12/02/2024
WHAT IS "DEGREASING?": an educational rant
I've had a few people ask me this year what "degreasing" is. It is arguably the most critical part of the process that guarantees a bright white mount with no smell. Skulls retain grease and fat after the flesh has been stripped off. The only way to truly remove it all is weeks or sometimes months (depending on animal species) in a degreaser and/or detergent with regular water changes. A good way to tell is when the skull is wet or held up to the light, you can see yellow or gray tinting of old grease that is left in the bone (cooked in if it was boiled, and at that point extremely difficult to remove). Your entire mount with age may turn yellow, gray, or have a musty smell almost like rawhide. It attracts insects also...gross.
Quick turnaround taxidermists boil and bleach skulls... and you pay $150 or more for it and it isnt even degreased. May look great at first, but give it time. Quick turnaround is a bigger 🚩 red flag 🚩 than your ex on the first date.
Let the following pictures do the talking.
Stay educated and stay spooky
Laughing Fox