Question-Cleaning Of Skull

[muleychaser]

I finally have a moment in life and began to clean the excess meat off of the skull of my muley I took this year. I was just wondering what sort of household cleaners ( ie- bleach and so forth) some of you might recommend in the cleaning process as I plan to just plaque mount it myself.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Shane

 

[WyoAces]

i just use bleach. seems to get the job done. i have not gotten any on the antlers though. i dont' know if it would bleach them out or not. i would recommend not finding out.

 

[nmhs]

I have been told a solution of bleach and peroxide. If you use to much bleach it will eventually eat away the bone. I used this solution on an elk skull and it worked fine. nmhs

 

[Hoosierbuck]

boil it in water with washing soda in it (a handful or two) after you have cut and scraped everything you can off. This includes cutting out eyes and tongue and lower jaw and brain matter.
After this, scrape it again and boil it again, wash with high pressure hose. Repeat as needed.
Run a search for european mount tips on this board and you will find a very detailed set of instuctions that work.
HB

 

[polarbear]

LAST EDITED ON Dec-29-04 AT 10:02PM (MST)[p]Household bleach can turn your skull yellow and brittle. Find a hairdresser that will get you some 40 volume peroxide and some Clairol Basic White 2.
If you boil, be sure to change out your water to keep it clean, add anti-bacterial dish soap (to cut the grease and bacteria)and sal-soda. Bring to a boil and turn it down to a simmer. Hard boiling will weaken the skull. After you have picked off all of the meat and cartilidge, pull out or hot water, drain and while still hot and wet, apply mixture of peroxide and CBW2 to skull. Mix it to a consistency of whipped cream. Get it into all of the holes and cracks. Let it sit about a day and hose off. Let it sit in a nice dry spot in the sun for a couple of days. Touch up any spots that you might have gotten the bleach on the antler burrs. I usually spray them with a clear, matte finish to seal it from dust and debris.

Eric

 

[Exaz]

One way to do it is bury the skull in the garden for a few months, let mother nature do the work. Bury the skull not the anthers. This eliminates the smell of boiling. Then use Peroxide and place on a roof for a week and let the sun finish it.

 

[elkhuntr]

Send it to me and I will have my beatles clean it.
Elkhuntr

 

[elkantlers]

you can buy sodium corbonate from any taxidermy supply. this is used when boiling the skull. it is pretty cheap. whiten with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and calcium carbonate. also bought from the taxidermy supply. type taxidermy into your search engine and go from there.