i have a customer that has 5 deer that he wants to put skull and antlers on a board how do i go about cleaning them thay still have the cape on them thanks brian
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if you don't know the answer to this SIMPLE question and can't come up with a solution to this on your own, you shouldn't be doing the job. Sorry to come over this harsh, but this question of yours takes the cake. What the heck are you doing running a taxidermy business if you can't even figure out how to remove the cape from the head of a deer?
I'd have told him to click that orange SEARCH icon in the left column like he should have before he typed, but they'd have bitched about me being snotty. I'm waiting to see what they do to YOU. LMAO
follow George's advice and use the search icon... if they have the capes, and if they are in good shape, go ahead and keep the capes on ice... the cleaning the skull part is easy, just use the search and then pick the method that is more compatible with your shop...
FYI, if you follow the maceration method... when they say to do it downwind where the odor will not create problems, they are dead on...
B2
well superpig i dont need your smarta$$ answer i know how to get the cape off. how to clean the skulls is what i need to know and what works best
also thanks george and b2 for your advise
Brian, heres a couple of options. You can send them to MOA or Beetle Works. They use beetles to eat the muscle and other mass away. This method is awsome! But check this out, my buddy took a couple of deer skulls and boiled them on one of those turkey cookers in water. You have to keep an eye on the water and add more once in a while. I think he boiled them a few hours. Then take them out and blast them with a pressure washer. You might have to repeat process a couple of times but I seen the skulls and they looked pretty clean, not as good as the beetle process but nice enough to hang on the wall for sure. Try both and let us know how they turn out. P.S. Dont get too offended by some peoples responses, it was a funny question. Hope this helps you out!
Well first off I think Superpig was dead on about running a taxidermy and not knowing how to clean a skull. That was one of the first things I learned besides tanning correctly. For Todd K, NEVER EVER BOIL A SKULL or you will have a really pissed customer for ruining his antlers and skull. Cook it slowly after most of the tissue is removed. Pop out the eyes scramble the brains and blow them out with a water hose etc... A pressure washer can possibly tear the hell out a skull too. I started the cooking method with sal soda (Arm and Hammer super washing soda)same animal. Cook it slowly, every so often take the skull out and pick the meat and such off. It's gonna take you a LONG time to do this. Do some reading in the archives, there is a wealth of info their. I took Evelyn Mills advice and started macerating skulls, and yes it will smell like hell but the results are outstanding. No bone loss and very rarely do I have to whiten the skull.
I dont boil shulls either but I think they look ok for someone who just wants to display them on a barn wall. My friend still have no odor and .its been since last gun season. they look a lot better than just capping them.
cook my skulls too, that is til I met Piggy. Maceration is the way to go. It takes time but it's worth it. Cooking them takes the calcium out of the bone and can give it a chalky appearance. If you put a macerated skull along side a cooked skull you can tell instantly which method was used (and which looks better). BP
This doesn't have to do with deer but I was
fleshing a hog skull today that I recently shot
and I came to the conclusion "lifes too short for this."
After an afternoon of slicing, probing, de tonguing I was
planning on tossing it in a boiling pot with Sodium Carbonate
from a Van Dyke's Skull Bleaching Kit. (This kit btw,
even following the directions to a T, creates a frothy
6" head of foam that rose up and permantly bleached the bases
on the horns of a Sika skull I boiled. I would never again use
it on anything antlered).
My question, how easy / expensive to get some beetles?
Where does one buy them? And would it be worth it for one hog
skull? A taxidermist I know finishes his bleaching by soaking
his skulls in peroxide he gets from beauty salons.
Also, I have some old deer horns that I was thinknig of
mounting on McKenzies fake skulls. Are they a serious option?
Most people that pass thru my game room are hunters so I don't
need a cheesy mount.