Degreasing a skull.

[Drewboy22]

How do you keep the horns from the sunlight? No way i can keep that funk inside out of sunlight. I hate having to stain the horns. But i am done with boiling. Too much time and mess.

The skull I am getting ready to do does not have horns (its a small fox head).

[Shake N' Bake]

Following.

[Bill]

Please keep comments like that in your threads.
Painted skulls are uglier than home made soap.

Have a great Monday afternoon.

[Texastaxi]

lol

I'm in for the how to. I do have some questions about maceration though. Some people through it in a bucket of water. So do you put a lid on the bucket or leave it open? How often do you drain and refresh the water? I have heard that "Rid-X" helps the process, is that true?

Thanks

I put mine in a big covered water tote.
I put more water than I need to account for some of the evaporation.
I don't add rid-x. I don't change the water.

How do you keep the horns from the sunlight? No way i can keep that funk inside out of sunlight. I hate having to stain the horns. But i am done with boiling. Too much time and mess.

What kind of skull are you doing?
You can put a deer in a 5 gallon bucket and cover that with a 55 gallon drum or big trash can, unless it's a huge deer.

If you cover it like that it actually works better because it gets hot under there, you don't loose as much water to evaporation and the darkness keeps any algae growth to a minimum.

Just hold your nose when you take the trash can off!

[Jtrisler]

I have an old chest freezer that I use. I put skulls in Tupperware containers from Walmart and cover up to the burr of the antler with water. I run aquarium heaters in the water and shut the lid. The insulation from the freezer keeps the heat in and in about 10 days or so I can clean the skull.

After that my degreasing is just like Texastaxi. Dawn and ammonia mixed with water and held at 110-115 degrees. No particular time frame after that since all skulls are different. Usually 3-4 weeks on a whitetail.

[Shake N' Bake]

The fish tank heaters I have used don't seem to keep the water not enough.

Ive bought the stuff to make a decreasing tank like the one at the bottom of this link

http://skulling.yolasite.com/degreasing.php

Using a heating element and thermostat for a hot water heater.

Anybody have an experience with one of these.

[gingib]

what can you do to re stain antlers once they turn white from the sunlight?

[Texastaxi]

what can you do to re stain antlers once they turn white from the sunlight?

Common wood stain will do the job; you'll just need to try different colors to get it back to the original shade and be careful to not get any on the skull.

[Jtrisler]

The fish tank heaters I have used don't seem to keep the water not enough.

Ive bought the stuff to make a decreasing tank like the one at the bottom of this link

http://skulling.yolasite.com/degreasing.php

Using a heating element and thermostat for a hot water heater.

Anybody have an experience with one of these.

I only use the aquarium heaters for maceration.

For degreasing I use an Allied bucket heater on a timer to keep the temp where I want it. It takes some playing with the timer but once you get it set its good to go.

[Ed Oswald]

Stain

Common wood stain will do the job; you'll just need to try different colors to get it back to the original shade and be careful to not get any on the skull.

I use Min wax Golden Oak, it does a good job.

[Texastaxi]

Day 4. You can see that the fat and grease is releasing and floating on the surface.


I'll skim this off and change the water adding more Dawn.

[jefandaward]

very nice, following

[Etxbuckman]

Where can you get these water heaters and temperature controllers? A pet store?

[bowhuntertex]

Your giving away my secrets Kevin.

[Texastaxi]

Day 9. More fat and grease on the surface and the water is still very dirty.



There is one full aoudad skull, that partial aoudad skull (that started this thread), a lion and a lioness skull in here.