After doing a search and gathering information, I boiled and scraped two mule deer skulls recently, in preparation for Euro- mounts. Good grief, what a pain in the ass! It was one of the most time- consuming, disgusting (whipping brains out with a wire hook), and meticulous processes I have undertaken.

My hat is off to any taxidermist!

Same here, what a mess. How they make the mounts look so good is a mystery to me. With The amount oftime it takes me to euro somthing, I would have to charge atleast an arm , maybe a leg-

Ya, I think I earn my keep! Thanks!
OH, by the way............. I send ALL my cutomers skulls off to get cleaned!

I did 6 skulls this year, I thought they were the easiest I have ever done, and the quickest. If I had a Bison or a large bull elk I would send they to a "pro".

I do all my clients skulls myself, don't believe in sending them out. They're all boiled and cleaned, yes, time consuming for sure. I usually start at first light on a Sunday morning, and go all day.

quote:

Originally posted by 3584ELK:
After doing a search and gathering information, I boiled and scraped two mule deer skulls recently, in preparation for Euro- mounts. Good grief, what a pain in the ass! It was one of the most time- consuming, disgusting (whipping brains out with a wire hook), and meticulous processes I have undertaken.

My hat is off to any taxidermist!

That's why God invented beetles

For our feral hogs--skin the head, and wire the jaw over the top of the nose, then hang in a mesquite tree nose up and let the buzzards and beetles do their thing. 6 months later it is done.

Just don't hang it too low 'cause the coyotes will chew it up.

I think it was JJ Hack that has or had some type of flesh eating beatle that makes short work of cleaning the flesh and brains from skulls. Bryan

When you boil the skulls it works really, really well to use an air compressor to blow away the "yucky bits"

It's just like boiling bones for soup.....mmmmm

the chef

I use the boil and pressure washer method. Beatles is the way to go though.

Guys,

The cleaning has been completed. I tried using a Loreal Hair Bleaching kit, twice now. Yesterday I had the stuff slathered on for 28 hrs. I washed it off last night, and I cannot see where it did anything. I am going to Krylon the antlers, mount the skull to a plaque, hang the whole works outside on my "Doghouse" and see what happens. Once the sun does its work, I will Krylon the skull to try an preserve it. I am tired of pissing around with this.

The hair bleaching stuff isn't strong enough (too dilute). Look for something more potent. I used to have two containers of a gel containing 30% of hydrogen peroxide.... had to leave those behind when I moved from Europe. Never found anything quite as good.

My taxidermist just sinks the skulls in water... after a few weeks of that everything comes right off without too much effort...

That his shop has a certain smell to it, is an understatement.. ;-)

Frans