I have just received back a skull mount that has been done in a traditional Spanish style, in that they do the usual skull clean and then peroxiding, but they then have a further stage of polishing followed by the application of a solution which gives the skull a permanent gloss appearance.

Any idea what the solution is? I would like to do some of my water deer skull mounts this way.

generally the gloss apparence is made only whit polishing, made whit 2-3 grade of sandpaper from big (not big really, they use as first a fine grits anyway) to smaller (ultrafine). Someone finish whit rotating polishing disk, like the one for metal, but whit a white abrasive past...
Lorenzo

Lorenzo,

Thank you. I will try it on some modest trophies as a trial run.

I've see made this on a Ibex skull some years ago, is a work of about 1 hour, manly of elbow grease...
I have tried on some bones myself, and is simple. one nice work I have see is a polished elephant rib whit the bullet hole...

I've achieved a partial gloss effect by painting cleaned and bleached skulls with a thin mixture of white glue and water. Several coats of this applied with a paint brush give a nice smooth finish and seem to strengthen the bone. My oldest skull done this way still looks great, with no yellowing of the "finish", after more than ten years.

John

Try using a polyvinyl acetate [PVA] cold glue, mixed 50/50 with water. Leave each coat to dry before applying the next coat.

Bone, antler, and ivory can be polished with a buffing wheel. Start with a muslin buff and platinum or whitestar tripoli, the platinum will cut faster and is what I use for a first polish here in the shop. Finish polish with a cotton wheel and Fabulustre (prefered)or green rouge, carrot rouge might work too. Befor polishing sand down to 220-400grit.

The biggest pain will be cleaning the polish off. After using the tripoli it will need to be removed from the skull with a brush and soapy water, do a thorough job or your final polish won't work.