Does anyone here do their own euro mounts? I've boiled them in the past, but have been unimpressed with the results (user error probably, but think there's a better way to do it). I'm hoping to try the maceration process in the near future on a deer skull and a couple of coyote skulls. That process seems pretty easy. The part where I'm hung up is in degreasing and whitening. I've looked a little on another forum, and it looks like degreasing a deer skull is best done with a water temp around 115°F. I'd like to avoid propane burners and electric burners if possible, as I believe this process can take a week or two at times. Has anyone reached this water temp using a beefy aquarium heater or bucket-strap style heater?

I've macerated deer, possum, beaver, fox and coyote skulls. I just put them in a 5 gallon bucket. Black or clear. Fill with water and put a lid on with a very small hole in the lid. Put on the back fence in the sun for a couple months. Wash off with hose while standing up wind. Drain water off. Cover with hydrogen peroxide that I get from wallmart for 24 hours. Done. No stink and they are white.

white bone creations on youtube is who i watched to learn what to do and they turn out amazing just like his if you do what he does. i could explain it but his channel is worth the watch he does every kind of animal.

Crock pot also works good for smaller skulls for degreasing I use dawn dish soap after hosing them down and cook again in the crock pot then a soak in hydrogen peroxide. I also wrap them in netting to make sure I don't loose teeth or small bones. After its all done I glue in the teeth with Elmers glue drys clear and holds well.

Taxidermy.net - Skulls and Skeletons is a great source of knowledge of skull cleaning. Pay attention to Sea Wolf. IMO, Maceration, degreasing and whitening with peroxide will produce the best quality and most consistent results. But there is no cookie cutter recipe that works for everything. A lot of factors affect how long it takes, especially for degreasing and that is the key to a quality product over time.

Jurassic Park does nice work

I use the cooking method, then make a slurry out of 40% salon grade hydrogen peroxide mixed with basic white powder and paint it on the skull with a small brush. . I have great results.
The most important thing I have found, is to cape your skull and cook it ASAP. If you let the skull lay around for a week or more, it’s tougher to clean and get it white.
Oh yeah, and don’t over cook it.

What's your method for degreasing?

The best degreaser I have found is white gas or Coleman fuel.

I've cooked a lot of them but maceration is by far the easiest and does little to no damage to the fine bones in the nose...........but stinkiest also.

Don't try to cook them in white gas

I change the cooking water at least 3 times and use dawn dish soap from the start. Never had any problem with skulls discoloring because of grease in the bone. I had a professional who had dermestid beetles do my Maine moose skull, he used acetone for degreaser , and my moose skull has yellowed.

I’ve done several. I do mine the same way white bone creations does. But. I never boil anything. 198 is as high as my mix ever gets. Also always remove brains before they go in the mix. Less grease that way and very easy to do. Done many species all turned out great.

This is a long post, but I saw no way to give my info in a short message.

I had a skull cleaning business for many years. I, of course used Dermestid Beetles. I had 5 colonies that could each clean a black bear/deer sized skull in 24 hours. I could put 3 coyotes, or 6 or 7 beaver sized skulls in a colony and they would be cleaned in 24 hours. I would only remove the tongue, brain, and large pieces of flesh.

At my peak I was doing over 350 black bear skulls and 8 or so times that many of deer. per year along with virtually every other North American animal. I also did every African game animal including elephant. There was no flesh removal on them as it must be removed before import into the US. However I did have to de-grease and whiten them. I had 7, 22 cubic foot freezers for storage of skulls.

Raising Dermestids is not simple and that isn't what you had asked.

The tanks I raised my Dermestids in were not large enough to handle large racked skulls like moose, caribou, etc. So for those skulls I did cold water maceration.

However, cold water maceration will not work well unless it is done when it's hot out or in a heated building. The warmer the better. Even in winter it didn't work well even heated. The buffalo I did by maceration would be clean in 5-7 days. I used open containers and yes it did stink. However, if the water wasn't disturbed the smell was less. Once pulled out look out!! Truthfuly it never really bothered me. If doing smaller skulls a 5 gallon sealed with a lid will work. Use rainwater, or creek water. I no longer have the business and I do all my bear, deer, etc., by cold water maceration now. I removed only the tongue and large pieces of flesh. For maceration I didn't remove the brain. If doing multiple batches re-use the water as it's full of bacteria and the process gets faster.

After removal to kills the smell wask the skulls in dishwasing liquid then rinse and dry before de-greasing. The smell never bothered me, so I rarely washed them.

