Bleaching skulls

[NV HUNTER]

Never heard of Aqua Slik.. whats it do? Is it doing the whitening in place of the peroxide?

It’s a whitener. Pool stores sell it

 

[Catchfish]

Looks like that says 27% hydrogen peroxide on it.

 

[Choot]

View attachment 987833View attachment 987834View attachment 987835

Sous vide set at 155 over night
Pressure wash
Sous vide set at 170 over night
Pressure wash
Aqua slik/water 50/50 -90 minutes
Pressure wash
Dry over night
Mop and glow

Sous vide is a good idea, never thought of that. Mite have to try it. How do you keep from bleaching the bases on the aqua silk/water soak? I feel like you’re either gonna have the top of the skull out of the water or your bases under just a touch. I know you can wrap them but I’d still be scared it would leak up in

 

[NV HUNTER]

Sous vide is a good idea, never thought of that. Mite have to try it. How do you keep from bleaching the bases on the aqua silk/water soak? I feel like you’re either gonna have the top of the skull out of the water or your bases under just a touch. I know you can wrap them but I’d still be scared it would leak up in

The bases do get a little bleached. And yes I wrap in plastic wrap. Don’t worry about it. Let it dry in front of a fan for a day and use a Qtip with wood stain. Hold the skull upside down so the stain doesn’t leak onto the white skull.

 

[trippcave]

View attachment 987833View attachment 987834View attachment 987835

Sous vide set at 155 over night
Pressure wash
Sous vide set at 170 over night
Pressure wash
Aqua slik/water 50/50 -90 minutes
Pressure wash
Dry over night
Mop and glow

Do you not have problems with the sous vide getting chunks of fat or meat stuck in it? Or is the skull wrapped in something to prevent that?

 

[NV HUNTER]

Do you not have problems with the sous vide getting chunks of fat or meat stuck in it? Or is the skull wrapped in something to prevent that?

No, I do a good job of getting all the big chunks. I think in the last 4 years it only clogged 1 time.

 

[TheGDog]

View attachment 987833View attachment 987834View attachment 987835

Sous vide set at 155 over night
Pressure wash
Sous vide set at 170 over night
Pressure wash
Aqua slik/water 50/50 -90 minutes
Pressure wash
Dry over night
Mop and glow

Dayum! That buck by the goat is Nice!

 

[Nick4050]

We've been using the simmer/peroxide method for our moose skulls the last few seasons and its been working really well. We cut slots in 55 gallon drums at the height where the nose bone is held an inch or so off the bottom, fill it up with water and dawn soap, tape the top off with a trash bag to keep steam in, and throw it on the turkey burner. Keep an eye on the temp so it doesn't boil, and let it sit for about an hour. Pull it out and hit it with the pressure washer (or a Hotsy if you have access to one, it works 100x better). If you do a half decent job of fleshing the skull beforehand you probably only have to do this once, but if you're like me and just throw it in there full of meat it'll probably take 2 or 3 soaks. Let it dry for a couple hours, then lather in 40 volume peroxide and let it side for 12 hours, then rinse and repeat until its as white as you like. With the moose we've noticed that if you do this process within like a week of killing it, you don't really need to do any degreasing other than the soap in the simmering water. If you let them sit for a couple weeks, you definitely see some yellowing unless you degrease.

I need to get a better picture of this year's bull up on the wall, you can't tell in this picture but it cleaned up really nicely and has zero yellowing or smell to it. I credit this to getting it cleaned up within like 4 days of shooting it.

 

[NV HUNTER]

Dayum! That buck by the goat is Nice!

That’s my deer from this past season. Just a touch over 180.

 

[CMF]

I've had success with regular ole 3% peroxide from walmart. I've let it soak as little as 24hr and as long as a week, usually just depends on when it's convenient for me to pull it out. That's after degreasing of course. The little shoe box platic totes from walmart work great for deer skulls.

 

[Cerberus1124]

Generally about a day works for me. I’ve found getting the fat/grease off (via whatever method) before any whitening is more critical on finished product. The one pictured was the first one I ever tried and they’ve just gotten better. Oh and if you’re careful, the pressure washer method saves loads of time.

