Nate C.

Squirrels will gnaw shed antlers down to nothing. I guess maybe rabbits will too.

Don't boil it too hard; the bone will disintegrate. I kept it to a slow roll, almost a simmer, for about 8 hours, and cut chunks off as I went. If you want to keep the teeth for the Euro mount be sure and recover them from the pot before you dump the water. You can glue them back in later. Be sure and get the brain matter out. I used a piece of wire. An air compressor helps too, but it can get messy that way. Getting the tissue out the nasal membrane is important too. Also, be sure and pop out those round ear bones. There is tissue down below them. (They are a pain to pop out, but if you leave them in, you will smell it later!) Before you start bleaching, it is important to 'de-grease the bone' to prevent it from yellowing after you bleach it. I washed the skull several times with warm water and dawn dishwashing soap, basically just dunking and rinsing over and over. After cooking and carving, I let it hang for a few weeks to dry before bleaching. I bought the 40% hair peroxide powder and the gel activator at Sally's Beauty Supply. One container of each is good for 3 maybe even 4 skulls. You mix the powder with the gel and then just glob it onto the skull. I used one of those sponge-on-a-stick paint applicators and really laid it on thick. It kind of foams up and expands as it dries, so lay out plenty of paper or plastic to catch the stuff. If you let the thing sit and dry in front of a heater, it is supposed to accelerate the bleaching process. Once it dries, the stuff just flakes off. I repeated three times, I think, and it came out plenty white. You will be blond whereever the stuff gets on you, so be careful. Before bleaching, I wrapped the antler bases with saran wrap, then taped it down with masking tape. If you accidentally bleach the antlers, you can use touch-up paint to fix them but getting a color match might be a little work. I finished it off with some semi-gloss paint to seal the skull. I heard that some folks also use a 50/50 mix of Elmer's school glue and water to accomplish the same result. You can take boiled linseed oil and rub it into the antlers to give them a shine if you want. This was the first time I tried this. I bought a fancy angled wooden mount and still only had $65-75 in the whole project (not counting beer or my time), so that beats $150 to the taxidermist. The skull attaches to the mount with a screw up through the wood into the base of the skull. I will do one of these again. The only thing I will do different next time is to spend more time on the 'de-greasing' part of the job. After a few months, my skull yellowed slightly in spots where the oils leached up from inside, but it still looks darn good on the wall. Here's pics of mine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44986798@N08/4217319350/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/44986798@N08/4216550919/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/44986798@N08/4216550829/in/photostream/