Hi, I need some help please, I used to use Hydrogen Peroxide (100%) for whitening skulls, but am told by chemists that this is not available anymore.
Have tried a product from Reloading Solutions Direct, that is very good but involves soaking skull in pan of solution for 14 hours, fine for roe, muntjac and sika but not practical for fallow or red. Does anybody have the answer for a paint on solution like peroxide? or where can i get high strength peroxide from? Help please.

Nw -
Havent tried this...... but can't help wondering!!

http://www.acrylikey.co.uk/bleaching_ivory.html

Rgds Ian

Well

Hydrogen Peroxide is also used to bleach hair. Ask in the places where hair products or hair colors are sold.

Cheers
/ JOHAN

nightwalker uk,

Are you sure you used 100% Peroxide? I have never seen Peroxide on sale to the public at anywhere near that strength...

As already suggested, you need to find somewhere that sells hairdressing supplies and they do a paste at around 25% which works fine..
I use the ordinary liquid peroxide of the same strength with is about £4 per liter and then use cotton wool soaked in the stuff to bleach my skulls.

Where abouts in the UK are you?

Regards,

Pete

Pete, I am sure it used to be 100% (I know it used to turn fingertips white if you got any on them!)
Will try the lesser strength variety, and will let you know how things go, only got a few more skulls to prepare (don't they stack up if you don't clean them straight away!)
I am in Norfolk.
Thanks for the help.

Nightwalker,

I wish I had that problem with the skulls!

I think even the relatively weak stuff will turn your fingers white...The stuff I used to see in the Chemists around here was in small 125cc brown glass bottles, something like "6% by volume"..The stuff I get from the hairdressers supply place is about two or three times as strong if i remember correctly...

I get down to Thetford fairly regularly and if we could arrange to meet somewhere, i would be happy to bring some down for you...

Regards,

Pete

nightwalk....

I've never seen 100% hydrogen peroxide used for skulls, I use 20-40% and mostly the druggist dispences 30% which will bleach a skull overnight - and yes, even at that stregth it will "whiten" your fingers at contact.

My expereince with HP is that 100% would would probably eat the mebranes holding parts of the skull together quickly leaving you with several pieces of very acid etched skull.

An efficeint use of 30% is to clean the skull, dry (naturally, not artificial means), use a plastic or clay container (not metal) lay the skull in/on and then cover the skull with a single layer of white kitchen roll, Kleenex, or cotton and apply the HP with a dropper (a large one as in used for cooking) or spoon (not metal). The cotton, kitchen roll or kleenex with keep the HP clinging to the skull and it will not pour (run) off. Overnight will make it snow white.

Cheers,

Gerry

Thanks for the replies. Guess it wasn't 100% then!!
Will try the 40% stuff. Have a little Karcher pressure washer that is mustard for getting off all the skin, gristle etc from the skull (just watch the nose area) - Half an hour boiling then blast away!!
Pete will let you know if I run into difficulties with sourcing the stuff...
Thanks all.

Nightwalker,
have you tried hypochlorite that is used as a dairy wash, used it on some roe heads a while ago, it was very diluted @ 100-1
and it certainly bleaches them white.
The red label hypo comes in 25ltre drums and costs about £10..

griff

Griff, Thanks for your input, I might be able to try that.
A friend in Ireland says he uses a cleaner used by pubs for cleaning beer pipes, maybe a similar sort of thing?

Nightwalker,
similar but not the same strength!!
the dairy wash sodium hypochlorite has a reccommended dilution rate of 50,000:1, and rots your clothes in seconds......

griff

Nightwalk.....

Please tell me right away which pub in Ireland I should avoid....I hope my insides don't look like your fingers (after you use 100% HP) when I've had a couple pints....



Cheers,

Gerry

Gerry, drink enough of the black stuff and you will not worry about what your fingers look like!!!

nightwalk....

Amen!



Cheers,

Gerry

Don't panic, havent dissolved in a mix of peroxide and beer pipe cleanings!!!

Griff, and any others..
Have got Deosan Red Label Hypochlorite - on tub says contains minimum 11.0% w/w available chlorine at manufacture...is this the stuff?

If it is are the procedures of use the same as for peroxide, could you give me a run down of how you used it please. Found more heads to bleach!!

Thanks night...

Nightwalker,

Try using Oxyclean, the laundry whitener your wife may have handy. It bleaches skulls and stained boars' tusks. Leave the bones in the pail for at least three days. All of the interior crud will float to the top and leave the skull very white. You can then seal the skull with Elmer's glue painted on. It will take a few years to discolor.

You would have used 100 VOLUME which is much less than 100% in strength, it's an old fashioned way of describing the strength.

nightwalker,
Big heads like red and fallow I used to put them in a fertilizer bag and tie round the base of antlers, fill to the neck of the bag and leave over night. If you over fill and cover the antler it will bleach them also.
I used it at about 50-1, depending on how quick a turn round time you require, 25-1 is ok but keep an eye on it...

griff

Okay thats enough!!!!! all this garbage about different household chemicals, 100% peroxide, some people use white gas grrrrrrr here's the proper way to whiten a skull. Don't call it bleaching cause bleach isn't what you want to use or what you want to do....you want to whiten it.


use soda ash 1/2 cup-1 cup per gallon) in the boiling water, boil the skull only enough to soften the tissues. Remove the tissues, use an air compressor in the hard to reach places. Let the skull dry a couple days then use 35% hydrogen peroxide mixed with magnesium carbonate to the consistency of mayonaise. Spread it all over the skull in the cavities, on the teeth etc. Let it dry overnight then wash off. Presto one whitened skull that will stay white and not yellow, you can clear coat it with varathane if you want.

have fun!!!
the chef

Nightwalker,

I have always been told to stay away from using cholrine based bleaches for skulls; apparently it can attack the bone itself....

At the end of the day, reasonable strength hydrogen peroxide works fine especially if you dip the skull in very hot water for a few minutes first..it seems to allow the peroxide to "penerate" better...The magnesium carbonate mix mentioned just enables the peroxide to form a past..not sure how available it is over here though...

Regards,

Pete

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
Okay thats enough!!!!! all this garbage about different household chemicals, 100% peroxide, some people use white gas grrrrrrr here's the proper way to whiten a skull. Don't call it bleaching cause bleach isn't what you want to use or what you want to do....you want to whiten it.

use soda ash 1/2 cup-1 cup per gallon) in the boiling water, boil the skull only enough to soften the tissues. Remove the tissues, use an air compressor in the hard to reach places. Let the skull dry a couple days then use 35% hydrogen peroxide mixed with magnesium carbonate to the consistency of mayonaise. Spread it all over the skull in the cavities, on the teeth etc. Let it dry overnight then wash off. Presto one whitened skull that will stay white and not yellow, you can clear coat it with varathane if you want.

have fun!!!
the chef

Hi chef

I'm unsure of the common name... Is soda ash sodium carbonate (Na2CO3)?.

I know sodium bicarbonate is baking soda (NaHCO3)...

(sorry but I don't know how to do proper subscripts for the chemical formulae here)

jpb

jpd,

I am not sure if its the same thing that the Chef is referring to, but Sal Soda is often added to the mix to help with the process. A quick google on the subject seemed to indicate sal soda is nothing more than standard washing soda or soda crystals...it is not "caustic soda" which I have tried in error and will pit the skull if too strong a solution is used..

Regards,

Pete

Hi jpb, I think you're right it is sodium carbonate, I googled it a few months back so can't remember for sure. It's used in swimming pools and can be bought from a pool company much cheaper than from the taxidermist like I do. It's definately caustic and the magnesium carbonate is hazardous also. Also be very carefu