Another Sous Vide Euro

[Bambistew]

That turned out great. What did you use to color the antlers with? It matches quite well.

I use hot glue on the teeth, seems to work pretty well. Minimal waiting, and dries clear.

I don't submerge the bases of antlers in water or peroxide, use a rag and drape over the skull cap, the water/peroxide will wick up and over it. I've cleaned countless skulls and have never tapped or submerged one. In addition to the color loss, grease will soak into the antlers.

Did you degrease, or just use the peroxide to degrease?

 

[TOGIE]

That turned out great. What did you use to color the antlers with? It matches quite well.

I use hot glue on the teeth, seems to work pretty well. Minimal waiting, and dries clear.

I don't submerge the bases of antlers in water or peroxide, use a rag and drape over the skull cap, the water/peroxide will wick up and over it. I've cleaned countless skulls and have never tapped or submerged one. In addition to the color loss, grease will soak into the antlers.

Did you degrease, or just use the peroxide to degrease?

minwax early american 230 for the antlers. whitebone creations recommends a certain color that i couldn't find, so i just rolled the dice on this on my deer last year and it turned out pretty well, so i used it again. about 3 coats or so

i am realizing there aren't a lot of excuses for losing color in the base of the antlers, either a very solid wrap or your method should always be done. but good to have this on hand


i just used the peroxide bath to degrease, and boy did it seem to degrease. i think the length of time it was in there was the ticket. it basically melted the rest of the nose cartilage too.

i also took whitebone's recommendation on the mop & glo for the final protective coat. not everybody's cup of tea but i like it's simplicity and cheapness.

 

[TOGIE]

just finished up my buddy's nice 4th season colorado buck

this thing posed some oil challenges for me. there were also challenges with getting my peroxide shipped on time. i ended up giving the grocey store strength peroxide a go as a hot peroxide bath. worked great.... except for the oil.

finally my 12% peroxide came and i worked on the oil by giving it a solid 8 hour 120 degree 1:1 40v to water bath, then a straight from the faucet 140 or so degree water bath for about 15 mintues... damn it looked the exxon valdez in that mop bucket

i did one more 1.5 hour peroxide bath at 120 followed by a 20-30 minute 140-145 water bath and felt good with the oil extraction. i was worried i was over doing it on this skull with all the peroxide and hot water. now that it's dried up it feels no more fragile than my beetle cleaned "professional" white tail buck

i'm quite happy with it. can't wait to give it back

excuse the not perfect lighting situation here

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

just finished up my buddy's nice 4th season colorado buck

this thing posed some oil challenges for me. there were also challenges with getting my peroxide shipped on time. i ended up giving the grocey store strength peroxide a go as a hot peroxide bath. worked great.... except for the oil.

finally my 12% peroxide came and i worked on the oil by giving it a solid 8 hour 120 degree 1:1 40v to water bath, then a straight from the faucet 140 or so degree water bath for about 15 mintues... damn it looked the exxon valdez in that mop bucket

i did one more 1.5 hour peroxide bath at 120 followed by a 20-30 minute 140-145 water bath and felt good with the oil extraction. i was worried i was over doing it on this skull with all the peroxide and hot water. now that it's dried up it feels no more fragile than my beetle cleaned "professional" white tail buck

i'm quite happy with it. can't wait to give it back

excuse the not perfect lighting situation here

View attachment 164773
View attachment 164775
View attachment 164774View attachment 164776View attachment 164777

Both of those look really good!

 

[TOGIE]

Both of those look really good!

thank you! doing my first skull for friend, on a nice buck and one that took him 7-8 points, i was convinced i was embarking on one of the dumbest things i've ever done

it came out way better than mine, and i couldn't be more grateful for that. especially cause i was experimenting in unknown territory with oil extraction methods... oof

also @MTelkHuntress i did all of my peroxide bathing and hot water bathing after initial cleaning with some rather tight rubber bands around the nose on his buck, worked excellently

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Those look good. You can always degrease later. Personally, I’d be leery of relying on peroxide vs a detergent for degreasing. Bone marrow has fat in it, and you need to get that out.

Tip for antler bases, use a flat head screwdriver to pry away the hide from the burr instead of cutting it away with a knife.

Alao, you can take your peroxide gel and make a paper mache with paper towels for bleaching. Wrap it up with plastic wrap and let it sit, then rinse well.

 

[MTelkHuntress]

thank you! doing my first skull for friend, on a nice buck and one that took him 7-8 points, i was convinced i was embarking on one of the dumbest things i've ever done

it came out way better than mine, and i couldn't be more grateful for that. especially cause i was experimenting in unknown territory with oil extraction methods... oof

also @MTelkHuntress i did all of my peroxide bathing and hot water bathing after initial cleaning with some rather tight rubber bands around the nose, worked excellently

I was about to say, the nose looks great!
I've been degreasing with dish soap and I'm finding out how much patience I do not possess. The peroxide bath looks like the way to go.

 

[TOGIE]

Those look good. You can always degrease later. Personally, I’d be leery of relying on peroxide vs a detergent for degreasing. Bone marrow has fat in it, and you need to get that out.

Tip for antler bases, use a flat head screwdriver to pry away the hide from the burr instead of cutting it away with a knife.

Alao, you can take your peroxide gel and make a paper mache with paper towels for bleaching. Wrap it up with plastic wrap and let it sit, then rinse well.

i thought about dunking it back in for another hot water oxi clean run to try and degrease further. but these hot peroxide baths just bubble up so much fat, it's fascinating to watch. and then when you throw it in a hot hot water only bucket you see the latent peroxide bubbling up and with the hot water there is so much oil that seems to come out

i hear lot's of warnings just about every where to be careful with excessive peroxide dunking, and i believe it, but either i'm doing harm that's not showing itself or i haven't hit the "too much" yet

when whitebone creations does all of his skulls with just maybe 2 relatively quick oxi clean boils and one "cut-off" boil in a peroxide bath i'm kinda amazed that he's not dealing with oil issues after what i've experienced

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

i hear lot's of warnings just about every where to be careful with excessive peroxide dunking, and i believe it, but either i'm doing harm that's not showing itself or i haven't hit the "too much" yet

when whitebone creations does all of his skulls with just maybe 2 relatively quick oxi clean boils and one "cut-off" boil in a peroxide bath i'm kinda amazed that he's not dealing with oil issues after what i've experienced

It's amazing what putting a head in actual boiling oxi/peroxide/dawn does... I think fat starts to liquify at 120 but really goes at 150, 200 it's very very fast.

I think on the peroxide front its partially because we are using such low percentages... even 50vol is only 15%