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Degreasing deer skulls

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osage outlaw:
I'd like to have more professional quality skull mounts.  Grease removal is an area that I need to improve on.  I'm experimenting with this set up.  I have a heating element controlled by a thermostat set to 120⁰.  I mixed some ammonia and dawn dish soap in the water.  It didn't take long to see some results.   There was grease on the surface and you could see it coming out of the bone.  I changed the water on day 3.  I'll probably do 3 more water changes until it stays clear.  I forgot to take before pictures but you could see yellow areas on the skulls.  These are from last season.  They were cleaned but not whitened yet. 

bjrogg:
Hope it works for you outlaw.

I have problems sometimes with bones for handles and such.

I try to get the marrow out if it’s possible.

I’ve had them seemingly really clean. Put them in a bucket and a year later they are oily from the marrow inside I think?

Don’t know how much marrow a skull has but probably not as much as a leg bone.

Bjrogg

osage outlaw:
That's what I'm trying to get rid of BJ.  That oily yellow look

Pappy:
I always use dawn and a little bleach on the final boil, seems to dry them out and degrease them pretty well, but only cook for about and hour and then take out and let air dry.

JW_Halverson:
The pros are avoiding boiling altogether as it seems to set the grease deeper into the bone and cooks the collagen out of the bone and joints. More and more are going to straight maceration. Maceration is where you remove as much soft tissue as possible and then submerge it in water to rot it out. Most of them are doing like Clint shows by adding heat to speed up the process. Near daily water changes and a little pressure-washer action cleans them up really nicely. Once the flesh is off they go into warm buckets of Dawn and water.

When done properly, the bone will not yellow with age no matter how long it sets on the shelf. Museums have been doing this for well over a hundred years and it seems only recently taxidermists and bone collectors are figuring it out.

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