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Bleaching skulls

Started by Weekend_Sawyer, November 18, 2004, 12:34:27 PM

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Weekend_Sawyer


 I saw a nice mount recently of an 8 point that had the full skull attached, without the lower jaw, and the horns were natural but the skull was nice and white.

Anyone know how to do this?
Best way to get rid of all of the skin, brains, eyes and such.
Bleaching soloution?

A couple of years ago I had a 6 point I wired up in a tree figuring I'd let the scavengers clean it up for me and darn if something didn't figure out how to get it out and drug it off!
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

beenthere


Weekender
I made a mount of a nice buck I shot in '99 that way.

First, I waited until my wife was gone for a couple days. Then I put a big pot on the stove and boiled (tried, but with an electric range, it was not quite a boil) the head, trying to keep the horns out of the water. This was after skinning the skull, and removing as much as reasonable with the patience I had. Then after it stayed in the heated water for about 16 hours (took too long but I think it was because the water wouldn't get hot enough to 'cook' the meat, etc off).  I don't remember that I added anything, like bleach, to the water - but may have just to get a better smell in the house!

Then let it dry, and with some dentil tools, picked everything clean as possible.  Amazing the tiny holes throughout the skull. Then mounted it on this board using rockhard putty to 'cement' in a piece of wood to screw the board to.

It's a European way of mounting horns, from what I hear.

My son and grandson placed the ping-pong balls in the eye sockets for a joke, and I liked them enough to leave them there. Can roll them in different positions, to get a different effect.  ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Larry

It's called a European mount.  Never have done one but my buddy has done several.  Get all the meat off the skull that you can and pay a lot of attention to the brains and nasal cavity.  Boil the skull in water and than pick all rest of the meat off.  Soak in 50/50 solution of water and Peroxide to whiten.  Dry for a week and touch up any spots with paint.  Do a Google and you can probably find a lot more info.

My part in the process is finding a knockout, drop dead slab to mount the rack on. ;D  

Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Larry

Nice deer and mount BT.  I was busy typing and thinking.  Didn't notice you had posted.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Tom

What would an ant bed do to the skull?  Seems the little rascals would enjoy cleaning it.

Timber_Framer

My father in law down in Texas puts them on a fire ant mound and they're clean as whistle in no time.
But if you don't have any fire ants handy and you have to boil it add a cup full of laundry soap to the water while boiling things come off way faster.
If you have a turkey fryer use that burner it'll come to a rolling boil real quick.
The best thing I've found for bleaching the skull is to get a platinum blond bleach kit from a hair dressers. Mix it up following the instructions and paint it on. Then wrap it in a plastic grocery bag and leave it over night, and rinse it of in the morning and allow it to dry in the sun.
You can also paint a 50/50 mixture of linseed oil and turpentine on the antlers wiping off any excess.
Then I take bondo and fill the brain cavity and add a piece of wood cut to fit once the bondo is dry you can add screws to connect it to whatever hanger you like. You can mount it on a plaque our straight to the wall. We've even taken the skull to a band saw and cut it so it lays flat, it's not necessary though.
I've done about twenty of these and each time I think of
something new to do...some even work
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

Weekend_Sawyer


  Thanks for all the great responses, I will give it a try, I also like the lindseed/turpentine for horns, that was going to be my next question.

 Heading for WV tomorrow. Talk to youall in a week

WS
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Timber_Framer

Never heard of cellsoda, of caurse I'm not a taxidermist either ;D
I'll have to give it a try. I got a nice bug nine pointer this year that I was planning on boiling tomorrow. I think I'll wait and see if I can find some of this stuf.
Thanks Kirk
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

Minnesota_boy

Is it really cellsoda that you got or was it SAL SODA.  Sal soda is otherwise known as washing soda.
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

Timber_Framer

Should be able to get that at the pharmacy eh?
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

Weekend_Sawyer


Man was this 2 years ago, I really gotta get around to things quicker.

