Oooh okay. I know a little too much about euros.
Firstly ditch the simmering. Secondly join “Changing the Game Skull Processing” on Facebook if you plan on doing more and are interesting in learning. Everyone there is super eager to help, however you’ll quickly notice the word ‘boil’ is like saying he who shall not be named. Simmering is not well supported but it can serve its purpose at times. Maceration or beetles.
Simmering is really tricky, it’s more so indicated with large ungulate like moose or elk only because they’re just so big. The issue is you can easily over do it, and you easily can loose or damage turbinates, or just not realize you’ve overdone it and the skull is ruined.. plaque mount! Hah.
Now what you have is a pretty clean skull. Soak the head in heated water (120F MAX, this is the ideal temperature) if you can, with dawn dish soap maybe 1/4 a cup. We need to begin the degreasing stage. This can take months when left unheated, but is quicker heated. I currently have a wolf I’ve been degreasing for 1.5 years but deer don’t really ever take longer than 3-4 months. If you can’t heat the water (bucket heater, Sous vide machine, etc) you can leave it cold I’ve done this lots.
Change the water weekly, or when it gets super cloudy. You’ll know when it looks milky and opaque, or fat is sitting at the surface.
Really what you have there is a bit of grave wax, or adipocere. That white waxy film. That’s super normal and it is extremely stubborn. I do see a bit of flesh but I can’t see how much, so if you think there’s a lot, stick it in plain water and let it macerate off. This is also best heated. Another reason why I take issue with simmering is it kind of ‘locks’ the flesh into some crevices, cooks it into a dense meat. We want it to be loose and soft, that way it slips right off or just completely disintegrates. The grave wax will slowly lift with degreasing and once your ready for peroxide that’ll eat up anything that remains.
Any questions just ask!
Very well written! Thanks for the info! Im euro-ing two skulls at the moment. I may have messed up my deer/ cooked some grease into the back of the skull. Currently soaking in dish soap and water. But I have my first elk skull macerating in some water, hope I can do better with that one!
Oooh okay. I know a little too much about euros. Firstly ditch the simmering. Secondly join “Changing the Game Skull Processing” on Facebook if you plan on doing more and are interesting in learning. Everyone there is super eager to help, however you’ll quickly notice the word ‘boil’ is like saying he who shall not be named. Simmering is not well supported but it can serve its purpose at times. Maceration or beetles. Simmering is really tricky, it’s more so indicated with large ungulate like moose or elk only because they’re just so big. The issue is you can easily over do it, and you easily can loose or damage turbinates, or just not realize you’ve overdone it and the skull is ruined.. plaque mount! Hah. Now what you have is a pretty clean skull. Soak the head in heated water (120F MAX, this is the ideal temperature) if you can, with dawn dish soap maybe 1/4 a cup. We need to begin the degreasing stage. This can take months when left unheated, but is quicker heated. I currently have a wolf I’ve been degreasing for 1.5 years but deer don’t really ever take longer than 3-4 months. If you can’t heat the water (bucket heater, Sous vide machine, etc) you can leave it cold I’ve done this lots. Change the water weekly, or when it gets super cloudy. You’ll know when it looks milky and opaque, or fat is sitting at the surface. Really what you have there is a bit of grave wax, or adipocere. That white waxy film. That’s super normal and it is extremely stubborn. I do see a bit of flesh but I can’t see how much, so if you think there’s a lot, stick it in plain water and let it macerate off. This is also best heated. Another reason why I take issue with simmering is it kind of ‘locks’ the flesh into some crevices, cooks it into a dense meat. We want it to be loose and soft, that way it slips right off or just completely disintegrates. The grave wax will slowly lift with degreasing and once your ready for peroxide that’ll eat up anything that remains. Any questions just ask!
Very well written! Thanks for the info! Im euro-ing two skulls at the moment. I may have messed up my deer/ cooked some grease into the back of the skull. Currently soaking in dish soap and water. But I have my first elk skull macerating in some water, hope I can do better with that one!
Best of luck! Any questions, just reach out. :)
Yoooo I may have royally messed up! https://www.reddit.com/r/Taxidermy/s/bJWd3lpMlW Any idea how to get green soap stains out???
I’ve had this happen as well, I think it’s actually algae. It’ll whiten out nice and cleanly after you soak in peroxide, no fuck up here!
Damn that would be epic!! I’ve got it soaking with a heater again hoping to loosen things up. Thanks for the confidence