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Posted: 7/3/2013 6:43:22 PM EDT
[Last Edit: rizzo1318]
I had another Skulls thread that got archived, and there have been several people who have contacted me asking where it went, so I decided to make a new one. Since I am the most active in the Small Game & Trapping Forum I'll post this here, even though there are more than just small game skulls in these pictures.
I post these skull pictures for other people to see because I think they are interesting. Skull cleaning with dermestid beetles is a hobby and small side business I got into through chance when I decided that I didn't want to pay a taxidermist to do it for me, and boiling and other methods seemed too nasty and time consuming. It's fun because I get to see skulls from all over the country including animals I wouldn't otherwise probably see. It's gross because sometimes the smell is foul and spending your evenings cutting the eyes, tongues, and brains out of animal heads can be a bit odd for the casual observer. And it's amazing because I've been able to learn a lot about animals, anatomy, bone diseases, and bone structure. Skull cleaning has also enabled me to be grow an interesting skull collection that I use for display and educational purposes, as well as being to donate extra skulls to schools and Hunter's Ed programs which helps others to see them and learn more about the animals they came from. Without further ado, here are a few of skulls I have cleaned over the years. I will update the pictures in additional posts as I continue this interesting journey. Predators |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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I love seeing this process, you do very good work.
I will make sure this one is archive-proof. |
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Tennessee Squire
Life is hard. It's even harder if you're stupid. كافر |
And as a side note, DO NOT HIT ANIMAL IN HEAD WITH SHOVEL TO KILL IT IF INTERESTED IN ABOVE.
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Originally Posted By dalesimpson:
I love seeing this process, you do very good work. I will make sure this one is archive-proof. Many thanks! I think that at some point I will do a step-by-step photo process of how I clean the skulls, in case anyone else is interested in doing it or would like to see how it is done. |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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I'll look forward to step by step, I find this very interesting, thanks for the post.
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Proud member "Ranstad's Militia, The Fantastic Bastards"
NRA Patron life member |
Originally Posted By 50-140:
I'll look forward to step by step, I find this very interesting, thanks for the post. This. I've always enjoyed your skull threads. You do amazing work. |
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When the larueminati find this op will feel like a pizza delivery boy wearing a Stormfront t shirt making a delivery to a Nation of Islam meeting. - Aimless
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Hmmm, beaver looks vaguely familiar, LOL.
Did a few beaver for educational purposes this year, but tossed a bunch. At least fur prices were up. (I'm still macerating skulls, heck "stink buckets" are about 100 yds away right now) Have 3 gators in freezers: if I don't get around to them soon, may just do their skulls. Always enjoy your pics/work: now I need a rattler! (LOL, I SAW one get hit, time I found a spot to turn around, someone else was tossing it in their truck!) Take care |
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Awesome post!!!
Hey that Rattle snake looks familiar I have a Bobcat head in the freezer that needs your magic touch, I need to call you and send it out!!! |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Do you have to neutralize anything after whitening so the skull does not degrade in the future?
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JBT!
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Originally Posted By bosshoff:
Do you have to neutralize anything after whitening so the skull does not degrade in the future? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By bosshoff:
Do you have to neutralize anything after whitening so the skull does not degrade in the future? Nope - depending on how well the degreasing worked, the bone may yellow a little with time, but the bones will not break down anymore than it normally would. If you wait at least 2 weeks after the whole process is done for the bone pores to close up, you can even seal a skull or paint it if you'd like. That will help with any future yellowing or darkening issues. Originally Posted By Lungbuster:
I have a skull project this weekend I need to work on, The biggest I've ever done before was deer, so I may have to re-adjust my set up. Awesome, keep us posted on how that turns out. A moose would be interesting to clean - did you find that one? |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Do you freeze all your skulls before putting them in with the beetles?
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Originally Posted By silentrebellion:
Do you freeze all your skulls before putting them in with the beetles? View Quote Yes, for a couple of reasons: 1) There's usually already a skull in the beetles when I get something new, so I have to preserve the skull and keep the meat as fresh as possible 2) Freezing kills any funky bugs that I don't want to have in my beetle colony |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Awesome, I just want to get to actually FINDING these critters, much less cleaning them off lol
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Thanks. I have wondered about the process. I am in the just need to find them club as well.
