Bleaching skulls

[Buckfever85]

Hello folks. I am looking for info on bleaching skulls. I have a bunch of skulls that i have accumulated that are yellowed. I wanted to know if anyone can tell me if there is a way to whiten them.

[tjsomerv]

Certainly no bleach!! To whiten skulls I do, I soak them in hot water and dawn dish soap for a week or two. Then soak them in regular ammonia (from wal-mart) for a week or two. Then 3% hydrogen peroxide (also from walmart) over night. Done!!

[Buckfever85]

What does the ammonia do?? I googled this last night an seen about the peroxide. Didnt see anything about ammonia, just curious.

[tjsomerv]

The ammonia is a grease breaker. Your skull is yellow because of the grease. The hot water and dawn is designed to start the break up of grease. Then the ammonia removes it from the bone. Your skull will remain yellow no matter how much you soak it is peroxide, if you dont de-grease it

[RTF]

Skulls must be degrease before being whitened. The peroxide is to be used with powder beach and painted onto the skull but that will cook the skull and it must be done properly. The skull whitening kits you can buy are just that.

[33Canuck]

Soak them a week or two? That's risky, the cartilage will break down between the bone and the skull will start to fall apart. You can make a peroxide paste and cover the skull for a few hours and get the job done. Me I prefer the natural bone color

[tjsomerv]

I have never had a skull fall apart from soaking for several weeks straight. With the beetles, there is no cartilage left over. As long as the skull is from an adult animal, it will not fall apart. The only thing that fall out if you let it soak for a few weeks is the teeth, which can be easily glued back in.

If the skull was boiled first, it will LIKELY fall apart when you begin soaking it again

[blkbearklr]

If you soak it a week or two there should not be an issue. What you are doing is called maceration. I usually soak my skulls for a minimum of two weeks, You know they have soaked long enough when the teeth start falling out. That means the soft tissue has detorated. From there after the soaking in just warm water, I usually just use fish tank heaters. I will then soak it in dawn water changing the water every couple of days for about a week and degrease it. I dont do anything other than that on deer skulls. Most of the times on bears and other oily skulls I will use lacquer thinner to break up the grease. From that you can go to any hair salon, get basic white and 40 volume peroxide and make a paste and whiten them. There are a lot of methods but leaving it in water will not hurt the nasal cavity bones.

Joe

[Steve7]

Go to a hair supply store and buy 30% peroxide but use gloves. The three I did came out sugar white. Just had to use small wire brush to remove some of the hanging cartilage, Soaked them for 5 days. No skull deteriation.

[mlammerhirt]

Any pics guys?

It would be cool to compare how the different methods turn out.

Edited December 15, 2011 by mlammerhirt

[blkbearklr]

you can go to my website and look under antlers/skulls and see what they look like. I have a ton more to add just finding time it is the busy season for me right now.

www.alivingmemorytaxidermy.com

Joe

[Steve7]

That's some beautiful work blkbearlr... super clean.

[Geno C]

i have 2 skulls from last season i have to do, so dont use bleech? i was going to bleech em for a few minutes lol. now ill have to look into this

[blkbearklr]

thank you steve,

Geno never use bleach, no part of bleach once used it can never be removed and it will continue to detoriate the skull. Sometimes not always, but if you have ever seen a skull that looks chalky and if you touch it, it feels that way that is usually caused by bleach.

Joe

[pistolp71]

Hey Blkbearklr, what is the basic white? I have done my skulls with the powder and peroxide that Mckenzie sells. Is that the same stuff?

[blkbearklr]

Hey Blkbearklr, what is the basic white? I have done my skulls with the powder and peroxide that Mckenzie sells. Is that the same stuff?

yes same thing, it is a lot cheaper though to just go to a beauty salon local and get it.

Joe

[brudaman340]

I always heard to use 40 volume peroxide and baking soda. you can find a lot of information on it at taxidermy.net in the forums. I dont know why they call it bleaching even though you definatly should not use bleach.