Problem Whitetail Deer Skull in Acetone

The acetone will evaporate quickly but it will not hurt to let it sit for a day or put it right into degrease again. It will remove some of the embedded grease but it will also alter the remaining grease so that more of it will come out when you go back to ammonia/detergent again. These old and poorly done/petrified grease skulls are a pain but they can be improved greatly.

 

When I use acetone on problem skulls I alternate back and forth from detergent and acetone every couple weeks but I have let them sit in acetone for over a month.

 

I have used acetone in my early years. Results are not worth the risk/fire hazard compared to using ammonium hydroxide. Store ammonia is like using 3% brown bottle h2o2.

 

Assuming you are using 5 gallons of water, how much detergent are you adding? Should be at least 1/4 cup to 1/3. Temp is right. The white pieces of fat, if it feels waxy/crumbly, is adipocere and pretty much inert. It is fat that has been converted to a wax. Scrubbing that off by hand is about all you can do. Really odd that you are still getting soft fat out of it though. The oil floating on top is also strange. Especially if the solution is fresh. Bumping up the ammonia you are adding won't hurt. I dread heating ammonia because of the horrible fumes it generates but you could do that too. I hate boiling because it drives grease deeper into the bone. Can you see into the brain case and have checked to make sure that all chunks of brain matter are out? Nothing hiding in the nasals? If you aim a bright flashlight into it/under it in a darkened area, is there anything visible that look like solid pieces of something trapped? ... Would love to see a picture of it.

 

Peroxide doesn't really do anything for grease but the bubbling action at the surface as it works might loosen up more embedded chunks of stuff. Too bad that someone ripped out the ear canals. To me, that is deliberately damaging someones trophy. I might suspect the lower jaws too as they are a serious pain to get clean inside without macerating them. I seriously hesitate to mention "simmering" again. As they have been boiled before it wouldn't hurt if you are careful. Take a pot that the skull will fit into and cover the skull with water. Don't use aluminum. Chug in at least half a jug of ammonia and a good cup of that Dawn. I'm wondering if it is weaker than the other Dawn versions. I've had good results with the blue and clear but I think the clear was called something different. I use Dawn because it seems to be more concentrated than the cheaper stuff. Get the pot back to a simmer and let it sit that way for an hour or so. Really check your skull first before doing this and make sure that the bone isn't degrading at all. You know it was boiled but you don't know what was added to the boiling water. If it was soda ash, that can easily ruin bone in a hurry. If it seems ok, let it sit in that mix for an hour and check. Quite possibly the previous boil and sitting for so long after has petrified the grease and altered it to make something that will take a higher heat to move.

 

Is degreasing whitetail skulls really this big a hassle? I’m new to doing my own European mounts & I know before I tell it that I’ll get scolded, but I do all my skulls in a crock pot (or a bigger pot over a gas burner at similar heat settings if the crockpot isn’t big enough) at low temp over 4+ hours depending on the species. Then I pressure wash & bleach in peroxide in the same crock pot on low. I’ve only been doing it for 6 months or so & the majority of these skulls have been beaver thus far. All have turned out white & they look good. I did do three domestic hog skulls for a relative’s Halloween party that wound up being a greasy nightmare & I see where it’s an issue with hogs, but I’m getting ready to do my deer skulls for this season & I want them to turn out as good as possible. Reading these threads gives me the impression it’s gonna take six months to do a skull. I can have it mounted in that time frame.

 

Yes, if you want "them to turn out as good as possible" then really, you need time. There are ways to degrease faster - solvents and even machines that use vacuum, etc. - but really, the best results just take a water heater (crock pot is too hot) and a long time. If you do it too quickly, then you can get the grease out of the surface, but the skull will look terrible in a few months or years. Even your fast beavers will look bad over time, but deer are going to take longer, and hogs and bears really take a long time to degrease.

 

A crock pot is for making soup and the temperatures it puts out are too high. Some deer are done in a month. Some can take longer depending on how greasy the individual animal was. Your cooking the skull is also just driving grease deeper into the bone. Heating peroxide is also just wasting it where you can have a single 5 gallon bucket of it and have it last for months of whitening. Pressure washer will damage bone, you destroy the nasal bones and eventually you will have a skull explode that didn't belong to you or blast out teeth that you will never find.

You can do a rush job and spike it to the side of the shed and maybe they won't care. Or you can take the time to crank out something really awesome looking that will gain you new customers when it is seen. I, personally, no longer boil skulls. I macerate them and the end result is astounding considering there is really very little work involved. All it takes is some time and I have yet to have a customer be anything but ecstatic when they picked it up. Bears can take 6 months easily. I have only had one deer take anything even remotely that long.

 

Can I ask why not to use an aluminum pot? And what is the alternative you are suggesting, steel I’m assuming? Ty!!

 

I’m just now learning this…. Know this thread is old and you’ve probably gained experience since then…. But I’ve tried using advanced searches through these forums and researching as many threads as I can, and still come out confused, as there are so many different methods.

When I post a new thread asking what’s already likely been asked 1000x, I either get no/limited response, or I get a “do an advanced search” and find myself in the same cycle.

So if you haven’t mastered it yet… hang in there!

 

The Advanced Search on here takes some practice to get good results. Good search terms get better results. If you don't get results you want, try again but word it differently. A lot of good posts are on here going all the way back to 2006. The old Search was better but it went away when the forum switched to this new format.

A crock pot is for cooking, not cleaning skulls or degreasing. If you want to cook them and are happy with the results then maybe that would work for you. It is no different than boiling them in a pot. I no longer boil because I have seen the destruction it does to bone and that is unacceptable to me. .. Aluminum is a *reactive* metal and you are heating chemicals in it which can combine with the aluminum and chances are you will get results you do not want. Use glass or stainless.