Does anyone out there know how to clean a bear skull to make it into a European skull mount?
Beetles and peroxide. Should be able to find good instructions online someplace.
If you decide to boil it the teeth will likely come loose...I decided not to peroxide mine...going to leave it more natural looking
Van dlykes taxidermy has a kit
Bear skulls are very easy to do.
I have a podcast coming out next week on how to do European mounts. But short version is like this.
1. take a picture of the teeth as they are most likely to come out if you boil.
2. if you are going to score it send it out for beetles (or macerate if you want to do yourself) to avoid shrinkage.
3. if not worried about score, SOFT boil (barely a boil) skull in water with dawn dish soap. about 5 times as much as you would put in the container to wash dishes. change water every hour or so and boil (again very light boil, even a little less than a boil) for total of about 4 hours. each water change use tweezers or needle nose to remove any remaining meat.
make sure to drain into a strainer or on something that will catch the teeth that do come out.
once clean let dry for few hours.
4. glue teeth back in.
5. whiten....I use a couple ways. paint with kills white paint is a very clean great looking skull but is not 100% natural looking. I personally like the kills paint. the professional way is to use 40 volume peroxide (from beauty store)and a paint brush, paint skull really good and let it get pasty. once its drys wash it off really good.
6. let dry for couple hours then seal with acrylic spray paint.
7. enjoy it forever.
I have used the kit from Vandykes several times with great results.
There is a lot of great info online. There is a good demo on hear too on how to do it. LB_hntr said it best!
I usually use my electric roasting pan (make sure you do it outside) with some baking soda mixed in. The teeth will fall out, taking a pic before hand is a great idea, but with a little time they will glue back in (hot glue works great). Be sure and change the water every so often. The baking soda will make everything fall off the skull, very little scraping will be needed. After it's boiled, I soak mine in camp stove fuel to remove the oil from the bones. After that, soak in hydrogen peroxide (if needed). Most farm stores have gallon jugs at a decent price. Good luck and be sure and share your results.
Jarhead, another great thing about using baking soda is it lowers the boiling point of the water and therefore is easier on the bone. But like you did with the camp fuel, you have to degrease it after the boiling as baking sota will not remove oil. If you don't want to use camp fuel you can also degrease by soaking the skull in a bucket with water and dawn dish soap for a week and it remove all grease perfectly too.
The key thing is to make sure it is totally degreased some how or it will show up a few months later and need to be stripped and totally redone.
I made sure I had removed all of the brain and then I simmered mine for a hour or so in water with Dawn dish soap and then took the pressure washer to it. Never had any teeth fall out. Whitened it with 40% peroxide that I got from a beauty parlor supply store.
How did you get a bears skull Bic? Is bear season in or something?
I know a guy who does a great job, I'll ask him and get back with you.
Thanks for the advise guys!