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[EYJONAS!]

I asked for one of these for Xmas

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

It really doesn’t smell bad like boiling does and i would be willing to do them in the house. I do them in the garage because there’s more room there and it’s easier to keep the dogs away from it.

I just finished my son's cow elk skull. Put it in a cooler with the sous vide, in my bathtub. Calling BS on the not smelling bad! Haha. Of course letting it sit in my garage unskinned for a month probably didn't help.

Tried the paraloid B72. Mixed one pound of paraloid with a gallon of acetone. I think its a little too thick as the skull is a bit shiny, but not bad.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I just finished my son's cow elk skull. Put it in a cooler with the sous vide, in my bathtub. Calling BS on the not smelling bad! Haha. Of course letting it sit in my garage unskinned for a month probably didn't help.

Tried the paraloid B72. Mixed one pound of paraloid with a gallon of acetone. I think its a little too thick as the skull is a bit shiny, but not bad.

Yeah... I’ve yet to pack out a head, I skin them all at the kill site, so YMMV for sure.

 

[FREAK]

I know this is pretty old thread but wanted to add a little trick that seems to help keep the Sousvide clean. Haven’t done my own in a while so was looking through some of these old threads for a refresher.

I made a 2.5ish gallon bag with my food saver and one of the large 20’x14” LEM vacuum bag material and filled it with hot water. Put the oxy soap mixture in the bucket.
Keeps the Sousvide clean and heats the bucket water up to within a degree of the setting. Works nice.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I know this is pretty old thread but wanted to add a little trick that seems to help keep the Sousvide clean. Haven’t done my own in a while so was looking through some of these old threads for a refresher.
View attachment 304526
I made a 2.5ish gallon bag with my food saver and one of the large 20’x14” LEM vacuum bag material and filled it with hot water. Put the oxy soap mixture in the bucket. View attachment 304527
Keeps the Sousvide clean and heats the bucket water up to within a degree of the setting. Works nice.

Nice! Will have to try that here in a few days when I clean my buck.

 

[trb]

I know this is pretty old thread but wanted to add a little trick that seems to help keep the Sousvide clean. Haven’t done my own in a while so was looking through some of these old threads for a refresher.
View attachment 304526
I made a 2.5ish gallon bag with my food saver and one of the large 20’x14” LEM vacuum bag material and filled it with hot water. Put the oxy soap mixture in the bucket. View attachment 304527
Keeps the Sousvide clean and heats the bucket water up to within a degree of the setting. Works nice.

I've never used oxyclean, did you have any antler discoloration or are the bases not submerged and those are just bubbles?

 

[Beignet]

While we’re reviving an old thread…

You guys just brushed the paraloid on? You were able to get pretty thorough coverage just by brushing as opposed to dipping?

What’d you do on the nasal turbines?

I’ve got a stash of paraloid I might get around to using this winter. Have been hesitant to spend the $$$ on a quantity of acetone sufficient to fill a vessel large enough to dip a (found) sheep and a few deer skulls.

For anyone looking currently, I’ve seen it on Etsy, yes. There’s also an archival place online called Talas that sells it for a reasonable price.

 

[JohnBud]

I know this is pretty old thread but wanted to add a little trick that seems to help keep the Sousvide clean. Haven’t done my own in a while so was looking through some of these old threads for a refresher.
View attachment 304526
I made a 2.5ish gallon bag with my food saver and one of the large 20’x14” LEM vacuum bag material and filled it with hot water. Put the oxy soap mixture in the bucket. View attachment 304527
Keeps the Sousvide clean and heats the bucket water up to within a degree of the setting. Works nice.

Great idea! thanks for sharing.

 

[FREAK]

I've never used oxyclean, did you have any antler discoloration or are the bases not submerged and those are just bubbles?

