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First try at cleaning skulls

I

iamcorey

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2018
Messages
2,716
Bottom line up front. Messy, somewhat easy if you take your time and follow some YouTube directions. Turned out well.

Had 3 heads. 1 I found and used for color practice. 1 from last year and 1 from this year. Both frozen.

Skinning. I made it hard on myself by not having them fully thawed, but I was racing against the weather.

Wrapped antlers in Saran Wrap and electrical tape from burr on up.
6df0ebddc8f1570ebf807f2b2b314c0e.jpg



Simmered for an hour in a 64qt pot with oxi clean.

Power washed as best I could. Very messy. Dogs are still scavenging the area for bits and pieces.

Simmered each individually in a much smaller pot with 50/50 water and 40v peroxide.

Power washed again. Dried then applied mop and glo.
0bcc3be453638a4399ba899c8a8608af.jpg

0133e671af51c12c76e6f03dcacf2f51.jpg
 
iamcorey said:
Thanks. My dad suggested side hustle potential, but I think I’d be too nervous with someone else’s skull for pay.
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Do it. Yours came out great. Maybe don't charge so much on the first few., but as you now know what's involved in doing this, your dads right people are going to pay to avoid the hassle.
 
nice....couple things that helped me

razor blades to clean skull.....can just keep grabbing a new one (cheap and sharp) it works good for detail and makes getting the material around/under the bases easier to get at (can come at it with a straight down chop that goes under the base)

i find simmering, powerwashing, simmering, powerwashing....etc....repeatedly seems to speed it up because it keeps knocking off outer material and letting the water hit fresh

i don't treat the skulls with anything....i like natural bone look

one thing i won't use again is borax....maybe i mixed it too strong but it worked so good it dissolved all the cartilage and i lost some bones i had to glue back.....now i just use a squirt of dawn dish soap

brains are the hard part...i just keep mixing them up with a screw driver and power washing inside the foramen magnum
 
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I don't have the patience for doing European mounts!

I have a small tree across the road from the house in a treeline that has the remnants of probably 8 or 10 different buck heads hanging in it or laying around it that are pretty big and would've made awesome Euro mounts but the possums and porcupines and squirrels found them...
 
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raisins said:
brains are the hard part...i just keep mixing them up with a screw driver and power washing inside the foramen magnum
Click to expand...

One trick I’ve found is after the first round of simmering take a piece of mechanic wire and twist into into a screw shape and then twist it up into the brain. You can sometimes pull out the whole brain at once. Doesn’t always work but is nice when it does.
 
GCTerpfan said:
One trick I’ve found is after the first round of simmering take a piece of mechanic wire and twist into into a screw shape and then twist it up into the brain. You can sometimes pull out the whole brain at once. Doesn’t always work but is nice when it does.
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wow....one of those egyptian mummifiers would think 'that terp guy has skills'
 
GCTerpfan said:
One trick I’ve found is after the first round of simmering take a piece of mechanic wire and twist into into a screw shape and then twist it up into the brain. You can sometimes pull out the whole brain at once. Doesn’t always work but is nice when it does.
Click to expand...
I just simmer for awhile and blow it all out w/ pressure washer.
 
I use a piece of wire with a bend on the end for the brains as well, one trick and it may sound stupid it’s so simple but let gravity help and hold the head up so the brains can run out as your twisting that wire, it takes a bit but I usually get all of them out before boiling.
 
I buried one once and got it perfectly clean but also gave the skull a yellowish cast. I left the antlers sticking up out of the ground and put a big tub over them and they still look good.
 
iamcorey said:
Bottom line up front. Messy, somewhat easy if you take your time and follow some YouTube directions. Turned out well.

Had 3 heads. 1 I found and used for color practice. 1 from last year and 1 from this year. Both frozen.

Skinning. I made it hard on myself by not having them fully thawed, but I was racing against the weather.

Wrapped antlers in Saran Wrap and electrical tape from burr on up.
6df0ebddc8f1570ebf807f2b2b314c0e.jpg



Simmered for an hour in a 64qt pot with oxi clean.

Power washed as best I could. Very messy. Dogs are still scavenging the area for bits and pieces.

Simmered each individually in a much smaller pot with 50/50 water and 40v peroxide.

Power washed again. Dried then applied mop and glo.
0bcc3be453638a4399ba899c8a8608af.jpg

0133e671af51c12c76e6f03dcacf2f51.jpg
Click to expand...

Kurt said:
Do it. Yours came out great. Maybe don't charge so much on the first few., but as you now know what's involved in doing this, your dads right people are going to pay to avoid the hassle.
Click to expand...

These look awesome. Just got a euro mount back from taxidermist, these are definitely comparable in quality. My guy charges $120 and he’s the least expensive around, I bet you have a few hunting buddies or some forum members here who’d give you a cool $80-100 for this quality of turnout, at least for a starting rate, and go from there.
 
Mitchellfarmer1982 said:
They look great. I usually break the ear buds out of the back of the skull. You can barely tell and it helps with access to get things cleaner in the brain pan. I started doing my own and then started doing for family and pretty soon had to start turning people away bc I didn't have time to hunt.
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I broke the earbuds as well. Definitely helps to open up as much as possible.

One nasal cavity I cleared out all the cartridge. The other still has some in there. I’m on the fence about trying to break it off at this point. The deadhead is fully intact.
 
I have some of the nasal stay in but most break up and you never notice .....atleast i dont. The younger the deer the more brittle the bones. I've done 2 spikes (youth first deer) and they were awful.
 
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