Q about cleaning old racks

[countrystyle4life]

Hello! So I finally am allowed my man cave in the house and am moving all my stuff in.  I want to hang a bunch of old racks up but wife wants me to "clean them."  Most are just the horns on the skull plate.  So have the hide still on the forehead and from what she's telling (or at least understood what I heard lol) is she wants all the hair and hide removed and "sanitized."  So my question mainly is what would be the best way to remove what is basically now hair-on rawhide and two how would I sanitize them?

[GUscottie]

I've had an issue or two with this myself. Soaking or boiling the hair/skull patch may help. And then if you did something along the lines of "bleaching" the skull after removing the hair, you'd be good. There are some pretty reasonably priced "bleaching" kits to whiten up the skulls

[kentrek]

That dried up hide is pretty tough stuff, im sure boiling would loosen it up

As far as sanitizing them...febreze should work 

[countrystyle4life]

Ok might have to try boiling them. I like the idea of Fabreeze 

[Red leaf 67]

I would't worry too much about sanitizing, if you use very dilute bleach while soaking , do a thorough cleaning especially around antler bases you should be good. Most bleaching is done with strong peroxide, not the drug store variety. If you are concerned about bugs, a little 20 mule team borax at cleaning time is good. Dry in Sun. If the antler's themselves look a little dry, some linseed oil thinned with turpentine or mineral spirits will take care of that. The Fabreeze wouldn't hurt. How many sets of antlers are you talking about?? Put on a big pot of COFFEE, dried scalps are a drag, but will soften up.  P.s glad you can move your stuff in the house!!

[blindluck]

I'd soak the skull plates for a day then get a big pot of water to a rolling boil put them in there for 1/2 hour or so. once removed I bet the cheap 3% peroxide soak for a day or two would do it.

[cedarriver]

I'd soak the skull plates for a day then get a big pot of water to a rolling boil put them in there for 1/2 hour or so. once removed I bet the cheap 3% peroxide soak for a day or two would do it.

 
Nailed It!

[countrystyle4life]

Ok cool! thanks I'll have to give this a try this weekend. There are 6 that I need to do and ya I'm excited to get to have my own space finally!

[Ballance1]

Do this all the time. Fill a bucket with water, set the antlers in the bucket so just the skull plate is covered in water to the bottom of the burrs. Wait a couple days then use a scalpel or sharp knife and pliers and cut off. Comes off easy. Degrease and whiten like a euro or trim up, cover, and put on a plaque.