I took a bear in Quebec and kept the skull. I boiled the skull and removed the meat from it. I bleached the skull for 4 days and it looked great. Now the skull in certain areas like the nasal cavity and jaw bone are getting oily can you guys please help.
Ted
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Bears are notorious for having oily spots on their skulls and bones - just part of being such a greasy animal. First I have to give ya the ole slap on the wrist for boiling the skull - bad bad - it puts the bone at risk and can cause it to fall apart at the sutures. Look up maceration in the archives as a safer method for doing bone prep. The other plus to this is that using hot water can actually set the oil into the bone and you may never get it out! All that having been said - have you done the DAWN soak to remove grease? A soapy bath in a good grese cutting detergent often eliminates oil spots. Acetone also works but I'm still not sure if I trust it on bone. Same with TSP - it's listed as a corrosive which is too bad - because it's an awesome grease cutter otherwise! Standard practice is to soak in DAWN and water tho. I am also going to try some of the degreasing forumlations used for hides on bones - just makes sense that it would work right? I think someone else recommended that - WolfWoman perhaps - not sure...
Anyway - try soaking in DAWN solution and that should help!
I'll try the dawn degreaser, i tried to save some money and do this myself. I learned alot thanks. Ted
Acetone is a pretty nasty solvent but it does great things to greasy skulls! After cleaning in a simmer pot of water and sal soda, I rinse then simmer (190 degrees) in dawn/water mixture for a few hours. Remove rinse with HOT water and submerge immediately in acetone. Leave in acetone for one week, rinse again and put in peroxide bath. (just the cheap wally world stuff, 8 pints of peroxide/1 gallon of water)leave in diluted peroxide for 24 hours. Set in the sun on a sheet of alum foil for 2-3 days. result: 1 AWESOME looking skull!
Oh, I bought 3 gallons of acetone at Menards for $7.80 a gal and it does many skulls. When it gets a lot of grease in it, just put it in the freezer..grease freezes,acetone doesn't..just scoop out. Good luck!