few questions on deer heads

patsat

Ok lads I've a few questions that I hope ye can help me with.

Since last season I kept quiet a few heads in an old shed with the hope of them rotting away naturally... Unfortunately that didn't work out so great but I got their in the end!

My problem is now that once I finally got the heads cleaned (free from any skin,meat brain) I left them in a place where my dog could get at them. Being so busy in collage this year it was a few weeks until I could get back to them and the dog had them gone! :mad: Luckily he didn't damage any of them but left them scattered around a field and now they have all been stained green from the grass. Any idea of how to get this off??

Also for whitening the skulls will normal bleach do??

Some of the antlers are losing their brown colour, what shall I do here??

And lastly...I have 4 goats heads that didn't go to plan, rather than rotting they seemed to just dry up Its been over a year now. What should I do to clean these up now??

Sorry for the long winded post!

CJhaughey

I would leave them for the dog.
Start again and next time boil the skull until the meat falls off.
It helps to skin it first as it cooks off faster.
Once the meat is cooked it can be removed very easily.
Bleach will yellow the bone. Better result just boiling peeling and leaving in the sun to belach naturally.
Brown shoepolish works as a colourant for the antlers.

daithi55

use one head to practice with
you will need a big pot
place head in pot fill with water till the skull is just covered ya dont want to boil the antlers
boil the head for a while might clean the green from it
bring water to the boil with the head in it and boil for 20 mins
clean any scum from the top of the water that might form with a spoon after been boiled
then turn it down to a simmer and add peroxide let simmer for 30 minutes
i use hydrogen peroxide 6% can be bought in any chemist
the bottle i think is 250ml costs about 3 euro
add full contents to the boiled water
once finished with boiling and simmering remove and power hose the skull will also help remove any remaining green

heres a head i did during the year

lovely job there daithi

patsat

@ CJ

Can't really throw away the heads, one of the goats horns are 39.5 inches wide and two others are over 30 inches wide so there keepers! :cool:

In relation to leaving the skulls whiten naturally by the sun....Will this cause any damage to the antlers?

Is that brown shoe polish permanent or will it eventually wear off?

@ Daithi

Thats looks very good, how did you manage to whiten the skull to exactly under where the antlers start?

sikastag

A mild detergent can help 'cut' the lipids from the 'membraneous' skull.
Soak in a water/detergent mix for a few days and give it a blast of the powerhose.

As lads mentioned earlier, boiling is the job for meat removal and a good pliers! Anything that can be removed manually without damage before boiling is always a plus.

Do take caution with the antlers if using bleach/peroxide. Dont use it myself personally. Think it gives an artificial finish. Thats just me and I think a lot of people like the white finish. It does a fine job. Just not my cup of tea. I think the boiling-detergent method will give you a clean head with a natural finish.

Leaving in sun will bleach antlers so may be best to keep em covered/away from direct sunlight at least.

If you are thinking of giving a varnished finish to your skull...... wait.
After cleaning let it dry and wait for a few weeks if possible. Sometimes not all the lipids are removed (Bleaching) and skull can go off-white/yellow colour after cleaning. If this happens underneath a varnished finish then it may not be so good. generally though, if you are thorough with the cleaning process this should not happen.

Goodluck with it anyway.

daithi55

patsat wrote: »

@ CJ


@ Daithi

Thats looks very good, how did you manage to whiten the skull to exactly under where the antlers start?

cut the skin off completely and i used a stanley knife to get in under it and a big flat head screwdriver
i also filled the water mark up to the bottom of the antlers

muff munch

daithi55 wrote: »

use one head to practice with
you will need a big pot
place head in pot fill with water till the skull is just covered ya dont want to boil the antlers
boil the head for a while might clean the green from it
bring water to the boil with the head in it and boil for 20 mins
clean any scum from the top of the water that might form with a spoon after been boiled
then turn it down to a simmer and add peroxide let simmer for 30 minutes
i use hydrogen peroxide 6% can be bought in any chemist
the bottle i think is 250ml costs about 3 euro
add full contents to the boiled water
once finished with boiling and simmering remove and power hose the skull will also help remove any remaining green

heres a head i did during the year

nice job there daithi.ive 1 simular size to yours nearly done just to finish off the plaque for it now.do you find boling the skulls can weaken them a bit.

