I've got a beaver skull and a coon baculum macerating in a bucket of water outside. I am not using any supplementary heat, but changing water every 4 days or so.
When do I add degreaser? What should I use if I don't plan to simmer/boil?

Ant hill might be quicker, your degreasing meat never heard of it?

Degreasing the skull. Apparently it won't get white or will get yellow blotches if you don't.
Never done this before, so I figure it might make sense to ask on here.
No anthills around me to try.

You would think you could bleach it white once you got the meat off of it, you ever hear of them beetles that clean skulls they ear the meat but not any cartilage.

Need to degrease, my friend used simple green in warm water

Rittles degreaser. The stuff used for pelts and bear hides. Check for it with trap supply houses or direct from Rittles. Degrease is a step before whitening. Very important step.

It takes time without heat, and maybe a few different soaks. Keep at it until nothing is settling out. Don’t make your mix too strong or the freeze will have a hard time going out. Seems counterintuitive.

Don’t use bleach to whiten, it eats the bone. Use hydrogen peroxide. The over-the-counter stuff (3%) works fine and is less than a buck a quart. Works best if UV light (like sunlight) is hitting it. So use a clear container and set in a window for a few days.

Don’t rush skulls.

do you guys glue teeth in place an when do you do it

I use TANNERY DEGREASER that I get from McKenzie Taxidermy Supply. Penetrates very well and a little goes a long way. mckenziesp.com code# TDQ

Unleaded gasoline from the pump. Dont be stoopid with sparks follow all common sense thoughts about not ending up in a burnward.

seriously though done all kinds of hides and skulls with unleaded it will pull the grease eezypeezy

J

And smart not to use heat on you skulls,

X2

For teeth, I use superglue. just put a small dab on all of them at the base where it enters the bone. It will go into the socket and hold it tight. Do them all. Turn the skull upside down so that gravity pulls the glue down into the socket. Do the jaw separate.

I did a deer skull with peroxide once. Turned out just fine. Takes a long time. Sunlight helps too.

A day or two in 3% peroxide will do just fine, then wash in a foamy dawn soap and sit in the sun for a day and it should be fine

Thanks folks. I'll upload a pic if it turns out

After simple green bath, he would mix a peroxide, magnizium paste on skull, then brush off when dry

I used to own M.O.A Custom skulls. I was doing 300+ black bear skulls a year, plus virtually every other animal in North America and Africa. I used Dermestid beetles to clean them. I had 5 colonies that each would clean a deer/bear sized skull in /4-36 hrs. I had 12, 20cubic foot freezers to keep skulls in to be cleaned.

That said cold water maceration will result in a better looking skull. For various reasons I did many skulls by this method. Often Buffalo skulls because of their size. Even though I had hugely populated colonies that could consume the flesh off of smaller skulls quickly, they could not clean buffalo skulls most times before spoilage. I had to keep the building I housed the colonies in at 80 degrees year around. I had automatic ventilation system on each colony, which helped with spoilage somewhat. Dermestids will eat dried meat but it slows them down, so the skulls went in non-dried.

Cold water maceration does get foul smelling when the skull is removed. However, being submerged in water does help remove some grease from the skull whereas beetles do not.

Now to remove the grease from all skulls (wild boar and bear being the worse), I immersed larger skulls and horned animals
In a 4 foot square metal tank I had made with a rubber gasket seal for the lid. In this tank was acetone. I kept the seperate building with this tank at about 70 degrees to speed the degreasing. I bought acetone in 55 gal drums. It became so polluted with fats and oils over time it had to be dsgarded.

For bear and smaller skulls I used 5 gallon buckets with rubber sealed lids to degrease skulls.

For your beaver skull you can use an empty cottage cheese container with the snap on lid.

For all skulls I left them in for 7 days to degrease. I put all skulls in each container at the same time and removed them at the same time.

Now for whitening never, ever use bleach!!!!!!!

Use Hydrogen Peroxide. And not the 3% you buy in stores. I used 36%. Nasty stuff! Burn your skin in seconds. I bought mine in 55 gal. drums as well.

Soooooo, obviously you don’t need that much or that much strength.

Go to a pool and spa place. Buy a gallon of clarifier for pools. BE SURE IT IS NOT BLEACH BASED!!!!! Tell them you want the hydrogen peroxide based. One brand name is Bauquacil, another is Soft Swim. It is 27.5% hydrogen peroxide.

Place your skull in any PLASTIC CONTAINER ONLY! Needs no lid. For beaver about 36 hours. Take it out and place in direct light until dry. Teeth fall out and jaws separate. Use super glue.

