I'm by no means a taxidermest, I just like to play around tannig some hids I caught during trapping season and bleaching some skulls. A friend of mine asked me to bleach his bear skull he killed in Main this year. I told hime to bring it over he did not have the time so he froze it, will this cause problems? Any other tips or trick on skull cleaning, bleaching, or fur tanning would be great.
THANKS;
SCOTT
From Butler PA.
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You will have to degrease it. Dont over cook it either, I run a temp when doing skulls, I like 150 degrees F. this cooks the meat off and seems not to break down the bone like hard boiling does. Use some laundry detergent in your water and change it through th proccess. Once clean I will cook it 10-15 minutes with 2 cups of a laudry detergent to cook out the oil.
You can bleach bones using the 3% peroxide from a discount store, just put skull in a container and fill it up. keep covered, use a towle to be sure the skull is wet wit H2O2 at all time, this should take about 2-3 days. Then clear coat.
The directions John C gave you are excellent, if you follow these you should have no problem at all. Way To Go John !
I have found that over time, clear coates on skulls eventually turn yellow! I would leave them natural.
Bleach tends to make the bones brittle and break. Everyone here has good advice.
I'm going to be doing a moose skull and am wondering about the horns. I've used antler stain in the past and I don't really want to darken the horns any more since they are fresh and have a nice color. I want to apply something that will make them have a nice glossy shine. Any recommendations? Thanks.
Spray on furniture polish works well,just spray on buff with a dry rag.It will not cause any problems like some clear coats will.
It may have to be applied once or twice a year but it keeps the
antlers fresh looking and prevents drying and fading.
Also Hair sheen used on show animals like horses works well.
A chemical called sal soda works great on cleaning your skull
then i would soak it in some hydrogen peroxide i've used 3% but if you can obtain 40% it works alot better