muff munch

as said earlier boiling will do a good job of it but i find can weaken the skull a small bit.any skulls i get i just through on top of the shed roof and leave em for a few months and let nature do its job and they seem to whitein nicely.then ill give em a good clean and as some 1 else said a bleaching.also for the antlers i find a bit of coloured danish oil does a nice job on them and a coat of laquer brings them up nicely.

daithi55

muff munch wrote: »

nice job there daithi.ive 1 simular size to yours nearly done just to finish off the plaque for it now.do you find boling the skulls can weaken them a bit.

the idea is to cool it rapidly with a power hose to harden it again as its soft after boiling at the end lie it flat and have someone hold it for ya

Grizzly 45

Since last season I kept quiet a few heads in an old shed with the hope of them rotting away naturally... Unfortunately that didn't work out so great but I got their in the end!

I bet you were pouplar around the neighbourhood with a bunch of rotting deer skulls in a shed!!! Yuck!:p

My problem is now that once I finally got the heads cleaned (free from any skin,meat brain) I left them in a place where my dog could get at them. Being so busy in collage this year it was a few weeks until I could get back to them and the dog had them gone! :mad: Luckily he didn't damage any of them but left them scattered around a field and now they have all been stained green from the grass. Any idea of how to get this off??

As suggested boil with washing[soda] crystals about two tablespoons or get a power washer or a combo of both.

Also for whitening the skulls will normal bleach do??

ABSOLUTELY NOT!! It will attack the bone and destroy it in short order.
Hydrogen peroxide or nothing.BTW you will need appx 5/6 of the small chemist bottles to do an average skull properly.I bought a 5litre jug of this from a chemical wholesaler for 10 STG and that will do about ten red deer skulls.

Some of the antlers are losing their brown colour, what shall I do here??

Personal choice...I leave well enough alone.Personally I think it looks horrible to see laqured and browned up antlers.A good clean with a scrubbing brush some soap and water and dried properly will bring up tthe natural colour,even if gets dusty.

And lastly...I have 4 goats heads that didn't go to plan, rather than rotting they seemed to just dry up Its been over a year now. What should I do to clean these up now??

Goats are problematic,as their horns are live.IOW there is a blood supply going into the horns unlike deer which are just masses of calcium.hence goats dont lose their horns, they just grow longer. So you do have to condend with getting all those veins,arteries etc out of there.No problem if you want a Viking drinking horn..;) [Just cut off,boil out all the gunky parts until clean and then lightly fill with pitch ,or a modern liquid sealent so it seeps into all the crevasses and pores and blocks them off.]But a right PITA to get sorted as a trophy.
Id suggest a good boil to get rid of the rotten dried meat..Another smelly job. Then pressure wash off as much as possible.Next if you want a full skull trophy,you have a nice job of picking out the brain via nose and spinal cord cavities,or just go for a nose cut trophy and powerwash off the remaining brain goop. let the trophy dry totally.Wrap it and all crevases and hollows with plenty of cotton wool.Pour on your hydrogen peroxide and make sure the entire skull ,from the horn bases to the nose tip is soaking wet in Hydrogen peroxide for 72 hours .
After 72 hours remove the cotton wool and you should have a snow white skull.Let it dry for 48 hours from the HP,and if you want mark date and where shot on the forehead.Gives people an idea as to where and when it was shot.BTW if nose bones have fallen off,some superglue works great for skull repairs.Happened to both mine this season,but they have stood up to the Irish winter no bother outside on the wall.

Sun bleaching will work fine if you were living in say.. Arizona!! You need intense heat and sunlight ,plus plenty of little critters like army ants,scorpions,and what not to munch off all the remaining meat.Dont think it would work too well over here.
Maybe it might work if you can get a large enough container thats sealable and get a few live maggotts or blue bottles into the container.The flies will lay the eggs and hatch out the maggotts,which will eat the flesh.But I hope you have a strong stomach for that.:eek:

Grizzly 45

Can I ask what you folks use for boiling the skulls in?I havent been able to find a decent sized pot here for red deer..A bucket just about does it.But isnt sufficent.Guess somthing wide and shallow rather than tall and deep would be better??
Also how long do you usually boil them here?

