Hello everyone.
I am trying to prepare a human skull so we can use it as a model for class. My professor is allowing us to do all the research. Could I please get some recommendations on the best way to remove all the tissues on the skull, and more importantly, the best way to remove the sutures. What are the best ways to clean the bone? Whiten it? And finally, is there any kind of coating I could put on the bones after they're cleaned?
I could probably get my hands on most chemicals.
Thank you for all you help!
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Ok, I just could not resist this one.
There are a number of very good companies that will do this for you. I would recommend Skulls Unlimited to do this.
Why do you want to remove the sutures?
Boil, adding about 2 tablespoons baking soda to the water. This softens the meat and other matter and makes it easy to remove. Once you've boiled everything loose then remove and scrape everything you can off of it. After that a pressure wash could help further. When that's done soak the skull in a tub with hydrogen peroxide for a couple days. Remove and wash in soap and water. Then let air dry in the sun. I would't paint it or anything like that. By this time you should have a clean white looking skull. OR send it to a professional like John said. I'm guessing you want to do it yourself since it's a project?
You guys still think you can boil skulls without running into trouble, huh? I wouldnt boil that skull...check the archives on this and read, youll see plenty to research your best decision.
Nothing personal Hogger, but baking soda won't do anything to help boil a skull. You probably meant washing soda instead (sold as "Sal Soda" in the catalogues. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate while washing soda is sodium carbonate . . . big difference.
And I'm with Bill on not boiling it! Bugs or maceration would be my choice.
Plus . . . a couple of days in hydrogen peroxide will eat the skull up unless it's the 3% stuff you put on cuts. If you put a skull in 30% or 40% peroxide for that long, it will be ruined.
Just my $ .02 adjusted for inflation!
Jerry S.
Look up Bleaching skulls under the search button.
NO H2O2 over 3% anything over that and you can easily hurt yourself and destroy the skull.
The sutures will swell a bit when heated in water, donot remove all of them of the skull will fall apart.
You better check your states laws, you may not be legally able to proccess the skull not to mention have possesion of it.
Step 1.
Heat water with skull in it to no more than 130F,
Step 2.
Skim off grease each time before Step 3
Step 3.
Remove every ten minutes to check and remove meat.
Step 4.
Repeat all the above steps until you have all meat and brains removed. To include nerves and muscle tendons.
Step 5.
Hot water and DAWN DISH SOAP, DEGREASE, several times.
Step 6.
While skull is still wet totally submerse skull in 3% H2O2 from Wally world or other cheap source. Completly submerse! Leave in this solution, checking every 90 to 120 minutes as the bone whitens.
Once the yellow grease spots are gone, dry the skull for a couple days.
Now with Johnsons Paste wax, Yellow can for Furnature. and abit of white shoe polish mixed in, heat the polish and apply, rub into the skull and carefully buff each small area, repeat until the skul is slick and protected.
NO No NO H2O2 hydrogen peroxide over 3%! One drop in your eye or on your skin and you can cause serious damage!
Sutures? should go away with the hide. Leave it outside or on your window sill for a couple days..Let the flies lay some eggs on it. In 2 weeks maggots will eat all the flesh. Fire ant bed works well to about 2 weeks. Lets see my cousin leatherface just lets soak in a bucket of water for a month then pressure washes em..my other cousin from equador,removes the hide from skull and shrinks the hide down. My brother inlaw dracula sticks em on a pole and lets nature take its course. I also saw a show on tv where the M.E. put a torso in a sink of sometype of water and chemical and when he came back the next morning bones were the only thing left...I need some of that stuff..Discovery channel had the show on...to bad dalmer aint around for questions like this...get real this aint legit LOL
Before anyone can give you correct information you must tell us the condition the skull is in right now. If this is a legit post, more than likely the skull is from a college class on anatomy. If this is so, then most of all the information above is totally wrong. The head, complete with muscles and brain etc. was most probably preserved with formaldehyde and perhaps even injected with latex to highlight the arterial and venous systems. The muscles may have been dissected away at present.
Furthermore, do you actually want the skull completely disarticulated - ie. every loose suture separated so that all individual bones are separate. If this is so, choose a very small or young specimen, as the surture almost completely lock together in older humans.
Third, where are you located. This would tell us how easily certain proceedures could be done in December.
Sutures are the immoveable joints (synarthroses) found in the skull. Frontal, Sagittal, Lambdoidal,,,, How are you going to remove them? They are part of the skull. An adult should be fully developed and form a tight joint. An immature skull would have connective tissue in this location and it would be decomposed with the rest of the soft tissue. Your use of the term sutures in confusing.
Beetles and a professional osteological preparation house may be your best bet.
lots of methodes for cleaning them skulls, i could provide you with a few to practice on if needed, of course you will need to dispatch the specimens. lol good luck
u sick fudge
there is one thing dermestids hate more than mummies, that is a specimen that has been stored in formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a poison. You are trying to get the colony to eat poison. Today, most fluid specimens are fixed in formalin and stored in a buffered solution of 60% or 70% ethyl alcohol. If these specimens are soaked in water or beef bouillon for a few days the bugs will usually eat them. If you have a really old specimen that is still stored in formaldehyde it probably is not going to be met enthusiastically by the colony. If you have a really big colony you can sometimes get them to eat small amounts of this material by taking all specimens out for a couple of days to get them really starving, then stick in the formaldehyde soaked specimen. The specimen may be cleaned but the colony will be mostly killed off. No matter how many times you resoak it, it is still poison. Hope this helps!
There was obviously a typo in Steve Hinshaws work that you quoted. If fluid specimens are stored long-time in formalin, they are often bufferred, but ethanol alcohol solutions in Museums are NEVER buffered.
I have done this at college SUNY Environmental science. sounds legit to me I have done crazier things with human and mammal parts for classess. hell you should hear what they do at SUNY upstate Medical school! yes use beetles if you can get a crap load, if not Boiling works just fine at lower temp its mostly Calcium carbnate CaCO3there for it shouldnt soften if its adult skull and protiens stabalize the bone. Don't use bleach "organic chemII it dissolves CaCO3 I used peroxide after flesh was off just for a "bleaching,dissinfecting " procedure. sometimes if we are at a remote biological station we just put the ha ha lol HEADS into buckets with some sand with board/large rock on top to prevent a bear from mowwing down
Thanks for all the suggestions!