Degreasing with dish soap

[ally84]

OK...so I have macerated an entire horse skeleton and I'm ready to degrease it.  As this is my first time doing anything like this and it's obviously a big project,  I don't want to play with anything nasty.  I've read many posts and checked the archives but I am curious as to why or if it has to be dawn dish soap in particular....I looked in the grocery store the other day and it doesn't appear to be different from other dish soaps.  Does color of the dish soap matter?  The only dawn at my local store was a variety of colors...purple, blue and green.  What sort of concentration does the dish soap/water need to be?  I'm also interested in any information on whether or not certain bones of the body need to be degreased at all....for example the vertebrae, pelvis and the ribs.  

Thanks in advance for any information.

This site and the forums have been absolutely amazing...I wouldn't have made it as far as I have with my skeleton...thanks so much to all willing to share their knowledge.  

[Jeff.]

Dish soap is pretty much all the same, I think we use Dawn moreso because it's always been the "tough" one on stains/grease for years. The innovator if you will. I use Ajax.

Err on the side of caution and get the least "colorful" soap, clear is best. I use orange, I've used blue, and I've used red. The only time I've noticed any color staying on the skull is when my B.O. is old. New B.O. removed the rest of the "oranging."

You may also want to try using some ammonia with your dawn/water and possibly even submersing some bones in straight ammonia at first to remove some of the heavier blood and grease stains.

I've never done a horse, but if you're going for a WHITE, truly white look, I would recommend degreasing everything.

Just my .03.

[Sea Wolf]

The Dawn is recommended because it seems to be the more concentrated and most effective of all of them. To be honest, the bones you are dealing with may well be just to big and heavy. The long leg bones are full of greasy marrow that has to be removed. When you macerated it, did you drill into the long bones to expose the central cavity? If not, you need to do this into all the larger, heavy bones of the legs, hips and possibly the spine. What I would suggest is a long slow simmer in water with a quantity of Dawn added to help break down the grease. There is going to be a LOT of it and you will be going through multiple water changes during the simmering process to get rid of all the grease.  

   This is, by far, not a normal or simple undertaking. If you don't already have a simmering container lined up, use a 55 gallon drum cut in half lengthwise to contain those bones.        

[ally84]

I've got the skeleton in a old 500 gallon tank that my dad used to use for hauling water to spray.  I did drill the long leg bones and a few other ones (thanks to your earlier help Sea Wolf ).  It has been simmering for about 2 weeks. I changed the water this morning (the bones look very clean) and I did add about 6 litres of sunlight...it was the only one available in any sort of bulk when I went shopping.  The tank has about 150 gallons of water in it right now and I've been keeping it at about 120 degrees.  I had each limb in a seperate plastic bag, I changed them to new bags (was too excited not to look!) and there was a lot of greasy material in the bags with them already.  

If there's anything about this that I could be doing better please let me know.  Also if I do whiten some of the bones and they prove to be not fully degreased, can I put them in to degrease some more?

This is, by far, not a normal or simple undertaking.-Sea Wolf         I think I just got told I'm crazy by a taxidermist! 

[Wolfwoman]

I think I speak for all of us when I say we'd like to see pics, both now of what you've accomplished and later on when it's done!

[ally84]

Here's a few pics, my tank, and of three lumbar vertebrae that are fused together.

[ally84]

Here's a couple of the skull as well. I will post more once I've got alll the bones out. 

[Wolfwoman]

Very good! I think you're doing great for what you've undertaken!!

[ally84]

Thanks!  Everything I've learned has been from this site....and like I said any tips or hints on what I could be doing better would be muchly appreciated.  The skeleton doesn't have to be perfect once its done, I know other equine chiropractors that have just used weathered bones they've found for demonstration purposes, but now that I've been going through the process I'm hoping to get it as good as possible.  I'm even considering doing some more if I can get the skeletons.  Lol.  Now I'm just hoping that the sunlight doesn't tint the bones...my water is awfully green!

[dsaavedra]

this is one COOL project! keep us updated for sure.

[Sea Wolf]

   I too would like to see updated pictures on this.    Fused vertebra? Was the horse old? That alone is rather neat.

[ally84]

I still have to age the horse...I know he wasn't particularily young.  He must have had an injury of some sort in that area...the bone has been fused very solidly in a few places. I'm not sure if this is the case with all animals, but the horses sacrum is five fused vertebra...these are the last three lumbar.

[Wolfwoman]

The green will wash off...lol Just algae that's on the surface, I've had it many time and it come right off. However, I've also noticed once the algae starts forming that the cleaning/degreasing process stops. So I tend to clean it out and get fresh everything from the start again.

[ally84]

My green is from the sunlight dish soap that I used....   The water is fresh from this morning.

[Wolfwoman]

Oh!! lol  Well if ya get algae....lol