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.

 

[Alpinedrifter]

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.

Those belt heaters seem like they would suffice for both maceration and degreasing, since they have the temperature knob that goes well over 140 degrees (for degreasing), for instance. But, how do you protect the plastic 5 gallon bucket from the high heat?

 

[30338]

I was a bit nervous about that initially. But the water inside the bucket keeps the plastic solid even when taking it up to 180 degrees as a test. And yes, you can also macerate with that turned down to 90. Its actually nicer as the cords and heaters don't get caked on with rotten stuff. But they are more expensive.

Works great on deer, antelope and predators but you need a cooler or large tub to do elk in.

 

[Alpinedrifter]

I was a bit nervous about that initially. But the water inside the bucket keeps the plastic solid even when taking it up to 180 degrees as a test. And yes, you can also macerate with that turned down to 90. Its actually nicer as the cords and heaters don't get caked on with rotten stuff. But they are more expensive.

Works great on deer, antelope and predators but you need a cooler or large tub to do elk in.

Interesting. Yes I have a plastic round feed tub (@8-10 gallon) that fits my bull elk skull perfectly. Here is the belt heater I am looking at: says it’s 5” wide and $62. Is that about the price of yours? I’ll probably pull the trigger on this one, and report back.

 

[TaperPin]

Hey guys. Circling back to this old thread. Did my second head this year with warm water maceration (my son's buck). Turned out pretty good. Still fine tuning the process. I did a much better job skinning the skull this time, and it seemed to go quicker. I think my degreasing process still needs work/more time but the end result is pretty decent. I should have re-read this thread before starting! I want to get the next one whiter - I only used the volume 40 paste for whitening this time. How much of the white powder would you say you guys are mixing in with the vol. 40 (I'll need to pick some up)? I also did not use anything other than dawn for the degreasing. Could I have added some oxi clean to the bucket or something similar with the dawn? Thanks for the help!

View attachment 816562

That looks damned good.