Of course I havn't shot a nice rack so it didn't matter till now. A friend of mine just gave me a nice 7 point to try my euro mount on. I was going to run a photo journal on the process but the deer had been harvested 11 days ago and it was not a plesant experience doing the initial cleaning. I have pretty much a cast iron stomach but I felt my peanut butter sammage on the rise more than once.

I plan on boiling it in washing soda tomorrow. I'll keep youall posted on the outcome.

Jon
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

thurlow

One of Mike Rowe's programs was on cleaning skulls; didn't pay any particular attention to the process.  I never set out to watch him, but find him while channel surfing; his personality makes the program work.  I'm sure it'll (that program) be re-cycled..............
Here's to us and those like us; DanG few of us left!

farmerdoug

I have a friend that cleans skulls as a side business.  He delivers mail here full time. 
He uses beetles to clean up the flesh but still cuts off the excess flesh as it takes longer for the beetles to eat it all.  He also removes the brain, eyes and tongue because with the high fat content the beetles will not eat them.  He thens bleahes them with peroxide.  He does boil occasionly but it will soften the bone in the skull if you are not careful.  It sure is a stinky job and I think he earns what he charges.

Here is his website to give you guys some ideas on what it costs to have done..
Bizzy bugs
Farmerdoug
Doug
Truck Farmer/Greenhouse grower
2001 LT40HDD42 Super with Command Control and AccuSet, 42 hp Kubota diesel
Fargo, MI

Weekend_Sawyer


Wow FD, that goes under the heading "And Now for Something Completley Different"

This one is practise just to see how it will come out.

Jon
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

dutchman

Just saw a Kit in Cabela's catalog for European mount.
Sells for about $60.00, I think.

Dan_Shade

I did that once, and for you married guys, make sure your wife isn't home, or you'll be paying for her hotel visit.  better yet send her out of town for a few days before you do it.

it's smells bad enough to make a dog yak!

I was renting a room from a guy when I did it, it was like 10 degrees out and I had all of the windows open in the house! 
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

gary

I did this one the easy way. I put it on the garage roof for about a year. When I took it down this is what it looked like.




Weekend_Sawyer


Gary, I did one very much like that, but the horns got a little chewed by mice.

I am getting a later start than I wanted to but I am heading outside now to fire up the gas grill side burner and start boiling.

At the same time I am getting the smoker fired up to make about 6 lbs of jerky.

By the way, the Lovley Miss Celest is gone for the day shopping with her mother. Purfect time to do this!

Jon
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

thurlow

You must notta cleaned that sucker very good if its got enough "stuff" on it to make 6 # of jerky..........yuk  :D :D
Here's to us and those like us; DanG few of us left!

Mooseherder

Care to share your Jerky recipe?
Found this Moose Half-Rack in the woods. It was full of algea. Bleached it and let the sun whiten it up. It is being used as a hat rack at the camp. The wood is from a recycled TV tray. :D

Cutting the antler to make flush to the board reminded me of being at the dentist.  ;D

Weekend_Sawyer


  I like that hat rack. I am going to bump up Kiwi Charlies thread on this bord. It has a bunch of good recipes.

The skull is bubbling away and, whew, does it stink. I took some pix but not sure if I wanna post them, kinda nasty looking. Brains are kinda easy to pull out the back at this time and a lot of the leftover meat is melting off.

The jerky is working well but I had to move it away from the head, it wasn't hurting it, just didn't like the thought of them being in the same area.

Jon
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Mooseherder

Quote from: Weekend_Sawyer on December 02, 2006, 12:11:31 PM

The jerky is working well but I had to move it away from the head, it wasn't hurting it, just didn't like the thought of them being in the same area.

Jon

This might be yer best batch ever. :D
You can call it the "Skull Batch."
Thanks for posting the recipe on the other thread. ;)

Brian Beauchamp

I found this one as it is now...virtually clean!







This one my dad let soak in bleach water for a very long time and it is probably going to start falling completely apart soon!





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