizing of her life last year she has acquired a 2nd dog that could reach the antlers on this stand, even with the pedestal that I was planning for it.

I started building a 16" tall pedestal for this stand a few years ago and that project ended up getting stuffed away in the back of the garage to allow for more time sensitive projects. I had grander elusions for the pedestal than what I ended up with here, but life just never allowed much time to get it finished. A couple months ago, my company redid the interiors of our office space and I decided I needed some more decorations in my work space. Since my daughter has a "taller" pup now living with her (that also likes to chew on antlers), I figured this stand would get repurposed into my new office. Plus it would look wrong trying to add a taller pedestal underneath the cedar log, making it look awkwardly big with weird proportions. It's already 59" tall as it sits here with the smaller 8-point on top, even taller if the 9-point sits in the top spot.

Anyway, I was in a bit of a hurry this week wanting to get this 1) out of my garage, & 2) into my office! So I finished up with the pallet planks around the perimeter of the pedestal a couple days ago. Standing back and looking at it, I kind of like the rough look/texture of the pallet wood along with the brighter wood look, as opposed to a stained finish.

Tying some of the meaning of this stand back to the deer that sit on top of it, the barb wire was actually wrapped around the base of a tree right next to the blind that I shot the 9-point from back in 2019.

It's nothing fancy or spectacular, but it works and has some meaning to me. I like it and that's all that matters!





Also, a few of the other dead things on my office wall...sort of a theme!

[CCTxHunter]

Nice work buddy! I love seeing different ways to display them.

[breadman]

good job