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DO NOT BLEACH!!!
14 years ago
General
Hello, fellow taxidermy-lovers.
I would like to give a little tip on the subject of bone-whitening. For the longest time, people have been told to use bleach on their bones to whiten them, and this is extremely incorrect. I would like to go into a couple methods of whitening bones.
Bleach - When used on bones, eats away at the calcium and causes the bones to look dry, crusty, rough and porous. In my opinion, it is not an acceptable way at whitening if you plan on having good looking skulls.
Peroxide - Plain old Hydrogen Peroxide that can be bought at any health store or Walmart or any other store you can go to is an excellent way at cleaning bones. It does not eat away at the bone, it does not destroy it in any way, but it does give the bones a very nice white look.
Sun-bleaching - Putting your degreased/cleaned bones in the sun is a good way to get white bones, but you have to deal with the fact that it will be subjected to the weather and may even disappear one night if some animal decides he wants to grab it. Sun-bleaching has the potential to wear down your bones because of the rain.
My preferred method of whitening is peroxide. You can buy it in different strengths and it is cheap. Salon peroxide is around 30% and will work well on bones, but you shouldn't leave it in for too long.. depending on the skull size.
Plain ol' drug-mart 3% peroxide works very well and you can leave the skulls in for days if you'd like
This is your skull on bleach: http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2.....on-d3fw6dn.jpg
This is your skull on peroxide [and a little bit of range-cleaning on the zygomatic arch.. hehe: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6037381/
[Bleach photo posted with the artist's permission]
I would like to give a little tip on the subject of bone-whitening. For the longest time, people have been told to use bleach on their bones to whiten them, and this is extremely incorrect. I would like to go into a couple methods of whitening bones.
Bleach - When used on bones, eats away at the calcium and causes the bones to look dry, crusty, rough and porous. In my opinion, it is not an acceptable way at whitening if you plan on having good looking skulls.
Peroxide - Plain old Hydrogen Peroxide that can be bought at any health store or Walmart or any other store you can go to is an excellent way at cleaning bones. It does not eat away at the bone, it does not destroy it in any way, but it does give the bones a very nice white look.
Sun-bleaching - Putting your degreased/cleaned bones in the sun is a good way to get white bones, but you have to deal with the fact that it will be subjected to the weather and may even disappear one night if some animal decides he wants to grab it. Sun-bleaching has the potential to wear down your bones because of the rain.
My preferred method of whitening is peroxide. You can buy it in different strengths and it is cheap. Salon peroxide is around 30% and will work well on bones, but you shouldn't leave it in for too long.. depending on the skull size.
Plain ol' drug-mart 3% peroxide works very well and you can leave the skulls in for days if you'd like
This is your skull on bleach: http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2.....on-d3fw6dn.jpg
This is your skull on peroxide [and a little bit of range-cleaning on the zygomatic arch.. hehe: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6037381/
[Bleach photo posted with the artist's permission]
(( lol, like the drug ads: This is your skull on bleach! ))
I just use the plain old 3% bottles
Sally's usually has 40% creme peroxide. It's pretty great, but it is thick! So you need a strainer to pour it in to find tiny bones and teeth. =PIt does get hot fast. Got some on my finger once, turned it white.Just a little tip though.. if you get it on your hands, sometimes it will make your fingers white.. don't worry about it, it goes away
The person who cleaned this skull put it in peroxide for about a week: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6706429
After that, you should think about changing it if it doesn't seem to be making a difference.