DIY European Skull Mount

Tree Spud

5 year old buck +
I posted previously a wide 8 point I found. It was a 4 year old that I had been watching for several years and have passed on several times. I decided to do a DIY European mount.
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First was to skin the skull and remove the jaw. I started skinning below the upper jaw and continued skinning and peeling up to the eyes. To skin a bought an exacto knife and scalpel. In some situations the straight blade was better and sometimes the curved blade worked better. Removing the eye balls was a challenge. They are tougher than you thing and I used a pliers to pull flesh while cutting. Important to cut around outer eye near the skull and work your way around so you can remove entire eye. Then continue to skin and remove all the way around the antler base.

You can remove the jaw pulling down and pushing up cutting the ligaments that holds it in place.

Next step is to remove any loose flesh around the skull.

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Then came the first phase of boiling. My propane burner was not working so I used the kitchen. Made sure windows were open and vented well so the wife wound not freak. Filled the pot with water and added about a cup of borax which is supposed to help break down the proteins in the flesh. You do not boil but rather bring the water to a low simmer so the water is moving in the pot. They said to boil for 6-8 hours. I had to boil twice for 7 hours each to get the flesh loosen so I could remove.

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After boiling is was tedious catting, scraping, and pulling flesh of the skull with forceps. Pulling the tissue from the nasal cavity & the brain cavity was a real pain. Lots of attempting to grab tissue with the forceps & then cut with the scalpel. Important to get all so bugs & smell don't appear after you are done. Probably had 2-3 hours just cleaning out these cavities. I did not have a power washer but did have a high water jet attachment for the hose. This helped after multiple try's to remove or loosen flesh, brain, etc.


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Your wife must really love you! I could never get away with that in the house.
I skin them out and get everything I can off of them then take them to work and put them in a bucket of water with Dawn soap and a steam hose.
 
After I removed as much flesh as I could, moved on to the degreasing step. These was still fluesh & ligaments stuck in many areas and took a lot of detailed cutting, scraping and pulling. For degreasing, I filled the same pot with water and about a half a cup of Dawn dish soap. Went and boiled (shimmered as above) twice for 5-6 hours. Between each I worked on removing pockets of flesh.

Below is the skull after the degreasing phase. I then wrapped the lower antlers with saran wrap and duct tape to protect them from the whitening phase.

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Everything I read said not to use bleach as it would damage the bone. I tried to use peroxide as a first step. They suggested 30% peroxide but I could only buy 6%. I tested by soaking the skull for 4-5 hours with minimal results.

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After some research I found that you could use hair salon beauty products for whitening. Mixing 40 volume cream and a whitening powder created a paste.


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I painted the paste all over the skull as thick as I could. In order to get it to stick you need to make sure you do a good job in the degreasing process. Skull should feel dry and not slick.

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QUOTE="H20fwler, post: 190524, member: 1403"]Your wife must really love you! I could never get away with that in the house.
I skin them out and get everything I can off of them then take them to work and put them in a bucket of water with Dawn soap and a steam hose.[/QUOTE]

Yes she does, she has learned my hunting ways. She actually after not having a smell leftover found it very interesting.

I still owe here, chit to be reclaimed in the future … :emoji_relaxed:
 
I've done 20 or so euros. All on the kitchen stove. Wife is fine with it. Hey, we boil the Thanksgiving turkey bones and carcass for making soup so what's the big deal about boiling a deer skull? I never understood why people freak out over it.
I do give mine a full, rolling boil. Having to simmer is bs IMO. Boiling is fine, but you just have to keep an eye on it and not let it boil over the pan or for too long, or it will fall apart. To the water, I add Borax (or Arm and Hammer washing soda) and Dawn.
A power washer is a must. A skull gets spic and span, in every nook and cranny (brain cavity and all), in a couple minutes with a power washer.
Personally, I prefer a more natural look. I don't peroxide mine. I will give it a short bleach dip sometimes but not usually. I've not had any issue with bleach, but I rinse it well if I do a dip.
I did have a bug get into a skull once. I was getting a little bit of bone (?) powder on the shelf under the skull. I mixed up some permethrin and squirted it in all the crannies...problem solved.
 
If you’ll bust out the power washer you don’t have to simmer near as long. I simmer ~1 hour, then alternate with power washing and simmering for 30 minutes. The power washer is especially helpful clearing out the nasal passages.


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My propane burner was not working so I used the kitchen.

