I have several Red Stag skulls that I have picked up from dead animals. I would like to make skull mounts from some of them.
Some were in advanced stage of decomposition. There is quite a lot of staining/darkening through the bone, caused by decomposition.
Does anyone have a method to regain bright white skull colour, without disintergrating the skull.
I have used a light household bleach (Napi-san) and left skulls soaking for 3-4 days. This has worked in some instances.
Also what treatments do you use to apply to the skulls after bleaching. I note a lot of the skulls seen at Hunting exhibitions have a slightly glossed finish.

TNZ, just recommend you try some peroxide, the stronger the percentage the less time, and see if it helps. It does get more expensive the higher percentage (like 30%) so I'd probably just use the cheap 3% stuff and soak the whole skull in it for a day. Setting them in the sun would help. I've never tried bleach, would think it'd eat the bone away. I also know that there is a type of paste you can buy where I'm at but have never tried it.

As far as applying something on it after they're done, guess it's a matter of personal preference. Personally I don't apply anything to them, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

Bleach of whatever strength tends to induce embrittlement in the long term as it removes all traces of normal cohesive material. In the longer term, bleached trophies also tend to 'yellow' with exposure to light.

Hydrogen Peroxide is slower acting, produces a clearer white trophy, which stays white. Any small overruns onto the antler can be retouched usung potassium permanganate solution under running water.

My tuppence worth .

ATB

T260

You need to soak the skulls in good strong hydrogen peroxide. Before you do so however soak them in water for about 24hours, it works better that way with old skulls.

Thanks for advice. Yes the bleach is not perfect. Hard to stop the action, and can result in a chalky bone surface.
Will try HP.

This is what hunters (or rather, taxidermists) do in Spain: Bleach with H2O2, polish, then paint with glossy white paint. If well done, it looks so neat it appears nearly artificial.

You can bleech everything with high concentrated H2O2. I've just bleeched a black bear skull and it worked great. You can get it in a pharmacy.