During the whitening process, using department store peroxide, my deer skull floated up and "spoiled". Apparently the peroxide neutralized - not sure why. It was in there for 2 days, and I've done it like that before...but it caused quite an odor, and my wife considered beating me for it.
It also discolored the back of the skull - the portion that became exposed. Mildew, perhaps, it's really dark gray, but I can not seem to get the discoloration out. It's back in peroxide after drying out, and has been for 24 hours, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Anyone offer a suggestion?
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I've never encountered that before... a skull floating up?!?! WEIRD!
Might be time to try 12% peroxide (40 volume stuff from hair dressers - apply it as a paste). I've never had a skull go grey on me either... yer having all sorts of fun over there aren't ya? ;)
Oh my god. What the heck did you do? Are you sure the skull was completely cleaned of all meat? If not then maybe some gases were trapped in the meat and caused the skull to rise to the top. Then again why would you try to bleach a skull that is not cleaned? The gray color I cannot explain either.
Go to www.hidetanning.net and read the article on skull cleaning. You are doing something not right here somewhere.
It happened to me, but it didn't smell. It look almost burn't.
Curt
Curt your problem is an easy one.. you killed your bacteria solution if macerating, or used expired h2o2 if you were whitening. When h202 expires it loses it's extra oxygen atom and becomes h2o1 (ie - h2o, water). The black stuff is an aquatic mold. There was no bacteria alive in your solution or it would have stunk.. VERY much so.
Basically you had your skull in normal water, not peroxide or a maceration solution, and mold grew on it.
That COULD be what happenned to Curtis. The grey could be the early onset of mold. Try applying ethanol (food grade pure alcohol) to it to kill the mold.
The floating thing could happen as a result of expiring peroxide as well... this is starting to make sense... as the hydrogen bonds weaken and the extra oxygen atom is released, it will rise up. So your skull probably worked like a hot air balloon... the oxygen atoms rose up and you had a build up of oxygen in your skull thus making it float. Without actually seeing it, that would be my working theory. The two things that make me believe now that it was your peroxide dying on you is that flotation as well as the possible presence of growing mold. The transition from h2o2 to h2o means that there was no sterilization process to stop mold from growing anymore.