Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa How Do I Clean a Skull?

My son just killed his first big game animal (a wild boar), and wants to keep the skull. Even though it was just a meat sized pig, since it was his first animal, I took it to the taxidermist to have the head mounted for him.
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<br>They gave us back the frozen skull, and I'd like to clean it so my son can keep it. The taxidermist told me they could send it out to have the flesh eaten by beetles, but that cost $100. Is there a way to do it at home? I saw on the internet that you can boil the skull, but it makes it shrink, and the teeth might fall out. Any suggestions? Thanks, Jeff

I cleaned lots of Polar bear skulls, and some were very big. First clean off as much as possible meat/skin/tongue.
<br>Stick a long thin knife into the occipital condyle (the hole in the back of the skull where the spine feeds in.)
<br>With the knife, mash up the brain into porridge.
<br>Then hook up to your tap a hose that fits into the back of the skull, turn on the water, and most of the brain will come out, alongside the hose and through the nasal turbinals. Watch out, this can get messy.
<br>Process mainly by boiling gently, and remove every hour or so boiled meat. When the teeth are getting loose, wrap the skull in cheese cloth and carefully collect all the teeth that are loose. Dry them for a day or so and dump them into vegetable oil for 2 days.
<br>After the skull is nice and clean, double check the nasal turbinals for tissue leftovers. Nasal Turbinals are the longitudinal, round shaped bones going deep inside the nose. I tend to remove them totally, others leave them. Clean out some of the nerve and bloodvessel remnants from the little holes and cavities with tweezers or a dental pick or whatever.
<br>After boiling, and cleaning, I like to soak the skull 2 hours in a hot soda solution for light bleaching, then rinse real well, and dry gently. Take the teeth out of the oil, dry them of well, and glue them back into the skull. You will find that each tooth fits perfectly in its original socket.
<br>If after drying you will still smell a bad odor, check those nasal turbines, because that is where it will come from, caused by meat remnants. I soak in hot soda to degrease and whiten the bone, others use borax or hydrogen peroxide which must be used in concentrated form, and is potentially rather dangerous to use, bleach is too hard on the bone. Soaking the teeth in veggie oil will prevent them from splitting and crumbling, which they will do for sure if you do not soak them in oil.
<br>Anyway, by and large, this is how I have done litterally hundreds of them. The domestid beetle way works great, but they do require that all the meat on the skull is thoroughly dried first. It also takes a month or more for them to clean the skull depending on the conditions in the beetle box such as humidity and temperature that needs to be well controlled in order to get some work out of the little buggers. It is not for amateurs. Sometimes you can get a deal from the Museums zoological department. They have always domestid beetle colonies, but not always something to feed them, in which case you may be able to get an arrangement for a free or cheap skull cleaning.
<br>Anyway, the skull can be cooked/cleaned in less then one day. It sounds tougher then it really is, and may be some other posters come up with something better yet.

One more comment, the shrinking of the skull is very small, and occurs naturally during the drying process, the boiling does not cause shrinking.

The best way to clean hog or cat skulls in my opinion is firstly remove visible flesh and tongue. Secondly, place the skull in a drum/bucket of water and leave it for a few days. You can replace the water every day or so. Then when the remaining flesh is soft use a knife to remove this, a stick or sharp object to clean the brains out and i agree put a hose in and flush out this part and the nasal cavities. I would not boil the skull as the teeth/tusks crack as well as loosen in the jaw. Boiling skulls often results in a fatty film remaining on the skull.

I have cleaned a few skulls in my life, probably in excess of 20,000 in the last 14 years, after all I own the business!
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<br>Boiling will shrink the skull regardless of what you have seen in the past. It will not always be a lot of shrinkage but for those concerned with record book entries it's significant. In this case with a non recorded wild hog it will not be.
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<br>The really big factor in your project is not shrinkage but dissassembly through boiling. You mentioned it was a small meat pig. Having raised a few pigs and having hunted them for many years I can tell you if it was under 150 pounds it was likely less then a year old. If this is the case the skull sections will not be bonded or will not have grown together strong enough to maintain one solid piece when boiled for a long time. Guys usually end up with a pile of bone sections when finshed scraping and boiling with all the teeth in the bottom of the pot.
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<br>To do a skull f this maturity and not use beetles is more complicated but can be done with a lot of time and "elbow grease". You must cut away all the meat posslible with a small knife. Spend at least an hour cutting away every chunk of meat possible. When you set it down and think to yourself it looks good, spend another 1/2 hour on it!
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<br>The hose Idea to flush out the brains is good for bears but on hogs the opening is to small. You will need some kind of nozzle to fit in the hole. But this will be easier done later anyhow.
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<br>Once the meat is completely boned off the skull and it's as clean as you can possibly make it with a knife. Find a 5 gallon pail and fill it with water. Submerge the skull in it and place the bucket in a sunny or warm location for about a month. At the end of the month the meat will wash off real easy and the teeth will fall out. collect all the teeth and but them in a jar with clean water. Then boil the skull for about 20 minutes to remove all the remaining slime, meat, and goo. You should be able to pour what ever remains of the brains out of the hole in the skull.
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<br>Once this is finished put the whole skull into another clean bucket and pour in 4 quarts of Hydrogen peroxide from a hair dresser supply store( usually called "20 part"). fill the remaining area with water until the skull is covered. Leave this for about a month because pigs are very greasy and will need the time for the peroxide to work. Read the serious cautions on the peroxide bottle and be warned it's a nasty substance!
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<br>After one month hook the skull out and rinse it off. Allow it to dry( not in the sun) and if it is white enough you can dump the bucket of peroxide. If it is not white enough put the skull back in. If your peroxide is beginning to smell you did not clean it well enough and you need to buy new peroxide.
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<br>Put the teeth in the jar with some of the peroxide to cover them, they should come out good this way. when dry glue them back in with white glue(elmers)
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<br>All this seems like a lot of work for a skull. It's why I raise Beetles to do everything but the peroxide for me! I also buy my 35% peroxide in 35 gallon drums and have a 1000 square foot shop to manage this. We process 100's of skulls a year.
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<br>Kinda like doing major work on the family car. Homeowners can manage it but it's really a lot easier in the shop.

Thanks guys for all the information. This is my first post here, and I never realized all the expertise that existed here. I appreciate your help. I'm gonna put the kid to work on the skull tonight. ~Jeff

On deer skulls I basically use a shortened version of JJ's.
<br>I boil the skull for between 20 and 50 minutes watching carefully for any signs it is coming apart. To the water I add washing soda to act as a degreaser. Note, do not do this in an alluminum pan as the soda will corrode it. I use a large stainless steel dogs bowl. After boiling the skull is basically scraped clean using elbow grease. To finish it of I cover it in white cotton wool soaked in concentrated hydrogen peroxide for around 12 to 24 hours. Whole process takes a day or so. I would not say it produces museum quality skulls, but they look pretty damn good...
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<br>Some guys I know are using pressure washers to blast the flesh off. I believe this does away with the need to boil in most instances. On deer skulls you have to be careful the pressure does not destroy the delicate nasel bones..

Ants??
<br>Texas Fire Ants?? (got plenty to sell ya..)

Interesting you should mention ants. I read a book about "Native American" ways to cure hides etc. Never tried it, but it suggested putting bones near an ant hill, in the sun, and checking periodically... It also described a method to clean hides by letting the ants eat off the unwanted tissue. Said they would eat the soft tissue first, cleaning the hide well. It made some cautions about carefully watching that they don't eat too much. Its been some years, I'll see if I can find the book.
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<br>I've actually found some pretty nice skulls in the woods. Shouldn't wonder that there would be a natural way....