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How to make a European skull mount
osage outlaw:
Friday I was able to cook the skull. I have a large stainless pot that I use. I pile some of my fire bricks up and sit the pot on it. I extend the ends to try to keep as much heat in as possible. I also have some pieces of metal that I put around the sides of the pot to keep the flames from going up the sides and scorching the antlers. I put a scrap of wood under the beams to hold the head at a better angle.
I wrapped the antlers in some old rags and wetted them down. You could wrap them in foil if you wanted to. I didn't do this to the first rack that I did and the smoke turned the antlers black. It came off, but I had to scrub them.
You want to keep the water just under a boil. Boiling can weaken the bone. Think Crock pot! I actually use an old crock pot for smaller skulls like beaver and river otter.
osage outlaw:
While it is cooking, there will be some green/brown grease and fat floating on the surface. I take a small cup and skim it off. It will stick to the bases of the rack if you leave it in.
Now I just keep a close eye on it. If it starts to boil I add a little water. While it is cooking, it is a great time to get some yard work done before winter gets here. After hunting hard for a month, the wife usually has a list for me to do. Just keep checking on it every 20 minutes or so. I used some hickory scraps left over from splitting staves for the fire wood.
I cooked it for 3 1/2 hours. When it is done, there will be big chunks of meat almost falling off of it. The roof of the mouth will be loose and hanging. If you don't cook it long enough, cleaning it will be a lot harder.
The top of the skull should be pretty clean looking.
osage outlaw:
About 5 minutes of pulling meat off and it looked like this.
Now I take it back to my work bench for some final cleaning. I am sure using a pressure washer would be a lot quicker and easier, but I have seen how powerful those things are and I would be afraid I would damage the bones with it. I don't mind spending a little more time cleaning it by hand.
Here are my tools I use to do the finish cleaning.
osage outlaw:
I usually start at the back of the skull. I use the needle nose pliars to remove a small bone near the ear. Sometime it comes out in one piece, but most of the time it breaks in a couple of pieces. Removing this makes it easier to clean around the base of the skull.
Here it is after the bone is removed.
I remove the piece of cartilage in the nose with the needle nose too. You want to get as much of this out as you can.
osage outlaw:
Here is all of the junk that I picked off/out of it.
I get it as clean as I can. Any remaining tissue will turn yellow and won't look very good. All of the hard work is done now.
I also did the bottom jaw on this one. This is the first time I have done this. I am curious to see how they look together.
Next, I soak it in very hot water and dish liquid. It helps to get any remaining grease out. I take it out and scrub it with a brush a couple of times while it is soaking. I will let it soak over night.
Now it needs to be whitened. DO NOT USE BLEACH. Bleach can weaken the bone. Use peroxide. The stuff in your medicine cabinet is 3% strength. Beauty supply stores carry 30% strength. That is the stuff that you want to use.
Tomorrow, I will put it in to soak in the peroxide and post an update.
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