Bleaching Deer Skulls in Peroxide -- Taxidermy Tips & Hints

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Date Posted: 06:54:07 01/01/05 Sat
Author: Jay
Author Host/IP: NoHost / 63.125.71.51
Subject: Bleaching Deer Skulls in Peroxide

I allways hated to bleach deer skulls because the back of the antlers allways bleached out and you had to spend time trying to match the color back.

I use 35% peroxide, straight, sometimes diluting it with water, this year I just used it straight.

This year I came up with something that worked pretty well. First I wiped the burrs and main beam up a few inches with lacquer thinner. I then coated the burrs and main beam up about 2 inches or more with construction silicone {GE clear}, with a stiff brush, you know the kind that has a metal handle and comes a doz. to a bag. I cut the bristles off half way to make it stiffer. Then brushed a coat on, really getting it into the crevices of the burrs. Let it dry 24 hours or so.

I wraped a doubled 1/2" wide strip of paper towels around the bottom of the burrs real tight, and after putting skull into peroxide, and then laying a piece of white cloth towel 2" by 4" or so on skull between the antlers to soak up peroxide where skull was exposed . I left skulls in peroxide like 12 to 14 hours. Took out, and washed with sprayer on garden hose. The silicone just peals off, and what's left comes off with a brass brush real easy. Let dry in sun for a day.

Only the very bottom of the burrs bleached. I took the paint, it's two colors of brown lacquer I use to paint the eyes of the deer with, and diluted it with some lacquer thinner{just a squirt}, and held the skull up and antlers down{you don't want to drip onto the skull}, and used a very small artist brush and just touched each place that bleached with the diluted paint. It dried in seconds. Let the antler burrs dry an hour or so more in the sun. Then I sprayed skull and antlers with Krylon Matt Finish.

It worked so good! You could not tell it had been bleached. It only took minutes to put the silicone on and take it off, and minutes to touch up with the paint.

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