Skull Whitening

[MuleyFever]

I boiled a skull and am going to whiten it with peroxide. I have read that you need to degrease it though. Is it necessary and what is the best way? I did read one person say just water and dish soap and soak it. This would leave the top out of the water if you are going to beep the base of the antlers dry.

 

[rbljack]

best way to degrease is to buy a fish tank heater with a built in thermometer and get an old cooler. Keep the water warm using the heater/thermometer, and then put the skull in and water level just to the top of the skull. You can use dish soap, and change it out every few days. Do this for 3 to 4 weeks, and you will be in good shape. Peroxide is one way to whiten a skull, another is a product for pools called softswim C. Its VERY concentrated, and you will need to wear gloves and eye protection. DO NOT get this stuff on you. It will burn and turn your skin white and burn you, so be VERY careful with this stuff. I also suggest goggles and a full face shield to protect your eyes.

Do not use any type of metal pan with it as a container either, plastic only. If you soak the skull in this stuff, it will come out AMAZING white, and will look great. When it comes out, you rinse it in water to remove as much of the chemical, and then set in in the sunlight for a few hours to dry where critters like dogs cant get to it and walk off with your priced mount...LOL

Keep in mind that as you degrease the skull (before the whitening processs) the teeth may loosen up, and you will have to glue them in afterwards. I typically do that as the last step, after whitening.

no matter how much you degrease, over time they will yellow some, and you can whiten them back up using the softswim c again

 

[jwb300]

best way to degrease is to buy a fish tank heater with a built in thermometer and get an old cooler. Keep the water warm using the heater/thermometer, and then put the skull in and water level just to the top of the skull. You can use dish soap, and change it out every few days. Do this for 3 to 4 weeks, and you will be in good shape. Peroxide is one way to whiten a skull, another is a product for pools called softswim C. Its VERY concentrated, and you will need to wear gloves and eye protection. DO NOT get this stuff on you. It will burn and turn your skin white and burn you, so be VERY careful with this stuff. I also suggest goggles and a full face shield to protect your eyes.

Do not use any type of metal pan with it as a container either, plastic only. If you soak the skull in this stuff, it will come out AMAZING white, and will look great. When it comes out, you rinse it in water to remove as much of the chemical, and then set in in the sunlight for a few hours to dry where critters like dogs cant get to it and walk off with your priced mount...LOL

Keep in mind that as you degrease the skull (before the whitening processs) the teeth may loosen up, and you will have to glue them in afterwards. I typically do that as the last step, after whitening.

no matter how much you degrease, over time they will yellow some, and you can whiten them back up using the softswim c again

Hey rbjack - Is this Softswim C a Bioguard product? As in this product? http://www.bioguard.com/Our_Products/Pool_Care_Systems/SoftSwim#bottom

What is the process with the softswim C? Do you dilute it or soak it in the concentrate? I have a buffalo skull that I have treated with 40 vol peroxide multiple times and it still has yellowed in sections. I just can't get it right and was looking for alternatives.

Cheers,
JWB300

 

[colonel00]

What animal? I just did a bear and a mule deer. Both came out great aside from some mistakes I made with the nasal cartilage. I actually just noticed the other day that the bear had some more grease migrate down to the bottom of the jaw and skull so I put it back in for another soak. The deer had no issues.

I just soak the skulls in a bucket with a good concentration of Dawn. I added a little Borax to this second soak of the deer skull. To whiten, I used a mix of the stuff you get from hair salons. Just mix in enough power to get to a gel type consistency and paint it on. Hit the dollar store for cheap brushes. The best one I found was a set of makeup brushes ladies use for eyeliner or whatever. It allowed me to get into the crevices and all that.

 

[colonel00]

After I put on the whitener, I put them out in the sun for a bit. Once it dries, you can brush it off or use compressed air to blow out all the chunks.

Here you can kind of see the little brush and a small paint brush along with the skulls. Don't get the whitener on the horns.

Not the best pic but you can see the skull after whitening. I decided to leave the teeth a natural color so I pulled as many as I could and then taped over the molars.

 

[colonel00]

Oh, and if you are just going to soak it in soap and water, I don't think you need to worry too much about getting the antlers wet but probably a good precaution. Besides, the grease should migrate down to the base anyway as did on my bear.

