Anybody have a good method for cleaning antler skull cap besides boiling them off?
Thanks for the input.
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Use Sal soda and simmer it. This is the ONE time I would recommend this method. There is nothing faster and it also 'cooks' the bone so you don't get 'bone juices' dripping out into your mount. Using stiff wire brushes etc gets the meat off of the top - but does nothing to treat the inside of the bone where it can still rot, leak and stink.
I go over them with my trusty Chicago Cutlery paring knife and remove most of the meat and the brain memebrain. I then apply some dry preservative to the entire base, inside and out. This is the only place I use dry preservative on a deer mount. I let the antler base dry in a back room. When I get ready to mount the head, I brush off any dry preservative, and then go over it and remove any flesh with a Dremml tool. I don't spend but five minutes total on the whole cleaning process.
After you cut off the skull plate from the skull scrape off any meat, and brains still attached to the skull. Then rub the skull plate real good with borax. By the time the cape return from the tannery or your done tanning them yourself. The skull plate should be dried enough to remove any membrane remaining. There is no need to boil, or simmer the skullplate for a mount.
Coyote
I never boil. Make sure you also pull the brain membrane off of the inner skull.
i burn mine. cut all the meat you can from the skull plate. then i let them dry for a day or two. after that i take a small propane torch and burn the entire thing up to the burrs. just about all of the juices in the cap will boil out, and after the meat is burned down to cinders you can either grind it off with a dremel or just leave it. i doubt bugs will find it too appealing. i never have found any munching on my charcoal briquetes.
i just rough flesh with a knife after i cut them from the head. theres no need to boil or anything else. when they are dried and then covered with mache on the form you wont have any problems. theres no need to make any un necessary work for yourself. ive never seen deer or elk antlers ever give off any kind of smell or lose any grease/fluids after completely drying.
i just rough flesh with a knife after i cut them from the head. theres no need to boil or anything else. when they are dried and then covered with mache on the form you wont have any problems. theres no need to make any un necessary work for yourself. ive never seen deer or elk antlers ever give off any kind of smell or lose any grease/fluids after completely drying.
no matter what you do, do NOT forget to wear latex gloves when messing with brain matter. CWD is VERY serious and is for the most part undetectible until it's to late. Yes, that means no brain patte!(YUM) Peace- Jeff F.