Boiling a bear skull

[duckhunter1488]

Can anyone provide me with some tips/tricks with boiling and cleaning a skull. I sent the meat away to the butcher, the hide away to get tanned, and I would like to have a go at boiling and cleaning out the skull and bleaching it. I have read about 3-4 different methods of doing this and some say bleach, others say peroxide, others say baking soda and dish soap?
Just looking for people with experience in this and what methods or process works best!

[Drillbit]

Don't boil it, simmer it.

I've simmer them with dish soap to get the grease out, and then brushed peroxide on or soaked it in it.

They all turned out ok, but some are whiter than others.


To me the only thing you can do wrong is too much heat or cook for too long, but I'm not an expert.

I pressure wash them with hot water/steam before I boil them too.

[bighornbob]

Scrape off as much meat as you can.
Boil skull on low for about an hour. I leave the skull in the water as the water cools, or you may have some of the teeth crack.
Take the skull out and use a pressure washer to blow away and meat that's left. ( wear rain gear)
As bear skulls have a lot of grease in them, soak skull in a bucket of water with Dawn detergent for about a week. Its best to keep the water warm with an aquarium heater.
To whiten, go to a beauty supply shop and buy some hydrogen peroxide cream (40 Volume is about 18% peroxide. The stuff you buy in a drug store is only 3%) about $18 for a gallon. A gallon will last for a few skulls.
Mix the cream with baby powder until its thick almost like a tooth paste. The thick paste/cream can now be brushed on and because its a paste it stays in place. The baby powder also takes away a lot of the stench.
Wrap skull a few times with Syran wrap and place in the sun for a day or so.
Wash off cream and let skull dry.

Wear eye protection and rubber gloves as the peroxide will cause skin to go white almost instantly.

Never use bleach as in a few years the skull begins to deteriorate and will leave a chalky powder falling off.

BHB

[duckhunter1488]

Awesome! I dont have the option to pressure wash with hot water but I do have a pressure washer and can simmer it no problem on the old BBQ.

[ACE]

Remove the bottom jaw and put it in the pot with the teeth pointing down.
Skull in on top of it .... teeth pointing down. DO NOT BOIL .... slow cook instead. Cool slowly as bhBob says ....
I like to remove the nasal cartilage ..... use a small hammer handle for this ...
I do all this outside on an old Coleman stove ....
Have fun!

[cruiser]

Remove the bigger meat chunks, eyes, brain etc first. I boil with some baking soda and a few drops soap/degreaser. Only boil enough to cook the meat until it starts to shrink away from the bone. I don't have a pressure washer so I usually just use a butter knife to scape the meat off, needle nose pliers to pull bits away, and whatever else to get the bits off, careful not to break the finer bone in the nose. Do another round boiling with fresh water/soda/soap as needed for the meat to let go of bone. I don't simmer that long, if you overcook it bones seperate and teeth all fall out.
Then brush with the strongest peroxide you can find, keep redoing until white and no longer fizzes when you apply. Bone does whiten nicely, but slowly yellows a bit with time.

[bc_buckshot]

Where you located i could show you

[Rhyno]

I simmer it with borax and then pressure wash with rain gear on and my mouth closed! After it is clean I put it in a bag that just fits the skull and then add drug store peroxide until it's covered.....keep it there till its white.

[srupp]

Hmmm not a fan of boiling...dermestitid beetles and peroxide..
Srupp

[rides bike to work]

Add some potatoes and onions
Bear head soup is delicious degrees with dawn with a fresh batch if water

[Drillbit]

^Haha.

The first one I did was a wolf skull.

Skinned it out in the shop and threw it in a big hubcap full of water on the wood stove.

Me and the boys went out to celebrate......couple hours later when we got back home and went into the shop to check on it, it smelled sooooo good!! haha

[Wagonmaster]

I'm with srupp. Tried boiling a mule deer skull. Hell of a mess and I found it impossible to get all the organic material from all the nooks and crannies. Buried it in the yard up to the base of the antlers for a month or so. Wrapped the horns in tin foil to keep the critters from chewing on them. Came out completely free of bits of flesh etc. Proceed to bleaching as described. Beetles would probably be cleaner, but I didn't bother to find out where to get them.

[seizuresalad]

I bury my skulls with all the flesh and hide still on them, a foot or so deep in the garden. I just dig them up a few months later. They come out completely clean of tissue or hair. Then if you want a whitened skull, you can apply peroxide after, but I just wash them up in plain hot water and they look just fine; pre-aged-looking, like vintage clothes, or distressed furniture!

[StuBrown]

My friend puts all of his skulls in a garbage bag. Then he puts them in a bucket and then sets it up on his roof so he cannot smell it. He just leaves them for a couple weeks and the maggots eat EVERYTHING. His skulls always look amazing.

[Daybreak]

Some interesting solutions posted here. I have wondered how long it would take to clean a skull if you set it near a red ant hill and what sort of a job they would do. Problem would be ensuring it wasn't dragged off by scavengers I guess.

[Foxton Gundogs]

Throw it in a crab trap and let it soak for a week or so. Check it every couple of days or so, enjoy the crab. Skull will come out clean and white.

[tigrr]

I wonder if tossing it in a fresh water lake would get it cleaned off. Hmmm