|
Post by cmustard on Sept 18, 2011 18:16:15 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by mark572 on Sept 18, 2011 18:20:33 GMT -5
Nice job on them! do you leave the honey comb in the noses?
|
|
|
Post by cdr on Sept 18, 2011 18:29:55 GMT -5
nice...
|
|
|
Post by cmustard on Sept 18, 2011 18:30:43 GMT -5
Yes, the nasals are normally all intact unless someone sends me one that they had left out where critters could do damage. I like to get the heads (furbearers) frozen and the large skulls the same if possible. I have 14 Donkey heads I am working on right now, as well as some longhorn cows and 6 horses. Can't wait until season starts so I can get the furbearers. I ran out of heads in July and want badly to get back to them.
|
|
|
Post by mark572 on Sept 18, 2011 19:30:36 GMT -5
Nice i may look you up if i ever shoot another buck and a moose i have everthing else from here done up!
|
|
|
Post by cmustard on Sept 18, 2011 19:51:52 GMT -5
Mark572; Never done a moose but shouldn't be much harder than other large animals. I have done Zebra, Cape Buffalo, Bison, as well as a few other exotics. The hardest to get to the "perfect white" are the boars. Greasy boogers. Takes a long time. One fellow from South Carolina sent me a hog head that weighed over 55lbs frozen. He said the hog weighed over 600. I believe it from the size of the head. Took nearly a month to get all the grease from the skull.
|
|
|
Post by roadhog on Sept 19, 2011 12:44:44 GMT -5
cmustard, you aren't kidding about the hogs being hard to whitten. I'm doing some for a friend. Do you use bleach? I've been using peroxide to whitten everything i've done so far, including other animals. They don't look as good without the bright white skull.
Nice job on those you have above!
|
|
|
Post by cmustard on Sept 19, 2011 16:44:54 GMT -5
roadhog;
Yep, those hogs are tough to work with.
NEVER EVER EVER (NO MATTER WHAT) use bleach. And also DO NOT BOIL! It might look good for a short time but after a few months, the bone begins to deteriote (sp) and crumble.
I make part of my meager living cleaning skulls. I have a complicated technique that I think I perfected over the past 15 years. One museum in London has one of my skulls on display and I have sold skulls in several of the European countries as well as hundreds here is the US. I have even sold skulls to law enforcement agencies. My method does intail peroxide but not the way you would think. Just love doing it and seeing how good they turn out!
|
|
|
Post by ewoktrapper on Sept 20, 2011 6:47:03 GMT -5
That is neat....CM.
I seen a show one time on that.The guy used some type of beetles to get them clean.Nice job!!!
|
|
|
Post by cmustard on Sept 20, 2011 7:26:00 GMT -5
ewoktrapper; Yes, Dermestid beetles are often used and at times I use them but not exclusively to clean the head. Dermestid beetles can be found in the wild but if a person intended to use them exclusively to clean skulls, it would be easier to just buy a colony. If you go out for a drive and find a road kill that is off to the side of the road and not much left of it, you would more than likely find a few dermestids working the remains. It would take a long time however, to gather enough in this manner to create a colony big enough to clean heads and you would have to keep supplying them with food even if you did not have skulls to clean. As I said, I use them at times but that is not all that has to be done to make a skull clean and white like I show above. Over time the beetles will clean the flesh, but the skull will normally contain bits of flesh etc. and will be natural bone color and not really white.
|
|
|
Post by javery on Sept 20, 2011 17:03:52 GMT -5
I do this also i sell mine at auctions and flea markets i have also sold to outdoor businesses. I use the cold water method takes days to weeks to do it this way but i enjoy it. I have also used Derm. beetles i dont really care for them but if a situation arose to use them again which may i would get some more with no hesitation. IMO
|
|
|
Post by cmustard on Sept 20, 2011 17:26:58 GMT -5
javery; To each his own, but I don't care for the cold water method. It can take several weeks or even longer and you have to change the water ever day or two. If not the smell of rotting flesh in the water penetrates into the bone making for several days of airing out before the smell is not noticable.
Also, I sell a large number of skulls and do skulls for customers. I don't have the time to wait for maceration in water. I can clean and whiten a beaver skull, like the one I did in the above picture, in 48 hours or less. Time is money for me, and since I sell my skulls quickly and cheaply, the more I do the more I make. In the off fur season, I can turn out 5 skulls (coyote size or less) in a 48 hour period. Last year was a good year to me. I completed and sold over 600 skulls. I venture to say that if I used the cold water method, I would not have been able to do 100.
|
|
|
Post by Nathany93 on Sept 20, 2011 18:04:38 GMT -5
i sell ya some beaver skulls this season if you want em. PM me
|
|
|
Post by cmustard on Sept 20, 2011 18:27:46 GMT -5
Nathany93 Just sent you a PM, Thanks
|
|