Before gluing back together let the skull set in a warm place to see if grease spots appear. If they do place back in acetone.

Both the acetone and peroxide can be re-used. Keep the peroxide out of direct light and huge temp. changes or it will lose strength.

Sorry for the long email. Hope it helped

Steve

You know your stuff, my friend had a business in Gillette did skulls a few years, he used the 35% peroxide too

If a guy wanted to clean some snapping turtle skulls? What would be the best process? I assume that skinning would be first? But what about the next steps? Thanks

Everything the same as I stated above.

To cold wayer macerate, merely submerge the skull in water. Use stagnant or creek water.

All skulls should be skinned for less mess and time. Remove as much flesh as you can.

Horned skulls won’t begin to float when decompensation begins. Most others will. Use a rock etc. to hold them down.place the skulls upside down in the water.

Normally flies will buzz the waters edge and horns of animals. Almost never do they lay egs.

However ALL FLESH MUST BE SUBMERGED TO ABOID FLIES.

Small non-horned skulls can be submerged in a container with a lid.

Once all flesh has fallen off rinse off and plot in the acetone metioned in my other post.

Then submerge in the peroxide. I forgot to mention earlier to place all non-horned skulls upside down so no air pocket form in the brain cavity.

TO avoid the air pocket in horned animals drill a 1/8” or less hole at the peak of the ridge between the horns.

Anything used in holding down skulls in peroxide cannot be metal.

Good luck.

If anyone wants more info PM me.

Stee

Wow, very generous of you to offer so much knowledge Steve! Thanks!
I checked on things today...lots of meat left but it's definitely progressing. Looks like another week at least LOL...I am very impatient to See this through

.

Oh yeah, cold water maceration can turn your stach!!
😳😬😬😬

Thank you for all the tips.

Impatient and skull cleaning is not a good combination.

And cold water maceration, even in hot summer takes quite a bit of time. If you add an aquarium heater that will heat to 90 degrees to the pot, that will speed the process considerably. The bacteria thrive at that temp. If the water evaporates some, add more water the same temp to it. Do Not pour out the stinky water and start over. If you change the water, you have wasted the bacteria that is doing the work. Properly prepped skulls (deer size) take about a week at 90 degrees. Still stinks but it get the soft tissue off without damaging the bone.

Beaver skull is now in household peroxide as its all I've got.
Came out of the water 99% free of organic matter. Teeth turned black, but I assume the peroxide will help with that some.
Pictures of the finished product will follow soon.

Nice! The peroxide should make the teeth turn back to orange again.

Time for a maceration story.

I had a maceration 55 gallon drum buried in the side yard with about six inches of soil, then grass, on top of the lid. We lived in town so I had to be careful with the stinky. When we had a good rainy day, I'd dig that soil off the top, lift the lid, then bring up the skulls and place 'em in the wheelbarrow. I'd wheel that group to the curb and then with the garden hose spray all the remaining flesh off the bones into the gutter. The rain would take the nasty down to the storm sewer and into the river. The only person who knew of the barrel was the old man across the street who watched most everything I did out there.

Well, we were in a hurry to move and vacate the premises 'cause the closing date was quickly approaching, and it was tough to leave it there, still chunky with skulls and goo, but I capped it good, shoveled the soil back over, and replaced the sod and "forgot about it."

Well, might've been five years later or so I get this phone call on a Sunday afternoon and it was the buyer. Actually, a former student. All he wanted to know was if there were any more of these barrels buried in the yard. Said he took care of the one he put his leg into while mowing the lawn, just wanted to know if he had to worry about repeating that maneuver. Said he should have known there would've been something strange buried in the yard of his former high school biology teacher, but hadn't counted on immersing his leg into that goo.

I assured him that was it, 'cept for all the carp bones in the garden. Said he'd already rototilled those into little pieces and was amazed at how big his tomatoes got.

Anyway, for what it's worth.

Progress so far... I think I'm gonna get some "serious" peroxide from the beauty shop.

Any one ever put some skulls in a plastic buck drilled with holes and just sunk it in a swamp or something for a while? Always thought about trying sinking a bucket off my dock in summer. Only problem with that is lot of family swims there too. Wonder is there enough bugs in lake to clean a skull up?
This has been a good post..


Mac

So apparently I have been making the mistake of changing the water every 3-4 days.
How long does it normally take to get all the flesh off of these little skulls if the water is not changed?

Thanks
Ken

When using maceration I have left skulls a couple months.....but my weather is likely cooler than yours. The stench is wretched however.

