Skulls

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Sniper1
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Skulls

Post by Sniper1 » Fri May 07, 2010 8:12 am

Si i got 4 or 5 heads been buried in my garden for o heck a year now or so... Had someone tell me put them in the garden let the bugs eat away at them. Pulled em up so i could start planting the garden and now i need to finish them off. Never done this before where do i start? Thanks for any help
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Muley Shed Freak
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Re: Skulls

Post by Muley Shed Freak » Fri May 07, 2010 10:04 am

I usually wash them down with clorox or boil them. Having the bugs do all the work is a lot nicer than doing it yourself... yuck!!

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NotEnufTags
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Re: Skulls

Post by NotEnufTags » Fri May 07, 2010 10:16 am

Sniper1 wrote:Si i got 4 or 5 heads been buried in my garden for o heck a year now or so... Had someone tell me put them in the garden let the bugs eat away at them. Pulled em up so i could start planting the garden and now i need to finish them off. Never done this before where do i start? Thanks for any help
Sniper1,

I've only ever done one skull so I'm by no means an expert, but it seems to me that the bugs in the garden have only given you a head start. The skull still needs to be degreased in a water/borax solution or similar, and then whitened using a bleach or peroxide. The best way would be to get a euro skull kit form trufitt taxidermy or a vandykes kit from cabelas. These kits use a higher concentration peroxide than I used. The skull I did is slightly more yellow than I wanted it to be, but that is because I used the over the counter wound cleaning peroxide.

It was my first attempt and a learning attempt at that. I'll definitely buy a kit for my next one. Here's a pic.
Euro%20Mount%20Dioroama.jpg
Euro%20Mount%20Dioroama.jpg (242.63 KiB) Viewed 4016 times
"Some day I'll scout out a monster, spot him while hunting, make the stalk of a lifetime, and have dreams come true. 'Til then I'll be happy with the buck in my cross-hairs."

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a_bow_nut
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Re: Skulls

Post by a_bow_nut » Fri May 07, 2010 11:02 am

Notenoughtags is right. You will want to degrease the skull and make sure that all of the fleshy material is gone. A slow simmer with some borax helps accomplish both at the same time. After we get the skull clean we dump the water and fill the pot and boil the skull again to get the pores to open up. Watch the heat through the whole process because the hotter the skull gets the more that some of the small bones and teeth start coming loose. Once the skull is warm again we pull the skull and spray it with the peroxide before the skull cools down. You will want to find the higher concentration peroxide to make sure the skull get extra white. We ge ours from a friend that works in a hair salon.

Hope that this helps in some way. Have fun and show us the finished products.
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WinMag
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Re: Skulls

Post by WinMag » Fri May 07, 2010 4:06 pm

NotEnufTags, nice work, creative, I like that. :thumb

Sniper1
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Re: Skulls

Post by Sniper1 » Mon May 10, 2010 8:50 am

Thanks guys for the help. I will see what i can do. I know the smell is horrid. But like i said got a couple of em so got to do it. I will get pics up when finished thanks again
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maintguy47
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Re: Skulls

Post by maintguy47 » Mon May 10, 2010 11:03 pm

All you need to do is put em in water and mule team borax for a few days. No need to boil em unless your in a hurry. Put it down wind of anybody you don't want to affend. if you cookem don't let the water come to a hard boil keep it slow. If its a fresh head remove the face and as much flesh as possible and it'll take about a week for everything to fall off and turn the skull a bright whte.

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firefighterbraun
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Re: Skulls

Post by firefighterbraun » Wed May 12, 2010 8:06 pm

I got a buddy who does taxidermy work and he ended up doing my wifes first deer for us. He boils them but then does not bleach them. He told me that by bleaching it, it will make them weaker/brittle in a couple of years. He says that they now have a type of paint that they use now instead of bleaching it and it will strengthen the skull. I have no idea where you would find that and the process of applying it. That's just what I was told so I figured I'd pass it on. The skull looks awesome that he did for us.

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