I am a beginner at taxidermy and the way I clean my heads is to cut off the large peices of meat and soak them in pure bleach for a day or 2. Does anyone else use this method or is there another easy way, maybe some type of acid?
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Yikes it's like I just woke up from a terrifying nightmare! NEVER let bleach or acid anywhere near your bone material! Some acids *can* work ONLY if used by trained professionals and suitably neutralized as soon as the acid bath procedure is complete. I don't even talk about acid bath osteological preparation on this forum because of the problems and risks involved to the piece and the individual... the last thing I need is someone screwing up bad and saying I told them how to do it - LOL!
Bleaching can do incredible damage to the skull over a period of time.
Use the orange search button and look up "skull cleaning" "maceration" "sal soda" etc...
Don't use bleach and don't BOIL skulls. Simmering is marginally better with inferior results like chalking and flaking etc but boiling has a whole list of issues to deal with.
Also look through recent posts - I described pros and cons of various techniques just a few days ago somewhere...
you better read up skull cleaning in the archives. And you better do it soon.
I know you guys are right because you have been doing this so long. I was just wanting to know why bleach won't work.
I know it will eat the bone away if left in to long. I have a skull that I cleaned, useing the bleach, about 6 months ago and it is still fine. does the bleach keep eating it even after it has dried?
I'm not useing the skulls to display I'm usine them in my mounts.
Don't worry I am mounting my own animals I don't take costamers.