My brothers friend killed a small bull in North Dakota back in January and wants the skull cleaned and whitened.What's the best way to clean it up and then to bleach it?
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I clean mine with bugs, but if you boil or macerate it you must remove the horns first. If you get the horns wet, they are made of hair like the pronghorn antelope and the rhino's horns are. The hair will pull apart and the horns will be damaged if left in water for any length of time. When I am finished, I always tie a couple of feathers and beads on one of the horns using leather twine. Good luck.
Scott
Just did 4 of them the other day.Put them into black plastic garbage bags and set them WELL away from your house make sure they are not in direct sunlight you want them to stay moist inside the bags,after 3 weeks or so GENTLY open the bags up more to the open air and set next to the nasty bags,remove what you can with the end of a stick.This is the point when you can pull off the horn caps and bring the caps back home,now let the bugs do 3 more weeks of work on the skulls.There will be a point when you say to yourself that they are ready to bring back to your house and rinse off or soak overnight and let dry.
Send it to Steve Shaffer at MOA Custom Skulls and it will come back clean, white, and customer-ready without the mess. I'll never do another skull in the studio...
Bob Mead
just wanted to know if this steve shaffer has a web site.