boiling skull
Whitetail Deer
I know there are plenty of videos online to figure out how to boil a skull , just wondered if anyone had any do's or dont's they would like to share before I do it. Thanks folks.
Don’t Do it with your wife home If you do it on the stove
Soak for a week or so with a cup or 2 of arm and hammer.. let all tissue thoroughly rehydrate. This will cut down your time a lot.. then bring to just under a boil... At this temp an hour is usual plenty.. get yourself a 2000 psi pressure washer, nothing fancy... You'll spray the tissue right off. Get in every orifice until clean... Then whiten.... Easy peazy.
It's a pain sometimes but I like to change the water 2 or three times and get the grease OUT of the pot/pan. I like to change after the initial phase of removing big chunks of eye tissue, upper palate, and chunks where mandible connects. Hopefully, you already have the lower jaw removed or that will slow you down.
Wrap the bases with 2 inch strips of aluminum foil and press into place going just under antler rosette. And then electricians tape to hold the foil in place and run that up far enough to keep grease water off the antler. It also preserves the shredded bark in the antler bases if you're into preserving it like I am.
A slow boil to keep teeth, and nose pieces from being obliterated and detaching. I go maybe 4 hours and then like to finish at the car wash with the hot, soapy pressure hose. I stick the nozzle right into the brain cavity and then blast it:) The trick is to boil enough to get the tissue removed but not boiled so hard that bone fissures become loose. Upon drying and whitening with peroxide paste, everything will tighten up nicely.
My disappointment with beetles is Ammonia smell from the beetles processing tissue, loose bone fissures and teeth from them absolutely eating everything, and finally the loss of the shredded base bark as they eat that too.
^ just under a boil is right. If you get it to hot the bones can start falling apart.. Good Luck!
I think some of you guys over think this. My daughter killed a deer this year at about 9:00 AM a couple hours from home. I had the deer quartered and euro done before bed. Just put it in a big pot with some dawn soap at a low boil/simmer. After a couple hours start cutting/scaping of large chucks a meat and scramble the brain with a stiff wire. Do this a couple of times. Once you have most of the crap off go to the car wash and power wash it. Wear old clothes and rubber boots because you probably be wearing some of it. I then cover it is 40% hydrogen peroxide gel from the hair supply store. I just put it in a plastic bag pour the stuff on a paper towel and making sure to cover all bone. Will stick the "wet paper towels in the eye sockets. After a couple hours will wash off and let dry. Should be able to do start to finish in several hours maybe spending an hour of total time actually messing with it.
If I am feeling lazy I take to my taxidermist and let him do. Both ways work well.
One on left or in her right hand
Never boiled skulls ,This is how I do it get yourself some Soda Ash, commonly called Sal Soda, is used to dissolve meat, fat and grease skulls and antler plates. Simply add Soda Ash to water and immerse the skull or antler plate, i have a slow cooker set at 80 Celsius
Clean enough to impress the border agent :) Even more importantly bonus points from my wife for not leaving in the garage till it stinks
Clean enough to impress the border agent :) Even more importantly bonus points from my wife for not leaving in the garage till it stinks
So easy you can do it in the field before coming home. Soap in, simmer till cleanable with a knife for last few bits, car wash, and then peroxide paste.
Do the brains dissolve when boiling? I have never boiled. Always used beetles.
I use a turkey fryer, outside, just like APauls. I usually try to get as much meat and tissue off with a knife as I can before boiling.
The peroxide paste is new one on me. I'll have to try that the next time. Is that what gives the real white-ish coloration? Mine turn out more grayish, kinda like the color of an old shed antler.
Matt
x2 on using the turkey fryer. Just check it every once in a while to make sure the flame hasnt gone out. I also add oxyclean to the water. I have found that the sooner you clean it after its dead the easier it is. It always takes me longer to clean deadheads than animals that I've killed.
This is what I use to whiten. It is like $5 bucks for 32 oz. You can do several heads with it.
My setup will be a turkey fryer,,,, outside,,, so that will not be an issue with the lady ... I will try to post pics and maybe a good story to go with it upon completion. Thanks again for the responses.
Turkey fryer outside as well. I boil it in dish soap water while I dink around in the garage. After awhile I blast it with a power washer. Usually do that step a couple times. Never had any trouble with the skull or teeth coming off. I usually boil and power wash within a day or two of shooting.
If you are going to do it in the house start when wife is home. That way the smell is gradual and she won't notice it as much. If she comes home in the middle it will be over whelming. Or get done before she comes she will smell it but nothing she can do about it then. The smell is not near as painful as listening to the wife bitch about it IMO.
Or tell her you are making Barbacoa.
I never had much success with a power washer.. I flush it with my hose, but only at house pressure. I also take a piece of stout wire and run it up into the skull and try to remove as much brain matter as I can before starting to boil.. I also boil mine at a slow boil, not just simmer.... I agree with changing water, or sometimes it will boil over and I just refill what came out. Also, I remove eyes, bottom jaw, tongue, and whatever meat I can cut off before starting to boil, saves time and it's that much less time I have to keep it boiling. Trial and error was how I learned, my first ones didn't always turn out great, but now, almost as good as sending and paying someone to do it..
When you pressure wash, wear full rubber rain gear and boots. Goggles don't hurt either.
LKH, at car wash, seriously
Shouldn't need to use any kind of a power washer. Iv'e done thousands of Euros and a garden hose has enough pressure to clean it out if it was properly simmered.
i can do one start to finish in less than 30 min.
Start the pot of water with a splash of Zep degreaser on the burner.
i skin it. cut the back of the skull and lower jaw off with sawzall
i pressure wash it with a turbo tip - and it cleans alot of the raw meat and flesh off. takes 3 min
Drop it in the pot of boiling water for 15 min - take out and pressure was all the junk off. make sure to get into the holes on the upper jaw and the little holes on the eye socket.
brush on Volume 40 peroxide and wrap in shrink wrap for 2 days.
done... i've literally done over 400 like this.
Zep degreaser...I'll have to try that, I've always used dish soap
Don't do it on the stove in the house. After the wife came home 3 days later, still smelled bad. I ended up blaming the dog.
My wife has a better nose than our dog. She'd smell it if it were a month later. Then I'd be in the doghouse and the smelly dog would be in the kitchen. Not kidding either. Anything that resembles non-Kosher anything doesn't make it past the garage door, say nothing of in the kitchen. And she's not even Jewish. A deer head in the kitchen..... Sideache LOL..you guys have got it made if that is allowed!!!
Trapper your problem is you are asking for permission.
