How to do a European Mount. . . Maceration.

[steen]

I personally like the teeth to stay dark. I purposely leave them as dark as i can, removing most and the ones I can't get out i stain to match. Just personal preference after having done many pure white. Did you degrease the skull and teeth or just clean and whiten?

We like the teeth dark also.  Just hard to do with this process.

[Crunchy]

How long before the major part of the stench goes away?  I got a skull brewing now.  My neighbors haven't said anything yet but the smell aint good.  its been about 6 days so far.  Seems like it is just getting bad now.

[PolarBear]

Not until you are done with the maceration process and start the degreasing.  You need that stinking, rotting meat to feed the bacteria.

[Hunter Dug]

It shouldn't take any longer than a week to finish the maceration process.  If it takes longer than that your temp in not consistant or you didn't do a good job cleaning all the excess meat off...

[LDennis24]

I'm waiting for a Spanish Coriente cow skull as soon as the guy has it butchered and was wondering what you guys could tell me about getting the horn caps off and how to clean them and keep them from cracking and flaking. I want to keep that polished look on them. Anyone ever do cow skulls? Thanks in advance!

[PolarBear]

I've done a half dozen longhorn skulls and a dozen bison.  Carefully remove the caps and set them aside before macerating the skull.  I mixup a little mild bleach solution to soak the inside of the horns to kill the stank.  Make sure you get them scrubbed out or you will regret it!  If you like the polished look just sand the heck out of them until you get the old, dead layers off, polish with 0000 steel wool then shoot with a clear coat.  I usually shoot a matte or semi-gloss finish so they don't wind up looking too fake.  The last longhorn that I did, I had to sand over 1/2" of dead, ugly horn off of the tips to get them to a nice, shiny point.  I also hit the bases on my bench belt sander to even them out and get a nice consistent edge.   

[Skyvalhunter]

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