Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Skull maceration

Not boiling, you only use about 1/4-1/2 cup of water.

I’d always done them by simmering them for a couple hours but tried Maceration for the first time this year after reading this thread. Way easier and very happy with the results.

Thanks, I'll get scrubbing the next warmish day we have.

I got an axis back from a guy that I assume boils skulls. I’ve had it about a month now, and although it was white when I got it back, now it’s turned yellow. Is this just needing to be degreased, or could it be something else?

With that description, sounds like a grease issue. Try Dawn water with a tank heater. May take a bit to get it pulled out of the bones.

That’s what I was thinking as well. Already ordered 2 100W tank heaters. I’ve got another head I just brought back from TX I’m going to do as well.

How long ya let em soak in dawn for to degrease Kurt?

Clean everything you can get off with a knife. Put them on a ant den in the summer.

It varies. Elk have been 2-4 days and come out great. Deer have been longer with more water changes. So far the cat is at 10 days and keep getting cloudy dawn water so keeping it in there. If you pull one out, let it dry completely, coat it with peroxide and then grease reappears no big deal, back in warm dawn water some more. Its a very low risk process. The degreasing process is odor free so sitting in a heated or insulated garage works great.

I tested the lower jaw on the cat and had a couple spots I felt like needed more degreasing. The teeth are just sitting in sockets totally loose. Requires care not to loose them during water flushes and rinses. Be glad when it is done completely.

I have a whitetail head in the freezer and will be trying this soon.

I’m curious, has anyone tried this on previously boiled skulls? I have several hanging in the building that doesn’t look the best, never we’re degreased. Thinking I might soak them in dawn for a few weeks and see what happens as well.

I cleaned an old elk head that may have been boiled, we didn't know the history. It was very yellow and had dried meat in the nostrils. After macerating for 2 weeks, I hit with a garden hose and hot water. Lot of filmy stuff came off the bone. Degreased in dawn a few days. Let it dry well and painted on the peroxide. It took about 3 treatments but came about 90% of normal white. Had a couple of spots I just couldn't get to turn white on it. Looked and smelled way better though.

Its always low risk due to the low temps. I'd give it a run in the degreaser for sure. If water gets cloudy just rinse and repeat.

I got a couple bear skulls we’ve had in the freezer for like 5 years I need to do. Do you put them in an onion sack or something? I don’t want to loose any teeth but don’t really want to muck around in the goop either.

Others can chime in any time, but my experience with the bear skull I did was all the teeth want to come out. Really nasty. I lost the small ones and it was my bear so no big concern. Working on my son's lion skull right now and all teeth are loose and come out easily when pulled or the rotten water is poured out. So I took a window screen from Home Depot, blue gloves and poured the bucket out on the screen. Then forced the rotten sludge through the screen until I found every tiny tooth. Not fun, but there are worse things. So here is how the lower jaw sits right now. Rest of skull still degreasing. I am deciding if lower jaw is done or not.
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So long story short. If you are doing predators, be prepared to sludge dive and degrease a long time.

Oh and due to teeth coming out, I'd only do one bear skull per 5 gallon home depot bucket. Don't want teeth mixed up.

Kurt, I might try the acetone degrease on this stupid, greasy fuucking bear...😂😂

Be curious to see how it goes. I may try it on this cat if I don't think the Dawn is up to the task. Just need to practice a little patience on the degreasing. Elk, deer and antelope are pretty easy compared to cats and bears it seems.

I did the same with the window screen.

My bear skull turned the acetone brown... Not sure thats good.

Normal, don't worry about it.

I suspect that your acetone is saturated (or nearly saturated) with fat and is not degreasing now (or at least not very well) Get some fresh acetone is all you need to do.

To get around the problem of acetone becoming saturated with fat, museums and universities have automatic degreasers that spray acetone on the bones in a closed system, and then collect the used (greasy) acetone, then distill it. It is then sprayed again over the bones being degreased. These machines work amazingly well, but they are expensive because they have to be designed to safely contain boiling acetone and have a LOT of failsafe mechanisms to cope with the huge fire hazard! :-)

John

I've got to try Acetone it sounds like. Interesting about museums using it, never knew that.

I've got a few skulls that are cleaned and ready for degreasing. I've grown very weary of the dawn method, patience is not my virtue and neither is a half ass job, hence the conflict. Think I will give acetone a try.

As a side note, my deer skulls soak for months in dawn to get them museum quality. There was one that took eight months, and that was with heated water. The references I see to a few days to a few weeks have me perplexed. Here is a quote from a taxidermist that was posted in taxidermy.net forum, so I'm not the lone ranger.



Here's a link with good info.

Degreasing skulls with acetone

The majority of the fresh deer and elk skulls I have done, do quite nicely with relatively short dawn soaks. For the nastier skulls, seems like quite a few options. I don't feel like messing with ammonia. But acetone in a sealed container may be perfect for predators and what I am looking for. Going to grab some later today hopefully. Thanks for that link CT.

Side note, after 4th water change in 10 days, the cat water is looking very clear today. May make a run with peroxide at it soon.