First of all let me thank everyone for all the good information. What a great forum. Enough buttkissing, on to my problem.
I have a deer skull and apparently from the archives I did everything wrong. I boiled the skull(it is fairly clean) and I put a dilute solution of household bleach on it. Is there any hope? Can I degrease it now? Is there anything I can do to counteract the bleach's effects(flaking, chalkyness)? Can I whiten it using peroxide after bleaching? What can I use to seal the skull after I am finished(I am looking for a natural looking finish, not shiny.)? Thanks.
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I heard someone say bring water to boiling point and simmer
thats how you deal with skulls
Even bringing it to the boiling point then simmering can cause problems in some cases. The rapid heating can cause bone plates to expand and put pressure on sutures - especially in younger animals. The very few times I do use a hot water method I get it just hot enough so that there is a lil bit of wisps coming off of the surface of the water - VERY hot tap water is about it... never close to boiling. Use a hot plate and a larger stock pot with no lid and you get the idea - it's really hard to get the water to boil.
Anyway - moving on to the problem at hand...
Yes you can degrease at this point but it's effectiveness will be reduced. The high heat of boiling actually sets the grease INTO the bone. Years later it may begin leaking out. It can also turn rancid
and even acidic, thus eating the bone internally with no outward visible effects for quite some time. Try to degrease it but I would go with a much harsher degreaser than I normally recommend. You have to have something to try to combat the locking effects of the boiling.. so rather than grease cutting detergent I would opt for a displacing solvent degreaser. Acetone would be my first choice. Completely submerse the piece in acetone and keep an eye on it. If you notice it getting soft or anything then remove it. A little sponginess won't be critical at this stage as you will be fixing it heavily soon. A full day should do about a good as job as you can expect at this point. Once you have it degreased, you can whiten it if you so choose. I recommend 3% peroxide - it works as well as the paste formulations, won't burn you - and further disinfects the bone interior (in the marrow where all that nasty fat resides). Once that is done (if you decided to do it) then you need to remedy the chalkiness. Admittedly I don't deal with chalkiness a lot because the methods I use for osteo prep don't lead to chalkiness in the first place - so my experience here is rather limited. However I found a simple way to help correct at least some of the appearance problems. Sand paper. A bit of super fine sand paper - 300+ grit and a very gentle hand can remove a lot of the surface chalkiness. The more bleach you used and the longer you left it in - the deeper the chalkiness goes... so at some point - sand paper will no longer be an option as you'll sand right through the piece.
Once you have the piece sanded you will likely want to 'fix' the bone to prevent any further damaging processes that have already begun (such as decalcifcation etc). You can do this simply by submersing the piece in flat finish acrylic urethane for half an hour and letting it absorb into the piece. Remove it and hang to dry. All the interior of the bone will now be coated in urethane which is actually a plastic finish. You will encounter drips on the surface which look bad - so once it is entirely dry - use a little bit of acetone and rub that area free of drips. Then using a brush with urethane or spray can of flat finish clear acrylic - touch up the surface to make it pretty.
That's how I would approach the problem. Others may have other ideas...
Hope that helps =)
Gotten mad, kicked it across the room and hoped for a better year next year (only a day away). But maybe Raven has a point. I do have issues with the length of time it takes to properly degrease bone, and I have never been able to pull it off in only a day, some even take a month. But, I dont boil and bleach em either!
Who was it that said recently you could trace anyone through the internet? That it was easy and common knoledge? Who am I?
Andy, I 've made a reproduction of a whitetail deer skull that looks so real. No smell, no grease bleeding, no flaking, no chalking and no boiling. The kit sells for $35.00 plus shipping. It comes with the skull, touch up paint, and Smooth Cast 320 A&B for attaching the antlers.
You provide the antlers, about 4 dry wall screws, appoxy for finish work and the hanger.
The skull fits nice and flat on any surface and attaching a hanger is easy to. I'm not saying that the real skulls aren't good, but sometimes you can use a reproduction and still have the same effect.
If you want a picture let me know.
Marshell
Pinchback Reproductions
HEERS WHAT I DO.
I HAVE SOME OLD FREEZERS THAT DONT WORK I PUT OUTSIDE
I TAKE MY HEADS AFTER SKINNING AND PUT THEM IN BUCKET
AND COVER WITH WELL WATER NOTHING ELSE.PLACE BUCKET IN
FREEZER AND PLACE A CORD WITH A 100 WATT LIGHT BULB IN
FREEZER AND MY SKULLS COME CLEAN IN 2-WEEKS WITH NO DAMAGE
AT ALL AND NO GREASE PROBLEM THEN I GET 27% PEROXIDE
AND THEY COME OUT SNOW WHITE TRY THIS ON YOUR NEXT SKULL
Where would a person get acetone? Thanks for all the help!
Right where ya get bondo etc - acetone should be right there...
I mostly took the advice of Raven and my piece looks real nice. It cleaned and whitened up very nicely. Thanks Raven for the great info. Now onto my next problem. I want to attach it to a board of some kind. What is the best way to go about that?