Another skull question:
As I mentioned in another post, I just received skulls from Botswana. They went through the typical dip/pack and I am doing the whitening.
From what I'm hearing, my skulls are like many African skulls and were boiled to pieces.... literally. Missing nasal bones, etc.
Many are in decent shape, but there are several that are quite stinky. There is no obvious flesh residue and the brain cavities are clean. They don't really look greasy by color. I've done some soaks in Dawn and Borax solution, typically with water straight out of the hot water heater. Most soaks were 3-24 hours and obviously the longer soaks precluded me from keeping the temp up.
I've whitened an impala and red hartebeest and they look great, but still have a bit of odor. I've yet to whiten my eland, but it is still stinky despite the above mentioned soaks.
I know we have some real pros here. Any suggestions for this rookie?

Some horn shapes allow the horn sheath to be removed from the core, some do not. The stinky ones are the ones that can not be removed. Depends on the twist, sometime you can pull eland horn sheaths off, sometimes not but hartebeest and impala horn sheaths do not come off. What you are smelling is the remaining bits of funk in the horn core. They probably have residual moisture in there from the soaking too and that will add to the stink. Put them in a safe, sunny spot and make sure they are completely dry and see if the smell goes away. If the stink is still bad you may need to reboil/simmer those horns. You can try to remove the eland horn sheaths by soaking them in hot water, tapping them with a rubber mallet and twisting them off. If there is a lot of play and movement of the horn on the sheath they may very well come off. If you can get them off you can clean them up inside to reduce any residual odors.

Once they are completely dry you can fill the void between the horn and the core by pouring two part liquid plastic or fiberglass resin in the horn.

I've tried to manipulate the eland horns, but they are on there pretty snug. I guess I could try a little more aggressively.
The blue wildebeest has also been tough. Since the horns come out sideways, it's hard to find a suitable pot to soak/boil. Right now I'm using a kitchen size plastic garbage can.

The eland may not come off. Some do, some do not. Wildebeest will not pull off either because of the sharp curve. I would try and dry them out and air them out for a while in the sun and see if that helps. When I open a crate in the shop the smells can often be strong at first but over time they seem to almost completely go away. When you soak them you will amplify any odors until the area becomes completely dry again. My guess is you still have moisture/funk trapped in the horn cores. I would air them out for at least a week or two and see how they are then.