The Process

First thing I do with any skull that comes in is to remove as much flesh as possible, if the animal has horns than I will be removing the horn sheath at that time as well.

 

Once I have taken off as much of the flesh as possible I will than give it to the beetles. Within 24-36 hours the skull will be completely clean of all organic matter.

 

After the beetles are done the skull it will than go into a de-greasing bath. This bath is the part in the process that takes the most time. The bath with further leach out the rest of the grease that is trapped in the bones. (this is the reason I don't boil, when boiling all you do is suppress that grease even further into the bone and trap it there to slowly come out over time and turn the skull yellow and sometimes it will even have a bad odder) This part of the process can take weeks to months to make sure all the grease has come out.

 

This ensures a perfectly white skull for forever. after the degreasing it will go through a whitening bath and come out perfectly white every time. the final touch is a sealant on the skull to make for easy cleaning and dusting.