Very simply I would be divorced. I couldn't even fry fish in the house until we got a high power vent hood over the cook top! It's not the subject matter, it's the smell. I can't smell * on my upper lip. My wife can smell an ant at the end of the driveway.

-John
 
Nice job Tree Spud. Thanks for the post and the pics.

I tried my first European mount this fall with a little 8 that I got. I boiled in my garage on turkey fryer. I thought the smell was a little powerful. I can't imagine doing it in the kitchen!
 
I agree a power washer would be the way to go next time.

I did the whitening cream process twice. Layered the cream on real thick and let site for 9-10 hours. It did a nice job of bleaching and whitening. Lots of work but I was pleased with how it turned out. Purchased a wall mount pedestal plaque made of pecan wood and mounted him.

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Looks really good. I have a couple, want to come do mine?

-John
 
I have did a few over the last few years, takes time. I use a turkey cooker and dawn dish soap. Light boil and every 20 minutes I pull the head out and stir the brains and cut some more meat off the head. After a few hours I pull the nasal meat out and go over the scull looking for anything else to trim off. After boiling I dry and them rub Botox into the skull anywhere I can get it. Let dry a few days and then I do the 40 volume hair whitener. I like doing it and saving some money. 50536226-3063-4A64-B4F2-50FED4D31B16.jpeg
 
Looks really good. I have a couple, want to come do mine?

-John

I think I'll keep my day job ... trust me, the $125-$150 that someone charges is well worth it :emoji_wink:
 
Looks good.
Past couple I have buried for a couple months. Then just spray them off with the hose and wash with soap.
 
Looks good.
Past couple I have buried for a couple months. Then just spray them off with the hose and wash with soap.
Our ground is froze so hard it would probably wreck the skull.
 
Looks good.
Past couple I have buried for a couple months. Then just spray them off with the hose and wash with soap.

What works best for the bury it method? How deep? Add anything to soil or any special place you bury it?
 
My helper on my farm Josh just did 12 European skull mounts. This was an accumulation of several years hunting where he, his two girls and myself all contributed to the skull total. I gave him 14 8 inch wide 6 foot long 5/4 finished cherry boards from my own land that had been sitting in my garage in a pile for the past 25 years in exchange for the work on my two mounts. He has texted me some finished pictures and they turned out great. He has two patterns, one for an archery and one for a firearm taken buck. The mount has a flat backing piece that attaches to the wall and then an offset piece the sits at about a 30 degree angle in front where the skull is displayed. All pieces are from the same cherry board so the grain matches. He has an entire system for taking the heads with skin on to the finished product but I can not remember all the steps. Quite a number of man hours into the project. As good if not better than a lot of professional jobs I have seen. I jokingly said he should consider this as a side job. One of my hunting buddies saw my pictures of the finished work and is having the buck he took in the Upper Peninsula of MI done as well.
 
Only add this as haven't seen anyone mention the method, but I'm a big fan of cold water maceration, though with one tool used to aid decomposition speed... a simple aquarium heater, making it more like lukewarm maceration. No boiling to monitor... no pressure washing... nothing needed but water, a bucket, and a simple aquarium heater. With heater placed in bucket, skulls are COMPLETELY clean in about 7 days. Do it in my shed now so I do quickly change out water daily... doing this smell never gets too bad at all. Very safe method with the lowest risk of damaging any bone.
 
Only add this as haven't seen anyone mention the method, but I'm a big fan of cold water maceration, though with one tool used to aid decomposition speed... a simple aquarium heater, making it more like lukewarm maceration. No boiling to monitor... no pressure washing... nothing needed but water, a bucket, and a simple aquarium heater. With heater placed in bucket, skulls are COMPLETELY clean in about 7 days. Do it in my shed now so I do quickly change out water daily... doing this smell never gets too bad at all. Very safe method with the lowest risk of damaging any bone.

You can put the head in a creek also. It will be picked clean.
 
What works best for the bury it method? How deep? Add anything to soil or any special place you bury it?

I did 2 several years ago. dug 2 small holes, added some compost, wrapped the antlers in plastic shopping bags then buried the skulls. You have to protect them from rodents as they will chew the antlers down. I used an old fire pit screen & top to protect them. Left them there all summer and when I removed, just hosed them off and they were pretty clean.
 
Thanks for the step-by-step... the pics are great. I've done a few like this and always end up thinking; "that was a lot more work than I figured it would be". I had a friend buy the beetles. They worked great for the first deer but he tried to keep them alive so that it would be a 1 time purchase. Turned out to be a pain to keep a colony going (and they stink) so that become a thing of the past. Good work!
 
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