Lots of people have questions about doing skull mounts so I figured since I had 3 to do this morning I would take some pics.





The victim...the tools...my tools vary sometimes. I use scalpels just because I always have, sharp, quick change, disposable. I usually wear gloves and would suggest that you do but I was in a hurry. BE VERY CAREFUL...TAKE YOUR TIME...GETTING IN A HURRY MEANS GETTING CUT!





Here it is after the cuts and begining the skinning. I work my way down the sides on both sides and then work forward from the back to the chin.





Here it is after being skinned down to the jaw.





Victim de-skinned.





Then I take the scalpel and cut around where the jaw bone attaches to the skull, removing as much meat as possible. Then grab the bottom jaw and pull down as you push the top of skull away. This will separate the jaw from the skull. I try to trim as much as I can close to the skull at this time and leave it attached to the jaw.





This is how it appears from the bottom when jaw is removed.





Now the eye removal. First I cut around the eye socket/eyeball to separate it a bit. Then I use my finger to push the meat down as I work the scalpel between the bone and the meat/eyeball.





Here is the eye ball removed.





Here is the view from the back side after the eyes are removed.





I use a piece of rebar and hold the skull over a bucket. I work the rebar in a pumping motion to kind of liquify the brain and shake as much out as possible. I usually go back and remove any large pieces of meat that are left and then wash off the skulls and antlers.

Here are the 3 skinned out skulls ready for the next step.





I put the skulls in a cooler and fill it with enough water to cover the skulls and in a day or two I'll check them to see how they are doing. I use an aquarium heater to keep the water warm.

Great post. thanks

The water thing is kind of short maceration. I first did and still do because sometimes after I get them skinned out I don't have time for the simmer process so instead of letting them sit around and the meat getting hard to remove or refreezing them I just put them in water. After they sit in water the bacteria begins to break down the remaining tissue/meat making it much easier to remove. Usually most of it will spray of with a water hose. I never use a pressure washer because it could blow the little bones on the front of the skull across the yard and if you aren't careful it can cut into the bone. After I get as much meat of as possible with the hose then it is simmered which gets anything left off. I let them dry completely and see if they stink...if they do then I simmer them again and check the brain cavity good to make sure I didn't miss anything in there. If they are non-stinky then I whiten them with 20%-30% by volume peroxide from a beauty supply store. Wash them off good and let them dry. Seal them with satin acrylic and mount on a plaque.

I had posted this before but I guess it was lost in the house cleaning. Anyone have anything they do that is easier please post away!

Thanks Skull-
I had been wanting to see it broken down like that! Great post, thanks for taking the time!

Maceration = A Beautiful thing. I'll never simmer another one....piss on all that.

Do you not degrease the skull before you whiten it?

So a few days soak and the skull is ready to wash off? I have never done a cool water masceration. I have used a stock pot for the skulls I have done in the past. I have done yote, coon and bobcat skulls before, but the deer I am working on is the first deer skull I've ever done. I looked online to see how others degreased theirs and saw that most people put liquid dishwashing soap in the water. I tried that but wasn't happy with it. I then put liquid laundry soap in the pot and simmered it. I left it in the soap for about an hour. I still have 2 spots on top, above the eye sockets that have some yellow from fat. I think if I had simmered it for a couple hours in the laundry soap, it would have got all the fat out.

I do a simmer to get the flesh off and then do another with clean water and Dawn to degrease.


Furflyin: I use the aquarium heater to keep the water about 80 degrees or more. Time just depends. Sometimes a couple of days...sometimes more. Have a couple to do so I'll try to remember to take pictures of the simmering part.

Thanks. You ever keep any funky water to use as a "starter" for the new batch? I left 2 yote skulls in a 5 gallon bucket of water for about 6 months. I put the bucket under the drip line of the barn. If you made soup out of puke, I imagine that's similar to what I had in the bucket.

Good posting Skullworks. I just done one, myself. I boiled mine for about an hour and a half in stead of soaking. I will try the soaking business on the next one.---Good Job!.

I have but never that long. LOL!