Do you guys remove the brains before maceration?

I don't

Beeverpeeler I let the flies take out the brains before I simmer clean the skulls. Lot less work.

The beauty parlors here now can be a little touchy on selling people 30 or 40% peroxide as there are some laws apparently?

You can also get concentrated H. peroxide for ag use. "Oxidate" is one that we use in organic agriculture. Comes in 5 gallon containers.

Since you are doing small quantities I'm not sure I would soak the skull in a bath of peroxide. Not saying not to. I mix up some 30/40 percent peroxide with clairol basic white ( or similar hair whitener) and paint it on the skulls then sit in sun. After a few days brush and/or air compressor the dried powder off. Many ways to skin this cat.

Ken, here is my previous post:



I will add a bit more info.....I remove the brain and eyes, tongue and trim the meat/fat that is easy to remove. Then it takes 7 to 10 days typically for the maceration process to remove the soft tissue if the water temp is maintained near 90 degrees. It will take a lot longer if the water temp is cycling to low temps because the bacteria that are doing the work thrive in the 90 degree range. Changing the water slows the process because the bacteria has to develop all over again in the new water. And it is going to stink and teeth are going to be loose, some will fall out, jaws will separate but maceration does not damage the bone.

Now, a few comments about peroxide.

The products at the beauty shop are labeled by Volume and that is not the same as Percentage.

Volume 10 = 3%
Volume 20 = 6%
Volume 30 = 9%
Volume 40 = 12%

The 3% stuff in the brown bottle in the drugstore will work but takes longer. It is pretty safe to use as it is used as a disinfectant for cuts and scrapes.

The higher the numbers (Volume/%) the more careful you need to be. Especially eye protection. Higher number products will also cause skin burns.

I have cleaned quite a few skulls in the last 10 years and I use much stronger peroxide than the beauty supply variety. 30 or 40 Volume liquid is about as strong as I would recommend to the typical hobbyist and it needs to be handled with care.

But the number 1 problem I see with many skull cleaners is the failure of many to get the grease out of the bone before using the peroxide. Even if the peroxide makes it nice and white, grease remaining in the bone will migrate to the surface over time and cause yellowing and sometimes the surface will become sticky and smelly. Degreasing takes time and patience. Typically a couple of weeks for critters like beaver at around 120 degrees F. Constant temp and dishwashing soap added to the water. Water changes when is skims over until very little grease comes to the surface.

Then I let them dry thoroughly before the peroxide soak.

Yes, yes it is. I have a boat out front that's been dubbed the "storage boat" has all my stakes, cubbies band bones piked up and it has a 40 Gallon clear plastic container with skulls in it. I've trained the mail man so he doesn't mind.

Thanks Harold. I kind of have a mixed bag of skulls. I found a nice 8 point on the river right at the end of season and he's in there with the rest. I need to flip the head I guess so I don't get any bubbles in the brain.
I also have a bottle of 35% peroxide that I can get pretty cheaply be close to home. But as it is it seems that skulls will take longer than I like.

I haven't removed any flesh, just the skin.
I have 6 others in the freezer I better get after so the sun can do it's work.
I'll flesh them and remove the eyes and brains upfront

Thanks again
Ken

I use to have a skull cleaning business. I used beetles. But once you get the meat off I degrease for atleast 3 weeks in heated soapy water. Then use 12% peroxide for a day and dry in the sun. After it’s dry glue in the teeth

I know a guy that had a European skull business, 90 degree water for two weeks, small amount of dirt for bacteria, then a 90 degrees soak in water and simple green, then a peroxide magnesium paste, brushed off after drying

I once noticed a phenominum while trapping rats below a federal resevoir. First I noticed that if you run traps after work, there were some tiny worms or maybe leeches in the water that attacked the rats around the eyes. By the end of the day, the eyes would be covered with these critters, and the fur would start to slip right by the eyes. Then one day, I was wading down the stream, and there was a dead bird laying on top of some cattails. I picked it up, and the head had been under the water, but everthing else was on top, out of the water. Everything below the surface of the water was clean to the bone, complete skull and neck bones, all held together by the cartalage yet! Never dicovered what those things were, but they were very good at cleaning tissue off of bones, and fast. That bird had not been there the day before!

Crawdads!

When soaking skulls in bucket of water can the lid be on to cut down odor?

Sure but I just turn a garbage can upside over the bucket and put a weight on top. Keeps critters out and helps with the odor. No concern with sealing the lid with a cord to the aquarium heater in the bucket.

Thank you.