I have recently taken two bear skulls out of my beetle box. They seemed to be fairly clean and so I did what I usually do to my sheep skulls which is to paint a 50-strength peroxide on the skulls and put it in a clear bag for a day. Usually, my sheep skulls come out very white, but these didn't. So, I tried it again, and they still aren't very white. Should I try again, try something else, or do bears just not get as white?
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Scott,
Did you degrease the skulls? Bear are notoriously greasy and even their skulls reflect this. Soak the skulls in paint thinner or tannery degreaser. I like to leave mine soaking for atleast 6 hours, sometimes more. Then, wash them off and reapply your whitener. Often it takes 2 coats to get them perfectly white.
Hope this helps!
-Jeanette
I soaked it in 1 cup bleach/1 gal water. Is this the same thing?
Grease needs to be attacked with soap. In fact, if you're using a fabric bleach, you're also using a poor excuse for bleach. You need peroxide and developer to do a thorough and professional job.
I did use peroxide (50 strength)as previously stated. Then I soaked it in the bleach solution for 10 minutes to cut the grease and get rid of any odors. This has always worked on other skulls and was suggested by people on this site. Is there something I'm missing that I need to do that nobody mentioned? Is it save to use the peroxide a third time?
Every time I used fabric bleach (before I knew better) the skulls were damaged and became flakey. Plus that does not work for degreasing at all from what I've seen. The darkness your seeing in the bone is grease/fat deposits and you must degrease it with the method that Jeanette mentioned.
Lisa Stanley