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Degreasing A Deer Skull

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TommyGun496:
What is the longest you have had to degrease a deer skull?  I am going on week 5 and it is still looking grimy.  Have done a dozen or so (deer & elk) over the years and never taken this long.  My degreasing process is soak in warm water (fish tank heater) with dawn dish soap.  I change the water 1-2 days depending on the clarity of the water.

mcallahan:
I’m no expert by any means, but when I do euro mounts after I boiled the skull and cleaned all the meat off I’ll clean the pot and put fresh water in with some OxiClean and reboil. Then I’ll bring the hydrogen peroxide to a slow boil put the skull in for 30-40min and it seems to get the rest of the oils out. If there’s still dark spots I’ll l use the salon care 40 volume cream and just brush it on the areas as needed.

buglebuster:
The problem is your water isn’t hot enough. To properly degrease you need to have that water at around 120 degrees. You’re process is right, your just not hot enough. It could take a few months at that temp. Even at higher temps I’ve had some take 8 weeks to fully degrease. Some are just bad! If you want the real degrease hack, get yourself a large airtight container that the skull will fit in, sitting in a bucket. An old chest freezer works great. Make sure the bucket is an HDPE bucket that won’t melt from chemicals, and fill her up with acetone. Submerge the skull up to the bases and forget about it for a month and it will be completely grease free. This is the ticket with really greasy skulls like bears and cougars.

TommyGun496:
Thanks for the reply’s.  This skull was nasty, sounds like I need hotter water!

buglebuster:
If you boiled it, you may never get it all out

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