Euro mount question

[jjohnwm]

Does anyone do DIY Euro/skull mounts without doing any bleaching with hydrogen peroxide or other bleaching agents?

I have a bunch of DIY mounts and all of them have the nice, uniform, clean look that comes with careful peroxide bleaching. I'm considering doing one now that is clean but unbleached. The bone has a more "raw" appearance, less uniform in colour; the sutures in the skull are highlighted as dark lines, the teeth are still darkly discoloured. The plan is to mount this on a piece of unfinished barnwood, which IMHO makes the lack of bleaching more appropriate...or no?

Here's a couple of bleached skulls:




The raw unbleached one:


Teeth on a bleached skull:


Teeth on the raw skull:


I'm torn. Half of me thinks "That looks like crap. Gotta bleach it!" and the other half says "Cool look!"

I'll leave it up to your imagination which way my wife wants me to go on this project.

Opinions? (...which, like my wife's, I may or may not listen to...)

 

[SigWig]

do it

 

[toxic]

I think you may find that the bone discolours over time if you don't bleach it. That may or may not be the look you're after.

 

[IronNoggin]

I think you may find that the bone discolours over time if you don't bleach it. That may or may not be the look you're after.

This is true.
It will discolor over time.

 

[crazy_davey]

I’ve done lots over the years. Never used bleach or peroxide. I just use cascade dishwasher powder in boiling water and a pressure washer.

 

[jjohnwm]

Thanks for the feedback, gents. After sleeping on it, I looked at the raw skull and decided that I wasn't in love with it and that my feelings would likely not improve as time passed. I gave it a fairly brief peroxide job, rinsed it thoroughly and left it to dry. It now looks like what it is, i.e. a clean skull that has undergone a half-assed attempt at whitening with peroxide.

I plan on giving it a final degrease, a proper and complete peroxide whitening, and then my standard treatment of a couple coats of watered-down Elmer's white glue on the bone and a coat of semi-gloss Varathane on the antlers themselves.

My wife is pleased to hear this. She likes the nice clean white bone look. Considering that she allows and encourages taxidermy around the house, I'm not going to rock that boat too roughly by arguing about something like this...especially since I think she's right.

 

[savagelh]

Ive sun bleached a few. Just cover the antlers and leave them in the sun for a couple months. They come out nice and white. Ive also simmered with borax and not used peroxide and that worked as well.

 

[Mr Bill]

Being into bleach as all my girlfriends were ‘blondes’ Ive done peroxides (various concentrations) and chlorines also. Nice results but some skulls like coyotes would flake after a few years. I overdid it.
Sun bleaching worked in the garden but the squirrels developed an appetite for antlers. Needed to cover with screens to protect from rodents…and then they weren't quite right and still needed a touch of peroxide that I was buying from a hair salon supply store.
Girls like it white and bright.

 

[jjohnwm]

Ive sun bleached a few. Just cover the antlers and leave them in the sun for a couple months. They come out nice and white. Ive also simmered with borax and not used peroxide and that worked as well.

I've done that a few times with decent results. But I've also had problems with critters damaging and/or stealing the heads; I've had to cut the skull caps w/antlers off a couple of full skulls that got chewed or damaged by everything from mice to bears. I had one particular skull that was stolen (!) from the top of a 7-foot wooden post, and only found weeks later far out in one of the surrounding pastures. It was so damaged that it ended up being used as an aquarium ornament rather than on a plaque.

I've gotta try borax...but I'm cheap and still have a half-gallon or so of the beauty salon peroxide to use up.

Being into bleach as all my girlfriends were ‘blondes’ Ive done peroxides (various concentrations) and chlorines also. Nice results but some skulls like coyotes would flake after a few years. I overdid it.

Easy to over do it, especially with greasy stuff like coyotes. Chlorine bleach and excessive boiling both seriously weaken the bone; in one of the pics I posted above you can actually see the roots of some of the teeth through holes eaten by chlorine bleach above the gumline. It can be tricky to get all the oil out without at least some judicious boiling/simmering.

You can strengthen the bone a great deal and also give it a beautiful smooth finish, still looking very natural, by painting the dry finished skull with a couple coats of heavily watered-down Elmer's white glue and allowing to dry. This soaks into the bone and reinforces it. I have skulls that I did 30+ years ago this way and they still look wonderful.

 

[Mr Bill]

^^^ great tip using watered down Elmer glue !!! I will do it on my next project. I remember now gifting one of my coyote skulls to a neighbours wife…and much to my surprise she sold it to a props company collecting stuff to film a horror movie near Toronto. I was shocked to learn she got $700 for that skull…normally she only gets $50 for head. Cheers.