MAHA |
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Quote Originally Posted By rageracing
"......Tell the guy in the gun store that ARFCOM said he is a fucking dumb ass......" |
Thanks. I have wondered about the process. I am in the just need to find them club as well.
MAHA |
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Quote Originally Posted By rageracing
"......Tell the guy in the gun store that ARFCOM said he is a fucking dumb ass......" |
Very nice work! What kind of beetles are those?
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WORK HARDER, PEOPLE ON WELFARE ARE DEPENDING ON YOU!!!!!!!
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Originally Posted By rizzo1318:
Just finished up one of the biggest black bears I have ever cleaned. AZ Game and Fish aged the tooth that they extracted at 18 years - that's one old bear. Lots of wear and busted teeth in that mouth, plus some scarring on the skull - he was in some scraps during his time in the woods. http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j137/rizzo1318/Skulls/Bear_Halter2_zps362294b3.jpg http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j137/rizzo1318/Skulls/Bear_Halter3_zpsbe98bd3e.jpg View Quote Dang that is awesome! |
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Blessed be the LORD, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle. - Psalm 144:1
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JBT!
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If anyone is interested there's a documentary on netflix about a company that does this, they show the entire process while they work on a lion. It's called Skeleton, Inc
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It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom is what it is ok. Keep that in mind at all times.
-Bill Hicks |
Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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I watched the show on NetFlix, just one episode was available. I was pleased to discover that it was Jay and his family from Skulls Unlimited! Those are some good people.
Just finished this black bear skull that had a major injury to the jaw - that tooth is barely hanging on! Pictures of the injury before I cleaned the skull can be found here: Nasty injury I found on a bear skull And a run of the mill javelina that just went back to the client yesterday: |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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if the ME office finds a nasty decomp they boil the flesh off the skull..... it smells.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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You do great work. Are you accepting more skulls right now? I have a bear skull that has been in my freezer since last season that I will never get to, and a coyote skull that I found. I would like to have them both bleached. The bear skull was severed from the carcass and put in a trash bag, I didn't skin it. the coyote had been decomposing for a few weeks and is about 90% down to the bone. Any idea what you would charge if I shipped them to you as-is? I would just like to have them bleached and sealed.
Thanks! |
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Originally Posted By feelthepayne:
You do great work. Are you accepting more skulls right now? I have a bear skull that has been in my freezer since last season that I will never get to, and a coyote skull that I found. I would like to have them both bleached. The bear skull was severed from the carcass and put in a trash bag, I didn't skin it. the coyote had been decomposing for a few weeks and is about 90% down to the bone. Any idea what you would charge if I shipped them to you as-is? I would just like to have them bleached and sealed. Thanks! View Quote IM inbound. |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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that is some awesome work. very cool.
as I guy who collects stuff like this for specimen collections at my university, I'm quite impressed. |
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Originally Posted By stolenheron:
that is some awesome work. very cool. as I guy who collects stuff like this for specimen collections at my university, I'm quite impressed. View Quote Thank you for the comments, I put a lot of effort into each skull that I work on. If your university ever needs any skulls, let me know. Sometimes I have extras, especially small predators. |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Learned a lot from this. Thanks for posting. This needs to be tacked so others years to come get to see it.
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The nasal cavity of the bear skull is unreal. No wonder they can smell 100,000 times better than humans.
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You do amazing and tedious work, wish I had the initiative to do this. Collecting coyote skulls sounds fun.
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I wish I had more hands, so I could give that ass four thumbs down. - badfish274
Is that your Weiner? No homo but that's pretty impressive girth you got there. - DanTSX |
Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Glad to see this thread pop back up....it actually inspired me to start doing this. I have a few coyote skulls cleaned down to the bone and just need to degrease them. I have looked at getting some beetles a few times but just never pulled the trigger. It looks like the way to go though.