muff munch

i have an old cast iron skillet pot.as you said its wide and just deep enough to cover the skull.does the job

RICHIE.39

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Can I ask what you folks use for boiling the skulls in?I havent been able to find a decent sized pot here for red deer..A bucket just about does it.But isnt sufficent.Guess somthing wide and shallow rather than tall and deep would be better??
Also how long do you usually boil them here?

maybe an old bain marie tray? Might find one at a market or old kitchens in work!!

patsat

The shed is well away from any house thank god so no smells! Thanks for the advice lads Went and power washed the heads today and it made a massive difference! I've em left to dry for a while now whilst I source the peroxide!
As usual I never taut to take a pic before I started:rolleyes:



As for the goats I really am worried about ****ing them up! I don't mind what way the deer heads come out but the goats are pretty impressive so want them done right! I wonder how much a euro mount of the big one would cost to do professionally??

FISMA

patsat wrote: »

... didn't damage any of them but left them scattered around a field and now they have all been stained green from the grass. Any idea of how to get this off??

Also for whitening the skulls will normal bleach do??

...

Patsat,
Here's a theory - use something that is magenta - a purplish color, on the green area.

Green and magenta are complimentary colors, when combined they give you white.

Ever notice that many mouthwashes and toothpastes are blue? Also, toilet bowl cleaners are blue as well? That's because to get out yellow stains you use blue. Blue and yellow are complimentary colors that get your teeth and bowl looking white.

You might try using bleach and fabric softener. I bet bleaching the stain will leave a yellowish area. Next, treat with fabric softener, which is usually blue.

Bleach does not make your white shirts look whiter, blue fabric softener does.

Great theory, but I've never put it into practice.

How much do you like the head?

OnTheGame

Hello miss pharmacist, Can I have the bluest toothpaste you have please!

...Good to know haha!

Capt. Jas. Hook

muff munch wrote: »

as said earlier boiling will do a good job of it but i find can weaken the skull a small bit.any skulls i get i just through on top of the shed roof and leave em for a few months and let nature do its job and they seem to whitein nicely.then ill give em a good clean and as some 1 else said a bleaching.also for the antlers i find a bit of coloured danish oil does a nice job on them and a coat of laquer brings them up nicely.

I agree with this. Boiling isn't usually the best way of handling a skull. Of course many people do it and it's not a bad idea, but it's easy to over-boil them and in my opinion it's fairly easy to see the different in quality when comparing a boiled skull to one that hasn't been boiled.

You can remove the flesh off a skull by simply submerging it in water and covering it. Bacteria grows in the water and eats off/loosens the flesh. Watch out when you open the container however, as the smell can be pretty bad.

Insects are, of course, another great method.

Here is a link where a guy outlines several methods that are much better alternatives to boiling: http://www.hidetanning.net/SkullCleaning.html

Grizzly 45

http://mistralni.co.uk/catalogue/product/156/Hydrogen-Peroxide-Food-Grade-3pct

For anyone needing hydro peroxide This is the company I got mine from.:)

@ Capt Jas Hook. They are great methods if you dont live in a suburban neighbourhod and have plenty of sunlight!!Its a rather smelly busisness some of the methods suggested

But the one for doing sheep and goats horns is worth trying

daithi55

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

http://mistralni.co.uk/catalogue/product/156/Hydrogen-Peroxide-Food-Grade-3pct

For anyone needing hydro peroxide This is the company I got mine from.:)

@ Capt Jas Hook. They are great methods if you dont live in a suburban neighbourhod and have plenty of sunlight!!Its a rather smelly busisness some of the methods suggested

But the one for doing sheep and goats horns is worth trying

thats fair expensive mate any chemist has the stuff for half the price and no waiting on postage

Grizzly 45

If they have that quantity and strength,they can have my biz as well
!!:D
PM me an addy and phone nr??

mr.pricket

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Can I ask what you folks use for boiling the skulls in?I havent been able to find a decent sized pot here for red deer..A bucket just about does it.But isnt sufficent.Guess somthing wide and shallow rather than tall and deep would be better??
Also how long do you usually boil them here?

Cut a beer barrell in half its big enough for reds no bother

muff munch

heres a head i finally got round to finishing my self.i bleached the skull and just gave the antlers a rub of danish oil.