Next step for de-greasing hands down Acetone is the best. I had a huge tank with a sealable lid made. I bought acetone in 55 gal. drums and that tank held more than 2 drums. You have to use a sealed container or it will evaporate.

For smaller non-racked skulls a 5 gal. bucket with sealed lid will work.

However to de-grease well it must be warm. Very warm. The warmer the better. I had my tank in a small building I kept at 80+ degrees. It just won't work if it's cold. Black bear which are greasy took about 7-10 days.

The acetone would at some point become so full of oils it had to be replaced, but even a couple gallons in a 5 gal. bucket would do maybe 10 bear.

ACETONE IS A SEVERE FIRE HAZARD SO BE CAREFUL!!

Whitening must be done with Hydogen Peroxide. NEVER, NEVER, USE BLEACH!!!!

i USED 36% HYDROGEN PEROXIDE. Yes I said 36%, that is not a typo!! I bought it in 55 gal. drums as well. That stuff was so potent that a drop on your skin would turn it white in seconds, which lasted for a few hours. Goggles were a must. It also destroyed wood if it got on it. At first I was fearful it would dmage skulls at that strength but it never did.

That strength of Hydrogen Peroxide only comes in 55 gal. drums which makes it unfeasible. However, you can easily get 27%. Yes 27%. It is sold as shock and oxidizer at pool supply stores by the gallon. Just be sure it's not bleach!!

Soft Swim, and Baquacil are 2 brands.

Wear rubber gloves and goggles!!!!!!

Be careful if whitening inside as in a sealed building there gets to be lots of fumes at times.

Next step whiten skulls in an open container. Do not fill the container too full or the foaming at times may overflow your container (Washing in dishwashing liquid before whitening reduces foaming some) .

Turn skulls upside down so they don't float. Even them some will flip and float. I used chunks of solid nylon to hold those down.

Do not use anything metal in this strength peroxide.

Heavily boned skulls like Black bear would whiten in 36 hours or so. Smaller skulls were much less. Some in 4 hours or so. Very delicate skulls like weasel or young animals will be damaged if left in too long.

Some Teeth almost always fall out. You will learn to figure out how they go back in. Use superglue to keep them in.

When they look white remove and place in the sun or a bright light shining on them. Do not rinse off the peroxide. Be sure to not let it get on wood as it will destroy wood in a short time.

Like the acetone for de-greasing the peroxide worked better in a warm area altough it does word ok in cold. I did mine in the heated building I also de-greased in.

Any odor on skulls is eliminated in the peroxide.

Whitening deer skulls without getting on the rack is another story.

Hope this helps

Thanks.

Sshaffer -

I've done tens of thousands of skulls and skeletons over the past 50 years by just about every method conceivable. Your tutorial above is excellent. Spot on. Thanks for taking the time to write it up for Tman.

Jack

Cleaning one now

1) Skin out, remove eye balls, brain, and large pieces of flesh
2) Simmer -- DO NOT BOIL, pull out skull and remove what tissue you can ever so often for a few hours.
3) Dump water and start over but add Dawn Ultra and simmer some more
4) Repeat step 3 until clean and grease free

I have no desire to deal with a stinking mess of rotten flesh but to each their own

Wow, thank you so much for all of that information!

Wish I had read that before I placed an order this evening for some of the gel-type peroxide 40 Vol. I did get the BW2 powder to mix in with it to make a paste to brush onto the few skulls I'll do. When that runs out, maybe I'll switch to liquid peroxide like you used. Have a pretty heavy-duty bucket heater coming in the mail soon too. Reading the reviews, I should be able to get the water warm enough to degrease with it too.

I've already removed the skin, lower jaw, and eyes. The skulls I have to do are currently in a chest freezer in my garage. Some of the coyote skulls have been in the freezer for a couple of years - is there any reason to believe that they wouldn't macerate well?

Sshaffer, how do did you deal with what I've heard referred to as "corpse wax" toward the end of the degreasing stage?

Yes, awesome post Sshaffer!

Now I'm curious... could you just put a skull in a pond and let the bluegill clean it?

I do a bunch every year takes about a hour each and here is my method. I fill my pot with water then add soda ash to raise the PH Of the water to 11-12 then add washing soda this cuts the grease and bring the water to a low boil. Put the skull in for about 30 min take out and pressure wash most of the meat off sometimes back in the water if not cooked enough but do not over boil it the high PH breaks down the meat and bone faster than what most realize.
Then into hydrogen peroxide 34 percent o diluted down with water to about 15 percent for a couple hours. They turn out great.
Did this one a couple days ago