How do you mount the skull to the plaque?

Last time I did a skull mount, I obviously did it the hard way. It took my way too long. From start to finish, how long should it take?

I put a screw in mine through the flat piece of skull just below the spinal column opening. Drill a hole first. I do multiples at a time and really haven't kept a time for doing one. Simmer time for both steps I do should be less than 2 hours. Skinning time just depends on how used to it you are.

How'd you get dem teefies so white? I think I'm going to have to take a dremel to the one I'm doing.

I put my skulls in liquid peroxide. I fill a plastic tray up to just below the antler burrs and wrap the skull in white cloth and soak it with peroxide. The teeth are immersed in peroxide.

Here is a closer view of the toothies. This is one of 3 vampire deer I've done.

Ah, I didn't soak mine, just brushed it on. Over and over and over again.

Thanks for posting. I'm saving this page.

Thanks for the post!

I boil mine a few hrs taking it out every little while pulling meat off with needlenose pliers and a sharp knife.After I got it good and clean I soak it 2 days in degreaser.After I get it outta the degreaser I scrub it inside and out with a toothbrush to get anything I mighta missed off.Then I soak it in peroxide for 2-3 days.I just picked up some of the gel peroxide they use at hair salons I'm gonna try on a 6 point I got soaking right now.I killed a 7 point last Sunday the day after the opener and had him hangin on the wall Friday.So it takes me bout 5 days start to finish.

Very good post. Thanks for taking the time to review the process.

Clarence does a great job,thru the yrs he's done at least 8 for me.

Great post!!! Worthy of a sticky!!
How much do you typically charge?

Gel works good and some people mix up a paste and use it. I like to make sure it gets up in the nasal and brain cavity. The heavy duty peroxide will eat up or gel and left over flesh or matter. In my experience anyways.

PM sent. Not ashamed but don't want it to look like advertising.

Do you spray the clear up into the hard to get places or just coat the outside of the skull? What kind of plaques are the ones you have pictured?

I spray it up into the brain cavity & sinus area pretty good and then do a light coat on the outside of the skull and antlers. I don't want it to be shiny...looks unnatural to me. I get my plaques from Ozark Woods...Model EDP in Walnut. The pedestal mount is their Model PSM in walnut.

Thanks. And great post, extremely helpful.

Great Post

Great post. Just finished one and it came out great. Thanks

Here are the skulls after a week or two in the stew...smell good!

This post reminds me why I pay a professional. That is just plain disgusting.

Here is what they look like after a couple of weeks macerating.

great write up

Skullworks, how much do you get to do a euro?

PM sent bill.

Up for a young man that wants to do his own.

Thanks for sharing the tips. Is there an advantage over simmering? I built a homemade "buck boiler" and it takes about 6-8 hours start to finish. Only problem I have is the nasal cavity. Sometimes it comes right out and cleans up nicely but sometimes its a b***h. Picking it out is rough on the fragile bone. Got any tips on that part? Thanks again on the great post!

I personally think maceration does a better job of maintaining the nasal bones. I really use maceration because I generally have so much going on that I can let them work while I do other stuff. It's a bit less work but much stinkier work. I use stats to get to all the stuff all up in the hard to reach areas. I never simmer mine more than 30-45 minutes at a time and they are usually clean after one time. Then I degrease and let the skull dry completely before I do the whitening.

I seem to always get the bleach or peroxide on the horns so the last few I did I just taped around the bases and spray painted the skull an it looked nice. Great post

I like to put mine on a plaque with a small wedge of wood to make the skull sit at an angle more like a shoulder mount. I have never tried degreasing with dawn in the water, that could work well. For whitening I usually just use regular hydrogen peroxide and put probably 2 cups per gallon of water in the boiler and let the skull boil for about 30 minutes. Here is a funky horned mount I did for my uncle. This one really sucked because there was velvet on the bottom horn and I couldn't get it too wet. I finally ripped it off and epoxied it back, the pedicle was only held onto the scull by cartilage.

I was always taught that maceration was a sin
.....sorry - I just couldn't help it