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.

 

[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.

 

[GrayGoose]

After burning through 3 aquarium heaters, I switched to the 5 gal drum heaters. Works perfectly for maceration and degreasing. I built a box out of foam insulation, been able keep temps even when it's single digits out.

Never have tried it but have read putting ping pong balls in your bucket will help reduce evaporation.

 

[omicron1792]

So I do about 4-6 hours in a pot on my gas grill. Hot but not boiling. Use dawn and oxyclean. I then power wash them clean. Let dry and then use peroxide/oxyclean/baking soda powder paste on skull for 24 or so hours. Have fantastic results in about 2 days and about 15 min of actual work.

 

[Highvoltage1]

Any tips for removing the nose area on a deer? Most of the head is clean except the end of the mouth and nose. I don’t want to damage the euro. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[180splitg3]

Any tips for removing the nose area on a deer? Most of the head is clean except the end of the mouth and nose. I don’t want to damage the euro. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I'm assuming you're doing maceration? With mine I just gently pulled out the cartilage areas and sprayed with a garden hose (no pressure washer) and it came out pretty easily - That was after 3-4 days in the heated water...

 

[GrayGoose]

Any tips for removing the nose area on a deer? Most of the head is clean except the end of the mouth and nose. I don’t want to damage the euro. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I use a hemostats to remove the cartilage in the nose cavity without damaging the other nasal structures . Otherwise just more time maybe. How many days/weeks have you had it macerating and what water temp?

 

[North of 60]

Euro mounts that stay white a long time take a long while to make it happen.

Be much more patient with maceration as a process than you think you should...the cartilage and tissue in the sinuses will take longer and it will be broken down by bacteria. It stinks horribly, and is very effective.

I've don't it both ways, and macerating leaves more of the sinuses intact vs slow (almost) boiling. It seems some of the bacteria doing the maceration target fat (as others target proteins or carbohydrates) to help reduce the amount of fat.

If you can soak the skull in acetone without touching the antlers, that will also help pull some fat.

The more fat removed, the less the skull will yellow over time.