Bear Hides?

[Renius]

I have an opportunity to purchase a bear hide with claws, head, face and nose. It doesn't have upper jaw and teeth. Should it have the upper jaw and teeth?

Thanks for any info.

[Neuraleanus]

Depending upon the size, you don't want a bear hide that is too big, this should be fine. False upper teeth and glass eyes may be added. On my bear I glued in a block of wood carved to give shape to the head upon which mounted teeth obtained from a taxidermy shop.

Assuming hat you'll going to mount the bear on a helmet, you'll need to sew-in a harness. I made mine from a strip of leather with loops on each end. These slide onto the hooks of my Gallic G helmet and is then tied in place using lace going through the crest holder.

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Our Signifer has recently done this for his wolf pelt and I am planning to eventually do the same for my bear "Elvira". She was originally a rug so she still has her lower face, but no teeth. I will ask Sempronius where he bought his jaw. I got tired of having to attach and remove the pelt from my good helmet when I wasn't playing Cornicien, so I modified a junky old "trooper" helmet. I shaved off the welded-on eyebrows and re-hammered the cheekpieces. There were a few other things that needed changing, but once I tied the pelt over it no one could tell. I went to an event with two of this country's leading experts and they couldn't tell it was a dreaded trooper.

[P Sertorius Scaevola]

There's quite a simple and effective approach to this.

Judge the size of the beast and draw an outline of the head and nose, like a baseballcap. Draw the outline onto a wooden board, then copy the circumference of your helmet right above the earguards and browband. Cut this out and you have a 'sunshade' for your helmet. This is the base part on the helmet, the protruding part is the bottom of the nose of your bear. Add teeth to the base part by sanding a piece of broomstick handle into the desired shape and glue these into position, use a set of small dowels for the biters in between. Drill first for a tight ans decure fit. You now have all that's going to be noticed once the pelt is attached.
Soak the head in water till it's soft and plyable and put a plastic bag over your precious helmet. Nail the nose and remainder of the head to the wooden base and then simply use a can of expanding foam to fill everything in between bag/helmet and pelt. Almost forgot; use some ducktape to temporarily cover the eye sockets from the inside. The pelt will return to the former shape of it's owner, the foam will set en you can now trim and clean. Pull the tape out thru the eye sockets and make holes to insert your eyes from the inside.
If desired you can enhance the shape of the upper jaw with wood putty and then paint. Eyes can be glass or simply painted wooden balls, both work well.

The inside is now a perfect fit to your helmet, hide the foam by glueing in some leather, and you can use the crest holder to affix it firmly to the helmet. An L-shaped piece of metal, simply use a large nail, is to protrude all the way through the new skull and extend a little on the outside. Drill a small hole to put a pin/rivet, piece of leather thong thru and you're done.

See my lion for the result!

This is just one hypothetical way of rebuilding the head of your beast, where one assumes it is to look as fierce as possible to maximise effect. I think it does the job excellently. Another option is to go for a 'flat' impression and use the dry pelt as it comes.

[Marcus Mummius]

Paul's technique works very good!

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

<!-- l <a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?p=242529#p242529">viewtopic.php?p=242529#p242529<!-- l