North American Bull Moose

Day 3.
Very windy and dry day. It's difficult to spray with bleach today, without getting it all over myself.

North American Bull Moose

Day 2.
A lot of rain today, I added salt whenever it momentarily quit raining. I'm fixing the deer in the background for someone. I think I'll make one in the same style, only I'll make it Iowa size - corn fed.

North American Bull Moose

1 day of rusting. At this point, I've gone thru 2.5 gallons of bleach and 1 salt container. The quantities of each will get smaller and smaller as the rusting progresses. The eyes are covered with black tape, they will be painted gloss black later.
You can see where the pieces are welded together, because the weld material rusts a little faster than the base metal

Now to start rusting, using bleach and table salt. I'll post a picture each day until it's completely rusted.

North American Bull Moose

Sitting on a 4' x 4' table, this antler looks very big and it is.

Using the wire welder, I ran quick beads on the antler for texture.

North American Bull Moose

Boris The Buffalo, watching the progress. I've never used an armature for any of my work but it's necessary for the antlers to be even close to the same size. The top picture shows the eventual finish for the antlers.

North American Bull Moose

Working my way down the neck. On a normal moose mount, the neck would include the bulging breast bone and beginnings of the front leg joints. Due to the weight that would be extended out even further from the mounting backet, I've decided to stop the neck at about half its length.

North American Bull Moose

Making the transition from the head to the neck with hand tools can be difficult. I use the clamps to hold the new part to the one already in place. Starting with tack welds near the bottom, I determine where additional trimming is needed and work my way up.

North American Bull Moose

He's getting a little bigger now. A buddy of mine had some steel post caps, 2.5" left over from a project and will work great for the eyes. Today I will make the transition to the neck.

North American Bull Moose

1/2" round solid bar is heated and wrapped around a 2 1/2" pipe. Look, don't touch.

The wrapped bar is removed from the pipe and cut into sections and welded to the eyes, fence post caps, (hemispheres).

Pieces are shaped around the eyes and tacked in place. After the welds are ground off, I'll hammer some details around the eyes.

North American Bull Moose

The bottom jaw has been added.

North American Bull Moose

1/2" round solid bar stock is used to outline the shape of the lower lip.

A center strip, 3" wide, is shaped to the desired profile.

After hammering and edge grinding, the final pieces are tacked in place.

North American Bull Moose

The next few pieces are tacked in place, further shaping will be done after the welds have been ground off

North American Bull Moose

Here you can see the front lip before and after grinding. After the welds are smoothed down, I use auto body tools to further shape and blend the individual pieces together

North American Bull Moose

After the lower nostil is tacked, I weld all the gaps and grind to a smooth finish. More 1/2" bar is used to form the upper lip edge. These pieces are longer than they need to be, easier to cut off extra, than reweld and grind more material into place.

North American Bull Moose

Several pieces shaped with hammer on anvil welded together. 1/2" solid bar is shaped to form the thickness on the nostril. You can see the weld tacks.

North American Bull Moose

Starting with a 4' x 10' 18 ga. cold roll steel. Cut into 3 pieces for easier handling. I use a plasma torch to cut the steel, you can see the vise gripped cutting guide. A plasma torch cuts at 25,000 degrees F.