Skull soup

[Jeremy K]

I just cleaned the skull on the deer I shot this year and figured I would post some pics and the way I got it cleaned up. 

    The first thing is to remove as much tissue from the skull as possible with a knife ,I didn't feel like posting a picture of this step because of the public nature of the website. 

  After that I put it in boiling water with a couple shakes of borax , every 30 minutes to an hour I pull it and scrape away at the remaining tissue that is falling off  . Keep the water topped off and don't worry about getting water on the antlers during boiling.

  Once that is done ,you can see the skull is brownish , I included a picture of the peroxide that I use ,i bought it from a beauty salon ,it's for stripping hair of all its color I guess, it's thick like wall paper paste and goes on easily with a paintbrush and is easy to keep off the antlers . I leave it on over night.

  The last step is to rinse off the peroxide and I finish with a wash with oxyclean ,it takes away a lot of the smell left behind.

[greybeard]

They look really great.. Thanks for posting that

[chas0218]

Do yours yellow over time? I have a couple that I was going to re-do with the peroxide to remove the yellowing.

Edited December 11, 2017 by chas0218

[Jeremy K]

The one on the right in the finished picture was done about 6 years ago ,you can see it is a little more yellow then the new one . My father in law seals his with mop and glow ,I don't like the shiny finish though.

[chas0218]

46 minutes ago, Jeremy K said:

The one on the right in the finished picture was done about 6 years ago ,you can see it is a little more yellow then the new one . My father in law seals his with mop and glow ,I don't like the shiny finish though.

Yeah I don't want a shiny finish but wasn't sure if there was a way to keep it from turning yellow. I think it is from boiling the head and basically boiling the fat into the bone. I'm not sure there is a way to keep it from turning yellow short of painting or sealing it.

[Five Seasons]

pretty cool jeremy. I paid to have mine done. Had it mounted on a piece of old barn wood and I think it looks great. This doesn't look that hard, although i'd have to buy the equipment... and kill a nice buck haha.

Do your neighbors wondering if you're cooking meth? 

[The_Real_TCIII]

They look great. I applaud you guys that do that yourselves, Im happy to give the beetle guy $100 for that job. For me its only once every few years anyway lol

[Jeremy K]

5 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

They look great. I applaud you guys that do that yourselves, Im happy to give the beetle guy $100 for that job. For me its only once every few years anyway lol

How long does that way take ? I'm super impatient. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

1 hour ago, Jeremy K said:

How long does that way take ? I'm super impatient. 

I usually have them back in a month or so if i remember correctly. The last one I did I lost the guys number and it took forever to figure out where I sent it lol

[wooly]

If you really want to super charge the whitening, get the powder that mixes with your 40 vol. crème peroxide and put some heat to it.

Once the pastey mix dries it'll form a crusty shell that you can simply remove with a toothbrush. You can whiten a skull in less than an hour by combining those two ingredients.