 

[rbljack]

Hey rbjack - Is this Softswim C a Bioguard product? As in this product? http://www.bioguard.com/Our_Products/Pool_Care_Systems/SoftSwim#bottom

What is the process with the softswim C? Do you dilute it or soak it in the concentrate? I have a buffalo skull that I have treated with 40 vol peroxide multiple times and it still has yellowed in sections. I just can't get it right and was looking for alternatives.


Cheers,
JWB300

Yep, that's the stuff...its the softswim C product, and you can use it full strength and dip the skull for about 12 to 24 hours, but have to be careful not to get it on the antlers (AND YOU). Again I must stress....this is powerful stuff so be very careful with it. Another thing about this product, and any other type of peroxide...you have to keep it out of sunlight. I put mine into a plastic container, and then the skull sits in there. The container is inside another Larger plastic bin with a lid on it, which is in the shed. I used to do a few skulls a year using dermestid beetles to clean the skulls instead of boiling, and then used the methods above to degrease and whiten skulls. Bears and hogs are the hardest to get the grease out.

 

[rbljack]

Here is a link to another forum where I did a step by step on a DIY Euro mount showing the degreasing and whitening steps. Disregard the "mod Podge" step because after they sit for a year or two, that stuff tends to yellow the mount and not stay white over time.

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71302

 

[jwb300]

Yep, that's the stuff...its the softswim C product, and you can use it full strength and dip the skull for about 12 to 24 hours, but have to be careful not to get it on the antlers (AND YOU). Again I must stress....this is powerful stuff so be very careful with it. Another thing about this product, and any other type of peroxide...you have to keep it out of sunlight. I put mine into a plastic container, and then the skull sits in there. The container is inside another Larger plastic bin with a lid on it, which is in the shed. I used to do a few skulls a year using dermestid beetles to clean the skulls instead of boiling, and then used the methods above to degrease and whiten skulls. Bears and hogs are the hardest to get the grease out.

Great thanks for the info. I have to do a water buff skull. They are super greasy especially the old ones. Unfortunately they don't import Softwsim C into Australia so I am going to see if I can find an equivalent peroxide product in bulk. I think I will need at least 40l's to submerge the buff skull.

 

[MuleyFever]

I am actually liking the natural color but that may be because I don't want to deal with degreasing it.

 

[colonel00]

It's really easy. I'm sure rbljack's method works great but I had fine results with just some Dawn and water in a bucket. If it's just a deer then it wont be bad at all. And again, his method of whitening is interesting but it might be more than necessary especially for one DIY animal.

 

[MuleyFever]

So submerging the bases in Dawn wont discolor the antlers?

 

[colonel00]

I probably wouldn't risk it but it didn't do anything to the teeth. As mentioned before, the grease(in my bear skull at least) tended to migrate to the bottom regions from gravity. I honestly don't even remember much grease at all in the deer skull. Then again, I buried both skulls in my garden last fall and pulled them up last spring before planting. Also, if you do end up with some fading of the antlers, it's fairly easy to fix with some different techniques like using wood stain or coffee grounds or something like that.

If you look at my last photo, on the back of the lower jaw you can kind of see a little patch that is probably grease still in the bone. It basically just discolors the bone and makes it kinda yellow and "wet" looking.

 

[colonel00]

I should have taken more photos but here is what the bear skull looked like after degreasing but before whitening. I took the photo to remember where the teeth all went As you can see, the skull is cleaned up pretty good but not bleached from the soap. Basically what I did was to just use a 5 gallon bucket. I placed the deer skull in the top and let the antlers hang it in there. Then just put in some Dawn and filled it up to the base of the antlers. If it evaporated I would just add a little more water. I think I soaked them for a couple weeks then changed the water and did it for another few weeks.

 

[JG358]

So submerging the bases in Dawn wont discolor the antlers?

Hasnt on any of the euros I've done.

 

[Vids]

Hasnt on any of the euros I've done.View attachment 28948

I just finished degreasing a stubborn elk mount that had blood stains right at the antler pedicles. I had the water covering the antlers for a long time (like over a year), with ammonia, borax and dish soap in there. The antlers look great, did not fade at all.