Of the trophies I've received from Africa (taxidermy done here in the US) I've noticed almost all have had their horns blackened. I much prefer the natural, usually gray-ish, coloring.

While in Zim a year ago I discovered what I believe to be the culprit. When boiling the skull prior to cleaning, the vats allow all the steam from the boiling water to engulf the horns. Apparently the grease in the skull atomizes and is deposited on the horns causing them to darken. When I saw my buff skull with the horns a greasy black color I levitated and the head prep guy took it back to the shed (quickly) and got a lot of it off. I just don't know if it'll stay that way or will darken again over the time it takes to receive my trophies from Zim.

Is there an effective way to preclude this happening, either before or after they arrive and before (or after) they're mounted??

Good luck. They seem to believe over there that blackened is 'de rigeur'. Only those who do maceration can give you the natural look. Actually you may get a bleached out result that has to be colored with horn dye and otherwise prep'd by the end taxidermist / yourself.

My last safari was split between two outfits. The smaller / first trip was smaller scale and dip & pac less of a production line approach. I was able to do my own coloring. The second outfit basically did what they wanted / think is "how it must be done" and got upset at me for dissing the burnt up result I specified I wanted to avoid.

Barry

Postdriver,
You are partially right in your reasoning. It's particularly bad in Zim, and Tanz. They mostly boil the skulls in Barrels, and what happens is, they just keep adding water to the barrel and eventually it becomes saturated with fat which in turn soaks into the horns and turns them black. On plains game sometimes they can be bleached back or sanded but it is difficult to get them back to the exact color. There won't be a problem with your buffalo, here is a pic of one I did, it was Coal black when we recieved it.

I knew I could count on you, Jerry, but thought this thread might save some other folks the same hassle.

Now if we can just get the da(*&^ things shipped to us !

BTW, did you get a chance to look at my elk cape to see if the guy skinned it right?

You can get SOME of the grease color out with a good wire brush. Give them a good rub down with the brush and then take them to the nearest car wash and blast them with a high pressure hose. It will take alot of the crap out of the horns.. I then take a paint brush and put a light coat of Old English Lemon Oil. It wont bring them back to 100% perfect, but it will help out alot.

This problem gets me going too. I hate to see a great trophy ruined like this. I particularly hate seeing kudu ruined in this manner.
But as we all know, it's par for the course over there.

Hope this helps.

Wire brushing followed by Johnson wax got my burnt up kudu horns to brown (from charred).