got my last Africa shipment yesterday and after unwrapping all the skulls, I notice a lot of "yellow" areas on some of the skulls/jaw sets. Original cleaning in Africa was done via the cold water soak method and possible boiling after that.

So what can I do, to do some additional clean up on these? I was thinking of a peroxide paste application on either just the yellow areas or maybe the entire skulls themselves to get that nice "white" look. Or should I do another limited boil of the skulls first? Where can I get the paste mixture?

thanks,

Willi

You can degrease the skulls. The grease is what is causing the "yellow" color.

You can soak in a solution of water and dawn dish detergent. You can leave them in there as long as you want. A couple weeks should clean most of those skulls. Change the water if it gets discolored and greasy. This is one way to degrease that will not hurt the skulls.

Remember that you have to let the skull dry in order to tell if it is as clean as you want it.
A clean white skull will not look clean and white if it is wet.

You can also soak in Acetone to degrease but more difficlult to do with larger skulls.

Some real greasy skulls like baboon may require this.

As a last resort, on extremely greasy skulls/jaws you may need to drill small holes into the greasy areas to allow the detergent to get in there and remove the oil. These small holes can be repaired later.

After degreasing, wash in clean water and dry.
You can get the peroxide whitening kit from a taxidermy supply company like Mckenzie supply.

After whitening, wash, dry and seal with a clear coat spray or Elmers glue thinned with water.

Thanks for the info Grafton. As soon as I find a large enough container for the giraffe skull I'll get on this with the cold water and dawn dish soap.

Willi

Willi,

I have something that might work for you. I used it cape buff a couple of years ago. I will PM you with my phone number, you can stop by and pick it up.