I,m doing my first attempt at Skull cleaning/ bleaching.I,ve been doing a pig skull by the maceration proccess.I've noticed the bone is a pinkish colour.Ive read alot, after doing searches,on degreasing.My question is,if I use a chemical to degrease the skull,will the teeth crack or turn colour.
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We simply soak them in a strong Dawn/water solution. the most difficult area is the lateral side of the mandible at the base of the ramus. We wash well in a dawn solution and then allow a long soak to break down the residual grease. Most solvents will not remain liquid long enough to penetrate that region. Detergents seem to do a better job.
Does a typical pig skull take to soak in dawn dish soap to get the fats out?
I've done a few and can tell you what worked for me. Dawn is and excellent degreasing agent but have found that it just doesn't get the whole job done. I have left skulls in a dawn solution for 2 weeks without a hitch. I then rinse it off and place it in white gas for up to a week. I check it everyday and often you can see the grease collect on the bottom of the container. Practice on your own stuff to get a system down that works for you. As for splitting teeth ... during maceration you are saturating the skull with water over a long period of time. Water will become trapped inside the root of the tooth and (as I have done in the past) placed the skull in the sun to dry (Mistake). In the nutshell the water trapped in the tooth is heated and vaporizes. The enamel of the tooth prevents the water vapor from escaping and POP!. It is the same concept that is used in making popcorn. a solution to the cracking is to control the drying process indoors and do not expose the teeth to extreme temperature changes. When dry, placing the skull in direct sunlight works for me, no cracking! I have Raven to thank for that one. It made sense then and I haven't had a tooth crack on me since.