Little John,

I boiled and cleaned the skull first. Then I used peroxide which made it look okay. Then I finished it up with a 50/50 of bleach and water. Not much!

You can see the skull of my second mount in the second set of pictures. I've got to finish cleaning the skull then do the process above.

I finished sanding the wood with 150 grit sand paper. I use Minwax Natural stain and then finished it up with seven coats of Minwax polyurethane, sanding with 0000 steel wool between coats.

I'm going to use Tung oil on the next one. I just love the looks of the wood especially the sap ring.

Those look awesome.  Good job.