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Degreasing question

I had posted awhile back about blood stains near the antler bases, and am in the process of degreasing again. Search for "Euro Help Please!!!" to see original thread.

My question is - How long does it normally take to complete the degreasing? This is my second attempt, and it's been 6 months. This time around I have a heater keeping the water at 90 degrees, I didn't have the heater the first time.

I've read in the past to keep degreasing until the water doesn't turn cloudy anymore. Does it make sense to just keep going?

I think it might be helping the blood stains, but it's hard to tell just yet.

A few handfuls of Borax in there will help a bunch.

Degreasing wont do much for the blood stains as blood is not fatty. You should try your first round of bleach and peroxide paste. That should take care of it unless the skull feels slippery and greasy then do another round. Use clear ammonia and a lot of dish soap and let simmer for about an hour and a half.

I scrub blood stains off with mild soap and water.

To check on the progress of your degreasing,forget what the water looks like.Rinse the skull and let it dry for a couple days.Once you are sure it's dry,check for wet or waxy looking spots.If there are none,you are done degreasing.

A deer shouldn't take nearly that long.

Sorry,I went back and skimmed over your original thread.Elk do take longer.I was also thinking blood on the antler bases.Still,you want to look at the skull to check degreasing progress.

Never bleach till you are sure all the grease is gone,otherwise you are just wasting bleach and time.

If you are sure that it is grease free and bleach it but the "blood" is still a problem,I would go ahead and seal the skull.By far my favorite sealer is Future floor finish/water,50/50 mix.

After sealing you can paint over the blood stains.No white spray paint!I only use paint on rare occasions but it can blend perfectly if done right.I use a mixture of white and ivory,artist acrylic tube paints.Mix to match your finished skull color and pat it on with a small stencil brush-no brush strokes.This will help it blend with the texture of the surrounding bone.

Thanks for the suggestions, I am going to try Borax as the next step and if that doesn't work I'll paint it after I bleach.

I shot this thing back in 2013, it's time to get it out of the garage and on the wall!!

I usually use a friend that does beetles and the bleaching/sealing. However sending large racks and things is a pain.

My son killed his first Mule Deer last year and so I put it into a large pot with the blue Dawn dish detergent. I did this three boils, picking stuff off after each session and after pressure washing it lightly, I put it into a glass pan with some rags and regular hydrogen peroxide for a few days- it looks better than the professionally boiled Caribou I had done, and almost as good as my normal expensive beetle guy does them.

A big pot, coleman burner and Blue Dawn dishwashing soap- it's silly how well and cheap it was and that it turned out better than the skulls I paid a lot to have "professionally" finished.

Try Goo Gone. It claims to remove blood. I've not used it for that purpose but, might be worth a try.

You can get the blood stains out by degreasing. It just takes time. Bring the water temp up to about 115 degrees. The temp has to stay steady. Once the grease is gone then it's the same process to get the blood out but you don't have to change the water as much. Dawn soap and industrial strength ammonia will do the trick. Boiling isn't the best way to do a skull. If the heat is too high it will make the bone flakey or chalky. If you have to boil then just simmer it. Normal degreasing time for an elk is about a month, longer if blood stained and longer still the older the skull.

Butcherboy nailed it... I've heard of a product called "iron-out" being used for blood but have never used it. And definitely get your heat up... Your trying to liquefy fat so anything below body temperature is going to be SLOW... I shoot for 120 degrees and plan on 6 weeks for an elk to degrease...

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