How To Clean Deer Antlers With Bleach

Sealing deer antlers is a challenging process, merely not an overly difficult one. The steps outlined below will allow you to accept that trophy cadet and transform it into a lasting retention as a European mountain.

Preparation

1. Remove the hide
2. Remove all superficial tissue from the head
3. Astringent the head from the body
4. Completely clean the skull
5. Bleach the skull with hydrogen peroxide
6. Stain the antlers
7. Seal the skull

Clean the Skull

Now the fun function begins, at that place are 3 ways this can be done.

Dawn

The first is to boil the submerged skull for a few hours in a big cauldron.  Add an ounce of Dawn dishwashing liquid to the water to facilitate breaking downwards the meat, fat, and grease.

Boraxo

Some people employ a half-cup of Boraxo instead of dawn.

Boil the skull on high rut. An easy method of boiling is to use the burner assembly on a turkey fryer with the cutaway half of a 55-gallon drum.

Concur the antlers underwater with weights so they don't float.

Later a few hours, y'all should pull the caput up by the antlers and test to run across if the peel sluffs off. Y'all tin can hold the antlers in one manus, and push button on the remaining hibernate with a knife. If it'south withal connected, you need to boil it a little longer.

Feces Beetles

The second method and the easiest for the hunter is to accept the skull to a taxidermist or to your local high school if they take a "Bugs and Basic" programme with their scientific discipline or vocational pedagogy classes.

Feces beetles will do all the hard work of cleaning a skull. Later on a few months, these trivial demonic-looking beetles volition have eaten away every bit of flesh, connective tissue, and encephalon matter from the skull.

It volition be completely make clean and ready for finishing.

Ants

The last method is to place the skull on an anthill. This works best in arid climates, but if you have large, aggressive cherry ants in your area, they'll become the job done likewise. Information technology takes a few months but these little guys will clean the skull fully.

Bleach the Skull

Your European mountain or skullcap might not exist bright white later on the fleshing-out process is complete. The next pace is to accept the skull, or skullcap, and submerge it in hydrogen peroxide for at to the lowest degree 12 hours.

Hydrogen Peroxide

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Hydrogen peroxide is cheap and can be establish at any grocery store or chemist's.

Depending on the size of the skull you'll probably need a couple of gallons at least to submerge the skull. If possible, exit the antlers out of the peroxide to preserve their natural appearance.

Once the hydrogen peroxide works its magic, your skull volition be a shiny, bright white colour.

Stain the Antlers

Many hunters decide to create a European mount years after they've harvested a buck.

The years tin exist tough on antlers. Depending on your climate they can go completely bleached out, white, with large porous openings and far from the natural dazzler they once held when they were on the buck.

Natural language Oil

Here is where a piffling artistry comes into play. There are many means to tone a set of antlers. Come advocates employ natural language oil, a common woodworking chemical that enhances the natural dazzler of wood. It works the same with antlers.

Tea

Another technique is to brew a strong batch of tea, and carefully hold the antlers in the tea, without letting it impact the skull. You'll have to dip each side of the antlers repeatedly to get the final shade you want.

Shoe Polish

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A delicate method is to utilize shoe smoothen. A piffling daub worked into a bleached out antler brings dorsum the natural look. You'll want to get a light chocolate-brown tin can of shoe smoothen and starting time with a small amount on a clean cloth rag. Put simply a little on the antlers at a time. Too much and you lot'll have dark chocolate-brown stained monstrosity instead of a natural-looking rack.

Wood Stain

The final technique involves using wood stain. You tin can buy pocket-sized 6-ounce cans at your local hardware, home improvement store, or lumber one thousand.

Choose a color that resembles a deer's natural antler tint. Something like a calorie-free pecan, or peradventure a medium oak stain will bring out the all-time effects.

No matter what you use, let the stain dry for a couple of days before you brainstorm the final step of sealing the antlers.

Seal the Skull and Antlers

This final step is the most debated function of the unabridged procedure. Information technology seems that every amateur taxidermist has their own special technique. As with any process, some work amend than others. Nosotros'll walk yous through some of the more popular sealing techniques.

Elmer's Glue

Elmer'southward white glue is an icon of childhood. We all used it in unproblematic school projects. It works well equally a sealant for deer skulls too.

Take a bottle of Elmer's and clasp about three ounces into a standard-sized loving cup. Fill the residue of the cut with water and mix thoroughly.

The resulting mixture volition be a trivial thinner than latex paint, only it will apply hands with a brush. The magic of Elmer'due south is that information technology goes on white, simply it dries articulate.

If you were i of those kids who made "false skin" by coating your hand with Elmer's glue, you get the idea of what this process entails.

Coat the unabridged skull, merely not the antlers with the glue mixture. Check for globs, drips, or bumps that can build upward on the skull. With the mixture practical evenly, let the mucilage dry completely.

Yous can come back in a couple of days with 800 dust sandpaper and shine upwardly your project.

Polyurethane

A spray-on finish with high gloss polyurethane can brighten even the dingiest skull.  Deft is a popular brand of polyurethane, but y'all don't have to go with a name brand to get quality results.

Cease by a hardware or home supply store and visit the spray tin can section. If you look closely you'll find clear Krylon or something like. This product provides the aforementioned loftier gloss terminate as name brand products such every bit Deft, for less than half the price.

Spray the poly onto your skull in light coats, many light coats produce a much improve terminate than a single heavy awarding.

Yous can poly the antlers too, but exist careful, sometimes this discolors the antler if they've been stained. Putting masking tape around the base of the antlers can protect them if you think extra poly can alter their appearance.

WD40

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• DRIVES OUT MOISTURE
• CORROSION INHIBITOR
• FREES AND LOOSENS Pasty PARTS
• Removes grease, grime, gunk, gum, tar, sap, super glue, sticker residual, and other gummy stuff from multiple surfaces.
• Lubricates moving parts such as hinges, wheels, pulleys, rollers, chains, and gea

WD40 is considered a miracle production by many users. Information technology can silence a squeaky door hinge, it is rumored to be effective on swollen knees and it makes a good finish on bone and antlers.

Simply spray on lite coats, wait for information technology to dry, and report the finished product. Add more than coats as needed.

Floor Wax

A terminal product that seems well out of the comfort zone for most hunters is Mop 'n' Glo Floor Wax. This works uncommonly well with desiccated antlers, bringing those old, weathered points back to life.

Once your color blueprint is gear up, spray on a piffling floor wax and y'all'll be amazed at the results.

Determination

There are many paths to creating a beautiful European or skullcap mountain from the trophy cadet you only harvested. Whichever technique you lot attempt, odds are you're going to create a piece of fine art that will last for generations.

Source: https://eatingthewild.com/how-to-seal-deer-antlers/

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