Warm water maceration & bleaching/whitening

[Slickhill]

U-Haul packing blankets work well for wrapping around and over your container to keep heat in.

I use mineral tubs for elk and deer big enough that the antlers make it difficult to get the entire skull submerged in a bucket.

 

[Alpinedrifter]

U-Haul packing blankets work well for wrapping around and over your container to keep heat in.

I use mineral tubs for elk and deer big enough that the antlers make it difficult to get the entire skull submerged in a bucket.

Thanks for the advice on the blanket. What exact heater do you recommend? If I have about the same mineral tub, do I need two heaters or just one?

 

[30338]

If you go on Amazon and search for fish tank heater, the first one that pops up at $19.99 is the one I use. In a bucket that large during winter, I'd drop 3 of them in there.

 

[Antares]

Aquarium heaters are going to top out around 105-107F. That's fine for maceration, but for degreasing you'll do better if you can get up to 130-140F.

 

[Slickhill]

I used to use a pair of stock tank heaters from the feed store but they would never get the water really warm. Picked up one that looks like the end of a weed burner from Ace Hardware, that bad boy will get it hot maybe too hot as it will produce steam. I usually plug it in overnight and unplug it when I leave in the morning. About a week and I hose everything off with the garden hose and they’re usually pretty much clean.

I’ll hang them in the sun for a few days to dry and let the joints tighten back up before I degrease in clean water with dawn for a week or so. After that I lay the skull in a throw away aluminum turkey pan with something to block the antlers up to keep it sitting level and pour in 3 percent dollar store peroxide until it’s eye socket deep. Then layer paper towels over and around the antler bases and any unsubmerged area of the skull. Stuff a couple up in the brain pan as well. The paper towels will wick the peroxide up onto the top. You can get 2 deer skulls at once in a turkey pan.

After 3-5 days in the peroxide I hang them back in the sun for a couple days to dry and air out and I’m done. I’m not a taxidermist or museum curator but I’ve done around 20-25 skulls this way and I’m satisfied.

 

[30338]

For degreasing as Antares said, warmer is better. I don't have a good method for heating a large tank up to around 140. I have a 5 gallon bucket with a exterior belt heater that does it easily. For degreasing I was only using dawn soap but am now adding 20 mule team borax as well. This year just did family and friends skulls so only maybe 8 total but they seemed to degrease better with the addition of the borax.