...do you use straight peroxide or do you mix it with water?
Thanks, John
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I've mixed it with half water but lately I've been just using straight peroxide. I haven't noticed any difference in outcome, the straight peroxide just does it a little quicker that's all...
And mixing it with water dilutes and already diluted chemical. Look at the bottle. The 40% and 30% tell you the dilutions already. Us it straight from the bottle.
I cleaned up a magnificent whitetail buck skull that I found in February. I put it in a 5-gallon bucket in my shed with the antlers sticking out, packed it with leaves, kept it moist and let the beetles already on it continue their work.
Now that it's gotten hot, I emptied the leaves and used cold water maceration to get most of the remaining meat off. The first two water changes were quite yucky! A little scraping and a day in the hot sun and it appears to be completely dry.
I have 2 questions:
1. Is it necessary to dry a skull if you intend to bleach it or can you skip that step and go straight to the peroxide bath? I will be using 40 volume peroxide creme. And,
2. I very rarely see instructions to wash the peroxide off with water after bleaching. I know a little bit about chemistry and this seems like the logical thing to do and THEN dry it in the sun.
This is my first project of this type and this buck was too beautiful to leave laying. I found both halves of the bottom jaw within 20 feet of the skull and 2 vertebrae remained attached when I carried the stinky, oozing thing to my car. I'm considering a European mount but will probably just seal it.