# Cleaning skulls with Sous vide machine



## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

This came to me through Wyoming Game and Fish. Thought I would pass it along.




Good Hunting!


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

Thank you for posting.

L & O


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## DirtySteve (Apr 9, 2006)

This is pretty interesting. Looks incredibly easy. Makes me wonder about using detergent on antlers? Seems like it whitened the skull up fairly well. Would it change color of antlers?


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## Cork Dust (Nov 26, 2012)

Liver and Onions said:


> Thank you for posting.
> 
> L & O


Wyoming has the nation's highest incidence of CWD. For peace of mind, if you go this route, I would encourage you to not use the Sous Vide unit to cook food, There is no evidence that elevated temperatures inactivate infectious prions below sustained intervals of 900F exposure.


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## Cork Dust (Nov 26, 2012)

DirtySteve said:


> This is pretty interesting. Looks incredibly easy. Makes me wonder about using detergent on antlers? Seems like it whitened the skull up fairly well. Would it change color of antlers?


It's an oxygenator, so yes it will bleach the skull. Just make sure you don't submerge the bases of your deer antlers or they will be discolored eventually. You should "cook" the connective tissue that adheres tenaciously below the antler burls prior adding the oxy-clean and adjusting the antlers to no longer be submerged at their bases.


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## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

DirtySteve said:


> This is pretty interesting. Looks incredibly easy. Makes me wonder about using detergent on antlers? Seems like it whitened the skull up fairly well. Would it change color of antlers?


You may want to stain them when you are dressing it up. 




(Is there a question youtube can't answer?)


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## Cork Dust (Nov 26, 2012)

Nostromo said:


> You may want to stain them when you are dressing it up.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Having made the mistake of keeping my antler bases submeged after Oxy-clean addition ( I was stewing my head in an aluminum pan on my Coleman cook stove), the stain is retained in all the minor scratches and crevices in the polished sections of the antler, imparting a not very realistic coloration pattern. I was able to use a Scotch-brite polishing pad to get most of it off. My go to is a mix of walnut stain and medium brown shoe polish applied sparingly and left to dry prior polishing.


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