I have a buffalo skull, it still has a little bit of hair on it. I was wanting to know what to do to disinfect it so I can put it in the room and also what to us to put the lower jaw bones back on.
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I have done several buffalo skulls and always leave the lower jaw off. Usually the lower jaw is only mounted on predators. Search the archives to find different ways to disinfect it. I use 1C bleach to 1Gal. water for 10 minutes, but a lot of people don't like bleach. Make sure whatever you use that you remove the horns before disinfecting it. You can glue them back on with white glue. I also paint a mixture of clear elmers and water on my horns to seal them, or use liquid gold on them.
Don't use bleach, it will flake the scull, and when diluted won't get it as white, what you want to do is get 30 percent crystal clear peroxide, and 30 percent creme peroxide, some use 20 percent. Take the clean skull, if it hasn't been boiled and removed all meat and hair, put in a pot of near boiling water with like 1/2 of cup of armon hammers super washing soda per like 5 gallons, this will get the meet loose enough to peal off in like 2 hours or so, and you'lll probably like to take the horns off cause you can't let those be in the solution, and then clean it and let it dry, then spray the scull will clear peroxide, and then take the creme and brush it on the scull, rap with paper towls, and then soak the paper towls with clear peroxide and then put it in a BLACK garbage bag, if horns on don't let those be in the garbage bag, and then rap tape around it to keep some pressure on the stuff, let it sit for like 2-4 days, and then take it out, rinse in warm water, let dry for a day, and then coat it with some kinda of coating. I use deluted elmers glue, or you can use a clear acrylic, watever, that's it hopeit is what you are looking for and helps bye.
Where can I get those peroxides
I wasn't saying to use the bleach to whiten, only to disinfect. I use peroxide, available at a beauty supply, 30-40% with developer to whiten the skulls. I paint the cream on the skull and put it in a clear bag for a day, wash it, then disinfect it using the diluted bleach for 10 minutes. If the bleach is diluted, it won't flake the skull. After this I leave it in the sun on foil for a day or so to dry out before sealing it. I have done it this way since being told this method from several people on this board a while back.
My bad, i thought you meant to whiten sorry bout getting on your case then, and yeah you can get the peroxides from the beauty supply store, i thought about that, that i didn't say where to get it, after i wrote it, but Scott has already got that covered.