Cleaning Skulls

V

varminthunter06

New member
What is the first thing to do once the fur is off the skull? I have heard u soak it in alcohol for a few days and take off all the meat then u can bleach it to make it nice and white, is this true? Do u take the eyes out before soaking or not? I dont know the first thing in this field so all the help u could give me would be much appreciated. Thanx
 
I've done about 100 skulls of various animals. I let the raw skull (muscle and everything) cook in a crock pot all day. I then remove all the muscle and ream out the brain matter with a walnut pick--a piece of wire would work. I then put the 2 halves of the jaw and skull in a solution of water and chlorine bleach. The chlorine bleach and water forms a weak acid which dissolves the remainder of tissue on the skull and jaw bones in 2 days. I then rinse everything out with fresh water and lay the pieces on newspaper to dry. The next step is to glue the jaw back together with super glue. I also set the teeth with a drop of super glue at the base of each tooth. Presto your skull is done.
 
On occasion, using chlorine bleach will cause the skull to become chalky adn cause damage. A safer alternatriove used by many taxidermists to clean skull plates, etc., would be to slow cook the skull to remove large portions of meat, eyes, etc., and as TTTF pointed out, be sure to ream out the brain tissue and filter out any chunks to recover all the teeth. Next, rather than bleach, place the entire skull and jaw in to a pot of water with a cup of powdered laundry detergent and bring to a low boil for an hour or so. The sodium carbonate in the soap will liquify and draw out any and all fat and blood leaving the clean skull. After reattaching teeth and securing the bottom jaw, the entire skull can be sealed with any spray on sealant.
 
Please, don't boil. It could very possibly damage the skull and often cracks the teeth. It will also set grease stains in the bone. A very low simmer is the most that's needed. Also, bleach can definitely cause bone deterioration. The taxidermist standard is 40% peroxide cream from beauty supply houses. It's very dangerous, but works fast. A safer and easier alternative is regular 3% peroxide from the pharmacy. Let it soak for a week and it should be good to go. Like they mentioned, keep track of the teeth and glue them back in when it's all done.
 
M. Magis is right on. Boiling does creat many problems when it comes to skulls. I have not done nearly as many skulls as some of you guys, but I have learned a few thing doing the few that I have. I have not tried the method that Lance posted, it sounds feasable. A method that I am going to try this year is to put a skull in an onion sack and lower it into the harbor for a few days. I have been told that the sea lice will clean it quicker than a beetle colony. AW
 
something ive been usin off of taxidermy.net
bleach, borax, peroxide where a mask, gloves and safety glasses if you use it. this is flesh eating chemicals. mix these chemicals in a container outside and make sure the container is big enough for the skulls or skull and keep antlers or horns out of it. this is very dangerous stuff if your young have your parents or parent help you with this. all you have to do is make sure eyes toungue and all hair or skin is off the skull it will eat the brains so you dont have to worry about cleanin them its taken about 4to5 days for a mule deer skull ive been working on and i did a turkey skull a while ago it took only a half hour.
 
That's probably one of the few bad things about taxidermy.net. People can get on and post things like that! That mixture is VERY dangerous if your using 40% peroxide. Not to mention the damage it will cause from the bleach, as has been mentioned. Please, DO NOT use that formula. There are much better ways to clean a skull. It's much too dangerous even if it did work.
 
Cleaning with Hide Beetles is the best way. Although you'll have to order them in the winter. Best and cheapest way is to get a fresh road kill during the sprin or summer and place it somewhere in the sun that won't be bothered by dogs or yotes. Or cover with fencing if they're a problem. Then save those beetles for the winter, feed'em good. Put skull in 5 gal. bucket with twenty or so beetles (you need breeding pairs and unless you can tell the males from the females, just add enough to get them to reproduce)and cover with cheese cloth and keep in a warm place. Your wife will love this, but it will prove her love to you. These beetles will clean everything off the skull in about a week, the more beetles the quicker. Good luck
 
Here is Red Fox skull I had done. If you are only going to do one for a conversation piece, I would not go through all that work and smell and yuck stuff. I took mine to a guy that had those Dermisted Beetles and cost about 45 bucks but was well worth it. It is as clean and shiney as a babies butt. Just my 2 cents worth
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If your not in a huge hurry i have heard that you can simply put the skull minus skin into a bucket of water and let the bacteria in the water do their thing....its slow and you will have to change the water about once a week and it will smell a bit so having a sealable container would help but within a month or two you should have a clean skull.
 
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