 

[Stromith]

Just wondering how long you guys normally let the bleach sit on the skull before washing it off?

Part of the fun for me is to go into the beauty supply shop and buy peroxide developer! 40% is all I can get there.

I add it to the pot I boiled in. Let it simmer 15 Min. Does a good job pulling out grease and making it white.

 

[bucksanducks12]

A few things to add: for people using maceration do not change the water fully. If you feel the need to change water leave roughly half the water in so bacteria can recolonize. If you rinse out and start a new bucket after a few days you may not have any bacteria left to finish the process.

I do not change out my water at all, toss the skull in a 5 gal bucket with water over the top of the skull. Drop in a 6$ Amazon fish tank heater set to 97ish deg. Set in a garbage bag and tape the top closed around the fish tank cord. Let that run 6 days and haven’t had a problem.

Degreasing usually takes weeks not days. Keep the dawn and soap or ammonia and water mixture as close to 120deg as you can. Over 120deg, you’ll get bone deformation. This part, change the water mixture out every week or two. Deer usually take me 2 months, bears 3-4.

When using peroxide, it’s not a heat situation as much as it is UV/sunlight. Peroxide breaks down into water and oxygen under UV light which helps facilitate the whitening process. If using the crème, paint it on then wrap in cling wrap. Leave in the sun (I usually set mine in the window sill on sunny days) will help. If you really have some yellow spots still I’ve found taking bear skulls with the peroxide still on it and tossing them into super hot (110deg water) until the water cools has helped. I’ve poured the water onto deer skulls to not splash peroxide on the antlers.

When letting dry, put a zip tie around the nasal bones so they don’t splay when final drying is occurring.

Pro tip: if you have grease marks from maceration/degreasing on your antlers that won’t scrub off: wrap a paper towel around the area and dampen with ammonia. Let dry. Repeat process till spots are gone.

There are some really good facebook groups that you can find all this information above at. Really helped me up the quality of euro mounts I was doing!!

(A guy who’s had beetle colonies and macerated)

 

[North of 60]

Good suggestions above by @bucksanducks12.

I forgot to mention I've found that adding some bacterial/enzyme drain cleaner to the maceration water helps colonize/accelerate degrading protein/fat.

 

[CMF]

When letting dry, put a zip tie around the nasal bones so they don’t splay when final drying is occurring.

That's a good tip! I've learned that the hard way.

Degreasing usually takes weeks not days. Keep the dawn and soap or ammonia and water mixture as close to 120deg as you can. Over 120deg, you’ll get bone deformation. This part, change the water mixture out every week or two. Deer usually take me 2 months, bears 3-4.

Why do you think it takes weeks to degrease? Any side by side comparisons of several years old skulls? Not saying your wrong, but I've just done simmering water with dawn for 30 minutes, changing the water out several times. I haven't noticed any yellowing since doing that as compared to the first skull I did years ago that had no degreasing that is noticeably yellow.

 

[bucksanducks12]

That's a good tip! I've learned that the hard way.

Why do you think it takes weeks to degrease? Any side by side comparisons of several years old skulls? Not saying your wrong, but I've just done simmering water with dawn for 30 minutes, changing the water out several times. I haven't noticed any yellowing since doing that as compared to the first skull I did years ago that had no degreasing that is noticeably yellow.

With degreasing I’ve found there’s no “magic number” of days or time spent. I’ve had deer take 5 months or 3 weeks. I think it depends on how the skull was prepped maybe?

A skull that’s sat in the freezer for years had more time for fat from meat leaching into skull. Beetles allow for meat to dry which leaches fat into skull and I’ve found takes a good bit longer to degrease than macerated skulls that stay wet the whole time.

Heat for sure plays a factor. I was running degreasing for a long time with 90-97deg temps. Once I bumped that up to 100deg+ it sped the process up a lot. I think those hotter temps just seem to “melt” the fats and oils better to allow them to be pulled out!

I think I enjoy doing euros cause it’s fun to tinker and try new things. Part of the fun!