Interesting blurbs about bleaching a skull.

[Texas Dave]

I'm about to bleach a hog skull for a euro mount and was brushing up on some techniques and ran across this bit of info.

Interesting talk about why you shouldn't boil the head which is about half way down.

Anyway, if anyone here has thought about bleaching a skull, take a look. Maybe boiling is the quickest way, but the guy talking about driving the oil deeper into the bone was interesting to me. I don't understand how that could happen, but none-the-less it sounds like it could discolor the skull. Take it for what it is, I just thought it was interesting talk.

http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/BeginnersArticles/05/j/05140790A8.html

[AR hunter]

Good stuff there Dave.

I have two hog heads that need to get finished up. On the first one I skinned and removed the eyes and then placed it in a bed of fire ants. No more flesh, brains or anything. Now it just needs to be whitened. The second one was from this past March and I was so tired by the time I got home I just wrapped it in a few garbage bags and froze the whole thing. I am not looking forward to pulling that thing out and taking a knife to all the skin!

[Randy]

Try using white Krylon spray paint, looks like $**t but it will be white!!!

Im sorry, im in a computer class for work bored to death!!!!!!!!!!!!

[guess]

I boil them with baking soda,once clean I boil them with dawn dishsoap,then allow them to sun dry for a few days ,soak in 40% peroxide {from a beauty supply} overnight,rinse and sub dry again. they usually look great.

[Texas Dave]

hmmm, I reckon that dish soap would take care of any deep oils left in the bone! Sounds like you got it figured out there.

[Travis Mattison]

I've used soda ash and pH up for pools while boiling. Seems to help get all that stuff off pretty fast. Before I boil it I take a heavy gauge wire, bend the end into a small loop, and put it on a drill. It's a nasty ordeal but it scrambles those brains faster than any other method. Pours right out and then you can start boiling it. Otherwise it seems like there is always a "cooked" chunk of brain in there that is a you know what to get out. As it's boiling I add some dawn dish soap to it periodically to try to help with the oils. After it's cleaned up I let it dry then I put it in hydrogen peroxide. I've used the dilute 3% stuff that you can get at the store and you can have it in there for 2 or 3 days without worrying about it damaging the bone. Once it dries it turns out pretty good. A friend of mine has been using this gel hydrogen peroxide stuff that he got from a hair salon I think it's 12% and that seems to work really well also. Either way hydrogen peroxide works awesome to clean up that skull and get it white.

[Travis Mattison]

I sent out a skull this spring to have it done with the beetles just to see how that turns out but I still haven't got it back yet! So even if it turns out great I'm not sure it's worth the wait?

The main reason I sent it out was because the buck had a great five point side on the right antler and then the left was all messed up. It pretty much didn't have a left antler. It had a nice brow and then from there it looked like it had some drops and a couple other points but they were all broke off and there was no sign of a mainbeam. So when I tried to boil it I couldn't get it to stay in the pot. With no weight on the left side and all the weight on the other side it just kept rolling up to the surface and I wasn't going to sit there and hold it the whole time it was boiling. Can't figure out why it would take so long for the bugs to eat it since it had a pretty good start on being clean when I sent it? Hopefully I get it back soon.