Macerating Skulls

mascerate until clean, spray off and right into degreaser until grease is gone, there is not a set day or time that either of those are done, too many variables, but I typically let them degrease for a minimum of 3 weeks and then let them dry to make sure grease is gone once I'm sure of that into the peroxide for a day or 2 depends on what grade you use. Out it comes I rinse off and set aside to dry and every now and again it goes back in the degreaser for another week.

 

Travis there are a couple of really good videos on Youtube about this and it's loaded with great information and step by step on how to do it all! The videos are really awesome!! Check them out! <-------That first video he discusses his process of Maceration, and at the end of the video, shows how he does it in cooler. This next video, he shows how to whiten them He also has another video on a good method for hanging them

 

This guy pulls his info off of Facebook and tells you right out that it is taking him 2 to 3 months to clean a skull. No reason to be doing this when you macerate a skull clean in two weeks if you do it properly.

 

Find the two tutorials I put up in that section and read through them. Once your skull is clean, it goes right into degreasing. You don't have to let it sit and dry. As for time, like 3 Bears stated, it will depend. Someone on here said once, "When it's done, it's done." Each skull is an individual, even among ones of the same species. Different life, different diet will make each one unique. It is done when you are happy with it. Any skull I can submerge, I do that. I have peroxide in a 5 gallon bucket. I can even do a full sized horse skull submerged by doing one end and then flipping it around to dunk the other end until it is whitened. Make sure you have clear peroxide and not the cream. Don't dilute it. You don't brush it on but let the skull sit in it and be covered completely. Salon grade will whiten in several hours. Pull the skull when done, rinse with really hot water and let it dry. Really large skulls like cattle/bison you can make a paste with the peroxide and Basic White powder and slather it on the skull. Wrap it with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out too fast and get it exposed to heat in some way. A hot room, heat lamps aimed at it or similar. Rotate the skull so it is evenly exposed to heat all over and not so close that you melt the wrap or overheat/burn the bone. After a while you can unwrap it and rinse it off. I submerge whenever possible as I find it easier to monitor the whitening and it uses less materials. A 5 gallon bucket will last you a very long time of repeated skulls. If you add water to it, you immediately degrade it and, if you have water with iron in it, could be a disaster in the making.