Preserving skull trophies

[upup]

G'day,

One for the hunters. If you've got a stag skull once it's stripped and bleached and the rest is it done forever?

Any ongoing required to keep it looking good?

[cruze82]

yep that's right mate once its been bleached its good just need a feather duster every now and then

[tom604]

would that be the same for a goat ?? do the horns have to come off the skull to clean the inside??

[Jack V]

If you boil out the skull the horns come off the base's anyway . With goats even after you bleach it , it can still smell a bit . I dry mine right out and then lacquer the base and inside the horns with marine varnish . Seals it up . Wax up and polish the outside of the horns with boot polish of your colour choice . It's not good taxidermy but it's cheap and it works ok.

[tom604]

thats what i like to hear,,,cheap and it works

[AusC]

With goats even after you bleach it , it can still smell a bit .

Nothing a few days in the sun won't fix

[VICHunter]

They stay looking good.

Think of a sun bleached bone, you must have come across one at some point.

If not encrusted with crap the bone itself is a decent enough white.

[upup]

Thanks guys.

I'm down for the 'cheap and works' technique too, no worries

[Mich]

This is from the Alaska Fish and Game website.

Cleaning a skull is an easy process and can be no more unpleasant than pulling meat off a cooked soup bone. Here are a few suggestions of how to clean a skull for display or study.

The initial step in cleaning a skull is boiling. The hair and hide should be removed. They contain oils that permeate the bone when boiled and the result is a yellow, greasy skull.

If the skull cannot be cleaned soon after the animal's death, freeze it. Rotting skulls are no fun to clean and may cause a revolt in the household. If the skull is malodorous from decay, it will be repugnant during boiling. In this situation, boil it on a camp stove outside, or in the garage, in a castaway pot.

Immerse the skull in water and let simmer. A thawed wolf or bear skull requires 2.0 to 3.0 hours of simmering. Smaller skulls, such as marten, fox or lynx, take about 40 to 60 minutes. Skulls from old age animals often require longer. Frozen skulls will take about 15 to 30 minutes longer. The skull is ready to be cleaned when the muscle pulls off easily. Do not boil the skull too long as this can crack the teeth and soften the bone. It is best to remove the meat and brain tissue while they are still quite warm. Once cooled and dry, thorough removal of tissue is more difficult.

The muscle, if cooked sufficiently, comes off in hunks. Use a small knife (a scalpel works great if you have one to gently scrape away stubborn tissue, but take care not to cut or mar the bone. Nerve and connective tissue can be teased out of holes and crevices with a wire or large tweezers. The tough part is cleaning inside the cranium (brain case). This is done through the oval opening at the back of the skull, where the skull attaches to the spine. On a bear or wolf, a small spoon is handy for scooping out the brain. Running a stiff wire or small knife around inside the skull, between the brain tissue and bone, helps loosen it and sometimes it will come out in large pieces. With smaller skulls, a large tweezers for teasing out brain tissue works as well as anything. Repeated rinsing flushes out loose tissue.

There are scroll-like, delicate bones in the nasal cavities of mammals. If you want to keep them in the skull, work gently with them. Flushing water through the brain cavity and nasal cavity will work out some of the residual tissue in these bones.

After the skull is as clean as you can get it, soak it in an enzyme-bleach powder (such as Biz) using about ¾ cup to a gallon of water. Don't use liquid bleach, it is harsher to the bone and does not have the enzyme action that is needed to break down residual tissue. Leave big skulls (bear, wolf, caribou, bison) in this solution for 3 days. Smaller skulls may require less than 1 ½ days. The skull has soaked long enough when the remaining tissue can be easily removed.

A small, stiff-bristled brush, a small knife (scalpel) and tweezers are adequate tools for doing the final clean up. Rinse the skull well after you have removed the last, stubborn tissues.

Teeth will invariably loosen during boiling and cleaning. Hang on to them and glue them back in place with white glue once the skull is clean and dry. The skull should be completely dry if it is to be stored in a box or plastic bag.

In the Alaskan interior the dry climate makes it trickier to preserve a cleaned skull. The teeth in particular become very brittle and cracked. Boiling and soaking should be done at absolute minimum times to reduce excessive cracking of bone in dry climates. Once the skull is clean and dry it can be sealed with varathane to help retard cracking but it may turn yellow from the spray. Spray (or paint) the skull with 2 light coats and 1 final, thick coat of varathane. Painting the teeth and skull with diluted, white glue before applying varathane helps too. If teeth start to crack, try filling the cracks with super glue to reduce further fracturing.

[Jack V]

Varathane is a Polyurethane lacquer . That would work also to seal it up but Marine grade lacquers last a lot longer and resist sunlight .

[BBJ]

Bit of white-out, brighten it right up

[upup]

Thanks Mich and Jack.

Thanks for nothing BBJ

[BBJ]

Any time buddy, I do what I can