Yea it’s a pain in the butt and actually boiling can split the nasal cavity apart and discolor from the fats and oils cooking into it. I’ve seen guys use a low power pressure washer to get the worst out. It is tedious. But for guys like us who don’t have beetles it’s either boil/pressure wash, bury it, or if you have a pond throw it in there and let the fish and crawdads do the work (takes a long time).
I have seen the nasal bones separate on the two heads that I am working on and one had the lower portion at the end of the nose come off. The low power washer idea is something that I have been mulling over. I have entertained the idea of buying a water pic and modify the end by taking the curve out so that the stream of water could be directed at the loosened membranes to flush them out. I have seen the models that have an adjustable "pressure" setting. In my head, I see the ultimate solution falling between the water pic idea and the power washer. Just coming up empty on the path to get there. If I were only going to do this with the heads we have, I would be OK with part of the inner nasal bones being missing. The wife has a side gig with a girl friend whose husband is a taxidermist. The ladies have decided they would like to offer painted or wrapped skulls to customers as well as the euro mounts. Euros are currently sent out to someone with bugs for cleaning but that cost is a significant cost v the selling price. Guess who has been asked to come up with a way to lower that cost? In a few years, this will be my side gig just before I start retirement. Edit: Just thought of a dental ultrasonic cleaner. That would most likely be better than a water pic.
If you are looking into doing it for others then why not look into getting beetles? Not sure what’s entailed in keeping them alive when they aren’t eating dead heads though
Smell! That's the number one issue. Temp-need to keep them at 70-80 degrees. So heat in winter and cool in summer. Have no place to keep them that I can control the temperature that is outside my residence. Count-need 15k-20k to be able to clean a skull in a week. Cost-.03 each give or take. $450-600. Now that I've done the research on the cost, I see why the price to clean a head is where it is.
I’m hoping my compost heap will have the right kind and amount of bugs to get it done. But killing a buck in Nov, then waiting until a ground thaw in March/April could be a pain.
I use a big crock pot for mine. Works great. Usually takes about 4-5 days on low and changing the water out a couple times. Mathews Halon Black Eagle outlaws Magnus Buzzcut 4 blades Nasty combo
Use the real skull. If you have few hours, a burner and big enough pot, do it yourself. If not pay someone to do it. Get as much meat as you can off, eyes out as well. Get water to boil, don’t keep on high, just warm enough to keep the water at a boil. If you look on a taxidermy website, get some sal soda. If not, no big deal. Let sit and check every 30-45 mins, scrape-pull as much meat as you can off each time. I use a wire/plastic bristle brush, pliers, knife, small wire cutter. It will take several times, but it will come clean. For the nose cavity, the meat will just all fall out, or grab with a needle nose and loosen/pull it out. Brain cavity scramble with a screwdriver and get most out before you start, just scramble the first few boils until it’s all out. I use a piece of plywood and bang the brain cavity hole against it after scrambling, you’ll see a thick gel cut come out as you bang it. It can be kinda tedious and time consuming, but if your looking to save some money and like doing things yourself, go for it. (Not an add for browning, I won a photo contest and received the camera as prize, these are the only pics I have of the skull.)
I don’t have any issues just boiling, the bubbles mostly clean the cavity out, sometimes you have to use a needle nose pliers, but it usually cames out in one piece of meat. My cousin uses a dremel drill and just cuts out nasal cavity, you really can’t tell when it’s on the wall, but I still haven’t ever needed to do that as it seems to come out easy for me. I do use sal soda, maybe that’s the difference or not I don’t know. But look it up, sal soda taxidermy.
i do the real. I have one on the fake only because I pulled the rack off an older mount I had that looked terrible and I was running out of wall space. It looks good, but I have to hang it away from the real ones because it is obvious fake when around the real ones. The one on the wall is fake... this is just a few of my euros