I’m not sure, I think the active ingredient in oxyclean is powdered hydrogen peroxide and baking soda which I think would discolor if it was in it a while. I’ve got it vise gripped to the bucket so there is very little of the antler in the solution and the bubbles have reduced down quite a bit now that it’s been sitting for a while. If they do get discolored I’ll try touching them up with some stain.

 

[Caseknife]

Baking soda and dawn dish soap works for me and it doesn't discolor the antlers.

 

[MTLabrador]

I want to try the sous vide method eventually, just because propane needs a lot more babysitting to keep below a boil and it burns a lot of gas. I’ve had good results with my current method though, using dish soap and a little baking soda. My buck hasn’t been whitened yet and is ready for peroxide.

 

[NEWHunter]

Dawn and borax to degrease. Teflon tape worked pretty good in the peroxide simmer to keep the bases protected. Zip ties on the nose kept the bones from separating much. A little Elmer’s and zip ties again to tighten up the little separation that did occur.

 

[NEWHunter]

What’d you do on the nasal turbines?

They kind of took care of themselves the way I did it. Be patient when you pull that chunk of cartilage out of the middle of the nose. Most of the junk inside the nasal cavity will come out right with it. I used a forceps and picked at it a little bit and the turbines are more intact than any of the three I’ve had done professionally. I didn’t sous vide mine so some picking was required. Not too bad though. A long thin crochet needle worked the best.

 

[Beignet]

They kind of took care of themselves the way I did it. Be patient when you pull that chunk of cartilage out of the middle of the nose. Most of the junk inside the nasal cavity will come out right with it. I used a forceps and picked at it a little bit and the turbines are more intact than any of the three I’ve had done professionally. I didn’t sous vide mine so some picking was required. Not too bad though. A long thin crochet needle worked the best.

I’ve got that part down. Some long tweezers slid that gunk right out.

Should’ve been more specific, was asking about applying paraloid b-72 to the turbines.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I’ve got that part down. Some long tweezers slid that gunk right out.

Should’ve been more specific, was asking about applying paraloid b-72 to the turbines.

I just painted it on, got as much of the tubes as possible, it’s not 100% covered. Dipping it would like you said take a ton of acetone and be a PITA.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

I’ve got that part down. Some long tweezers slid that gunk right out.

Should’ve been more specific, was asking about applying paraloid b-72 to the turbines.

I just used a brush to brush and baste the skull. You could just hold the skull over the paralod/acetone mixture and gently pour some down the nasal cavity. That's what I did with my cow moose skull.

 

[375H&H]

I just used a brush to brush and baste the skull. You could just hold the skull over the paralod/acetone mixture and gently pour some down the nasal cavity.

What are you (or anyone) hoping to achieve by using the paraloid? Stop the skull from drying out over time? Stop it from falling apart? Keep it white over time?

 

[TOGIE]

my new approach that i'm starting this fall is to not whiten skulls until i have at least 3-4 to whiten. boil/sous vide to the point of being ready to whiten and let it sit until i have a small pile of skulls.

I do a hot 40v liquid peroxide bath. i buy the liquid gallons for about 20 bucks on amazon. a half gallon of that mixed with water in a bucket just big enough for your skull should easily whiten probably a dozen, if not more skulls when doing it as a hot simmer for a half hour.

i just got sick of buying gallons of that stuff and only doing one skull at a time. was such a waste. save em all for one big whitening sesh.

 

[Beignet]

What are you (or anyone) hoping to achieve by using the paraloid? Stop the skull from drying out over time? Stop it from falling apart? Keep it white over time?

All of the above. It’s one of the gold standards for museum archival work.

The sheep skull I found feels like it could get brittle before long. Preventing that decay my primary paraloid motivation.

 

[375H&H]

All of the above. It’s one of the gold standards for museum archival work.

The sheep skull I found feels like it could get brittle before long. Preventing that decay my primary paraloid motivation.


View attachment 304672

Makes sense for dinosaurs or old deadheads, but curious if it really has much benefit on a fresh “properly” cleaned skull?