how to bleach out a skull

[912zeus912]

Me and my 5 year old daughter killed a 400 lb boar last year and i want to bleach out the skull.Does anyone know how to bleach one out?

[Adam]

I had succes with putting a raccoon skull on an ant hill and let them pick all the flesh off, and then putting it in hydrogen peroxide for the bleaching. It came out quite nice.

I have also find boiling skulls on a coleman stove outside is a good alternative to the ant hill method.

Adam

[ninepointer]

Do a web search on "European Mounts" and you will find info. Most methods are very similar to one another, involving boiling (degreasing) first, followed by soaking with high strength hydrogen peroxide. I've never done a bear, but I've done a few deer. Do not use bleach.

[Rich]

1. Boil skull (outside the house) in water with Borax laundry soap mix in the water first, scrape off meat. Repeat until clean.

2. Once all meat is picked clean, soak in Hydrogen Peroxide from any beauty supply store, do not use the store brand, it is diluted to much.

3. After it is bleached, cover the skull with a 50/50 mixture of Elmer's white glue and water to seal it.

4. Some people pull the teeth out and super glue them back in to prevent them from falling out.

Rich

[dspa]

Actually you don't want to boil skull. just cook it. Boiling will loosen the different sections of skull. You don't want that. The product I would suggest using while cooking skull is Arm and Hammer "Washing Soda" not baking soda, "Washing Soda". This turns meat into jelly and can be easily scraped or washed off. The method I use is putting the skull in a bucket of water and let the meat rot off. This takes longer and I only do this in the Summer, away from the house. Put an aquarium heater in the bucket to keep it warm at night. The warmer, the quicker it rots. Take a metal rod and put it in drill to chop up brain so it comes out easier. Gross but effective. Don't forget to degrease. Use Dawn detergent in a bucket of water. Keep changing water every few days until water stays clear. If water clouds up it means grease is still leeching out. This might take weeks or months. Don't skip this part! As Rich said the stronger peroxide like hair dresser supply stores have work better than the regular stuff. Be careful, wear gloves and goggles. It will burn your skin and cause blindness, don't mess with it. Don't leave it in too long and check often. Take it out and put in the sun, if it isn't white enough, back in the peroxide. I use Baquacil Oxidizer to whiten skulls. Pool supply company's have it and it seems to work better than peroxide but it is probably more expensive and if your only doing one skull it is probably not worth it. I seal skull with Matte Finish Spray Paint

[Big58cal]

I've done quite a few skulls, both for college and myself. Don't boil or cook it. This hurts the bone and weakens it, making it brittle.

Like dspa, I put them in water and let it rot off. It stinks, but is effective. Take it out severy couple of weeks, change the water, and spray the skull off with a water hose.

After you get the meat and everything off of it, mix up a 50/50 solution of just regular hydrogen peroxide (the kind you would put on a cut) and water. Bleach and stronger chemicals like that will weaken the bone and cause it to start flaking. Leave it in the peroxide/water solution for a couple of days (covered to keep light out). Take it out, rinse it off and it's ready to go.

On a skull like a bear (anything without antlers/horns), flip it upside down when you put it in the water to rot the meat off. This will keep the teeth in the top jaw in place, as well as most of the bottom jaw teeth. Any that come out will usually come out onto the skull.

After the skull is cleaned and dry and you've put the teeth back in, I use regular fletching glue and run a bead of glue around the outside and inside of the teeth where they meet the jaw/skull. The fletching glue dries clear and is more than strong enough to hold the teeth in place.

If you're doing anything with antlers, keep the antlers up out of the water when you're letting it rot, and when you put it in the peroxide solution. As you guessed, it will bleach them out.

[bbbwb]

The methods of "bleaching a skull"have been explained, however I have had difficulty in doing deer antlers. How does one do the top of the skull without affecting the base of the antlers? The top of the skull is higher than the antler and with the submersion method, the antler base is going to be bleached as well.
I apologize for such a question if it has a simple solution that I overlooked.

bbbwb

[bait pile willie]

last year I had a record book bear skull.I carved off as much meat as i could, then boiled it,but I made the mistake of not changing the water often enough,to gt rid of the fat.I took it to the taxidermist in mapleton who put it inahigh o/o of peroxide{that is hard to get in small quantities}It turned out pure white.using bleach,you have to be careful not to soften the bone.peroxide doesnt do this.

[bobby2bears]

My great Uncle used to throw the skinned deer head in his pond with a small chain and a cinderblock to keep it submerged. Would go back in the Spring and take it out perfectly cleaned. I don't know what he did after that, if anything, but they were hanging everywhere around the farm buildings.