Can you just degrease them and not run them through the bleach process? I actually like the more natural look than the clean white for some reason. ETA: Can you recommend a place to look at ordering some beetles? |
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I wish I had more hands, so I could give that ass four thumbs down. - badfish274
Is that your Weiner? No homo but that's pretty impressive girth you got there. - DanTSX |
Originally Posted By BoxofRox:
Glad to see this thread pop back up....it actually inspired me to start doing this. I have a few coyote skulls cleaned down to the bone and just need to degrease them. I have looked at getting some beetles a few times but just never pulled the trigger. It looks like the way to go though. Can you just degrease them and not run them through the bleach process? I actually like the more natural look than the clean white for some reason. ETA: Can you recommend a place to look at ordering some beetles? View Quote Yes, you can degrease and not whiten if you don't want the white look. But I would recommend sun bleaching them for at least a week to get the stink out if you don't whiten. For ordering beetles, I recommend Tim Hovey at Dermestid Inc: http://www.dermestidbeetlecolonies.com/. Good guy, good hunter, good friend. |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Originally Posted By rizzo1318:
Yes, you can degrease and not whiten if you don't want the white look. But I would recommend sun bleaching them for at least a week to get the stink out if you don't whiten. For ordering beetles, I recommend Tim Hovey at Dermestid Inc: http://www.dermestidbeetlecolonies.com/. Good guy, good hunter, good friend. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By rizzo1318:
Originally Posted By BoxofRox:
Glad to see this thread pop back up....it actually inspired me to start doing this. I have a few coyote skulls cleaned down to the bone and just need to degrease them. I have looked at getting some beetles a few times but just never pulled the trigger. It looks like the way to go though. Can you just degrease them and not run them through the bleach process? I actually like the more natural look than the clean white for some reason. ETA: Can you recommend a place to look at ordering some beetles? Yes, you can degrease and not whiten if you don't want the white look. But I would recommend sun bleaching them for at least a week to get the stink out if you don't whiten. For ordering beetles, I recommend Tim Hovey at Dermestid Inc: http://www.dermestidbeetlecolonies.com/. Good guy, good hunter, good friend. Excellent, thanks for the info. Just ordered both his DVD's and a 300 bug kit which he says will be doubled for current orders. Seems like a heck of a deal. |
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I wish I had more hands, so I could give that ass four thumbs down. - badfish274
Is that your Weiner? No homo but that's pretty impressive girth you got there. - DanTSX |
That is some cool stuff.
I'm curious how you got into doing it for other people. I do a lot of trapping and save quite a few skulls for display at shows. And occasionally get people wanting me to do some for them. Is it worth doing to make any real money? Figured it might be a good side job when I retire. |
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Originally Posted By georgiagun:
That is some cool stuff. I'm curious how you got into doing it for other people. I do a lot of trapping and save quite a few skulls for display at shows. And occasionally get people wanting me to do some for them. Is it worth doing to make any real money? Figured it might be a good side job when I retire. View Quote I started cleaning skulls because I wanted to take care of the skulls from my own hunting, plus it seemed like an interesting hobby - that was over 7 years and hundreds of skulls ago. I started posting pictures in online forums because I thought people might like to see that there's an alternative to boiling, and just see what a nice white skull looks like. Next thing I know, people from all over the country are contacting me about cleaning and shipping me heads to clean! It's been fun because I've been able to clean the skulls of animals I have never even seen before, and I've cleaned trophy animal skulls, as well, which are always cool to see. I've learned a lot about animal anatomy and seen some crazy things, like tumors, scars from fighting other animals, etc. I've never run it as a business, just something I do on the side. I make enough money from it to fund all my own hunting, and sometimes a little more, but I do a lot of barter with it. If you ran a business doing skull cleaning, you could probably make good money, but I don't know if you could make a living at it. Great side job after retirement, though you have to enjoy the work. It's not for everyone. |
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.
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Fascinating, thanks for posting. What kind of upkeep do the dermestids require? What is the ratio of borax to water in the degreasing stage?
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The reality check is in the mail.
--Cave-In If I don't respond to you, it's probably because you're on my ignore list. |
I've almost pulled the trigger on buying some beetles a few times. My father is retired and we were thinking this would be a fun hobby for him (He did taxidermy for many years), but were concerned about keeping them alive in the cold. Where do you house your beetles? We were thinking about building a new shed and he could house them in there, but weren't sure how warm we'd have to keep them in the winter up here. We also considered moving them into his basement during the winter but didn't know how bad the smell would be. Any insight on beetles in the cold?
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