PLATE V.[a]Paring Down a Large Mammal Skin.]
To carve a wooden skull, proceed as follows: If you have not the genuine skull to use as a pattern, you must procure one from an animal of the same species, and ascertain its size in comparison with what the wooden skull must be, e.g., whether it be larger or smaller. Then procure a piece of soft pine timber, free from knots, and thick enough to turn out a skull of the proper size. If this can not be found in one piece, glue together several pieces of pine until they form a block of the proper size. On the top of this block place your genuine skull, and trace its outline on the wood, making your outline larger or smaller, as it may need to be, and bilaterally symmetrical. Now take your hatchet and hew the two sides of the block down exactly to this outline. This represents the "ground plan" of the skull.
To get the side elevation, sketch out on the side of this block a side-view outline of the skull, and then hew down to that. With your dividers, locate exactly the inner edge of the orbits, and then mark out with a pencil the entire circle of each orbit. With a gouge carve out the hollows neatly, and then with your flat chisels attack the cranium, round off its angles, and so work over the entire skull.
Measure frequently with the calipers to see that the dimensions are correct. There is no need to go into any of the details of the back part, or basi-occipital portion of the skull, nor with any other details except those that lie on the surface. It is important to shape the orbits, zygomatic arch, the frontal bones, the muzzle and lower jaw, quite accurately, for these bones bear scarcely any flesh. In making skulls for apes and monkeys the greatest care is necessary to produce the facial angle, orbits, and muzzle, so sharply characteristic of the various families.
When a wooden skull is used, the mouth should always be closed, unless it is very necessary to have it open. While it is possible to take moulds from a real skull, and cast a full set of teeth in plaster or lead, or to set real teeth, or painted wooden imitations, into a wooden skull, the result is generally unsatisfactory to a critical eye. When teeth are cast and painted, the paint always changes color with age, causing the teeth to look "made up." If you can not have a real skull with genuine teeth in it, for whatever mammal you are mounting, no one has any right to require that it be mounted with open mouth, unless the head is to go on a rug instead of a scientific specimen.
Observe the following precautions in making a skull:
1. Be sure that it has the proper facial angle.
2. Be sure that it is in no way too large. Better have it too small than too large.
3. Be sure that there are no sharp corners upon it anywhere, lest they come out next to the skin in mounting, and cause trouble.
When a skull is finished, bore a hole (or two in some cases) through it from the occiput to the centre of the nose or mouth, for the passage of the neck irons or wires that are to support the head.