Help with Skull Whitening

[jbmoz]

Hi Guys,

I'm in the process of trying to get my buff head mounted. It's been thoroughly cleaned (thanks Chicken Hunter) and I took a drill buffer to get all the last little bits off of it. I've soaked the skull twice for 48hours in water with about a 1/2 liter of bleach. This did not get the skull white. I since found some info on the web where you can cover it with 12% hydrogen peroxide solution, wrap it in cling wrap and then put it under a heat lamp for 4 hours.

I did this today with little success. Some bits came up white but there is still some staining and the majority of the skull is still that vanilla colour.

Any tips on how to get it looking bone white?



The horns came up good at least with some boot dressing. (Say hello to Boris the Boar)



Also, anyone got a good system for mounting it?

Some help would be great as I really want to get this bad boy on the wall.

[Ryan]

You need to degrease it before whitening. Soaking it in acetone will work. If you boiled the skull, that may be difficult as apparently boiling sets the natural body oils into the bone. Not 100% sure as I have never actually tried to get them gleaming white myself.

Once degreased, use the hydrogen peroxide method the whiten it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Ryan

[Beetleman]

How did your buff skull turn out. Did you ever get it as white as you wanted. Was curious as mentioned by Ryan degreasing is the key. This takes time but very easy to do. How greasy are the buff skulls.

[Buranurra]

I wonder how this would go?

Take the skull to one of those diy car washes, hit the skull with engine/tyre cleaner and then with the soapy jet spray. Prolly have to do it at night though :D Then do the peroxide wrap.

Dunno, just a thought on a slow day:)

[jbmoz]

How did your buff skull turn out. Did you ever get it as white as you wanted. Was curious as mentioned by Ryan degreasing is the key. This takes time but very easy to do. How greasy are the buff skulls.

I've had the project on the backburner for a while now as I have been a bit time poor.

The skull has already come to me boiled so I did not have the option of using the acetone.

I tried soaking it for a couple of days in a bleach solution. Then let it dry out for a few weeks (this is key).

Afterwards, I hit it with peroxide. wrapped it in cling wrap and put it under a hot lamp for about 4 hours. This made a big difference but still had yellow patches on the skull.

I read that you can also get good results by doing the peroxide again, putting it in a bin bag and then let it sit for a few days.

Currently I have it sitting out in the sun behind the shed - this has really whitened up a bit as well.

here is a photo after the initial peroxide treatment, it's since gotten a bit whiter.



I'm going to get some help from a taxidermist in doing the mount up. I've tried a couple of different hacksaws which have pretty much proven useless in getting through the bone (there is a lot of it). When I do I will ask him the best way of doing in the future. One taxidermist did tell me that they throw it in bleach for a week.

One of the tips I did pick up from some other sites is to make sure you get it thoroughly dry between cleanings and leave it in the sun whenever you can.

[Beetleman]

What power of peroxide did you use. When you wrapped it in cling wrap and put your lamp on it how did it react. There's several ways to do peroxide treatment. You have done several things to the skull so picking the right way will be beneficial to the mount. I will pm you if you want a couple ways I have used. Cheers man!

[jbmoz]

What power of peroxide did you use. When you wrapped it in cling wrap and put your lamp on it how did it react. There's several ways to do peroxide treatment. You have done several things to the skull so picking the right way will be beneficial to the mount. I will pm you if you want a couple ways I have used. Cheers man!

That would be great if you could pm me a couple of ideas.

The reaction was ok. It definitely whitened up a fair bit. It's almost perfect white now. I might give it one more go and then have it mounted.

[fulltusk]

hey mate

this skull has been boiled and cleaned. then use 50% hydrogen peroxide (which you buy in 20 littres from a cleaning/paint shop). Mix about 20% peroxide and 80% water in a drum. when skull is in there it will fiz, when the fizing dies down (about 12 hrs or longer) take the skull out and hose off (really well) and let dry in the sun. if you leave it in there too long the skull will start to flake. then just coat the skull and horns with some linseed or olive oil.

hope this helps.
Attachment 8627Attachment 8628Attachment 8629

[jbmoz]

hey mate

this skull has been boiled and cleaned. then use 50% hydrogen peroxide (which you buy in 20 littres from a cleaning/paint shop). Mix about 20% peroxide and 80% water in a drum. when skull is in there it will fiz, when the fizing dies down (about 12 hrs or longer) take the skull out and hose off (really well) and let dry in the sun. if you leave it in there too long the skull will start to flake. then just coat the skull and horns with some linseed or olive oil.

hope this helps.
Attachment 8627Attachment 8628Attachment 8629

That looks great. I will give it a shot at the next attempt in the next couple of weeks.

Cheers

Brad

[Beetleman]

Very nice looking skull fulltusk. How long did you boil the skull for to degrease. Also what is the average length those buff horns reach?