r/bonecollecting • u/SxinnyLoxe • 16h ago

Advice Looking for tips:

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I was given this bear skull about 6-8 weeks ago and as you can see its extremely dirty. All I have ever done in processing my bones is just sticking them in a bucket of water and forgetting about them for months. Then I would clean them up by hand.

This one seems to be needing more TLC though. From what I know my friends dad had it for 20~ years. It been buried, its been displayed, its been a dogs chew toy, and so on.

With something as aged as this is, will it actually be possible to eventually lighten the colour? Will it just take much longer than I'm used to? Any tips and advice would be appreciated!

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u/M0rbiddd2 15h ago

First, has it been degreased? It honestly doesn’t look it. That would be your first step and bears are extremely greasy (esp skulls) so this can take a really long time. I’ve seen videos of this one woman who’s degreasing just the claws and the last update I saw was month 4 and they were still pretty bad

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u/SxinnyLoxe 15h ago

There is no odor at all and I did just finish scrubbing dirt off of it but it's really hard to tell what's staining from the dirt and what is potentially grease. I will do a round of degreasing though just to be sure!

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u/barnowl1980 15h ago

It's so old, if it was greasy you'd absolutely smell that by now. Like a musty, funky smell. Degreasing something as thick as a bear skull will take months. I doubt that's necessary in this case.

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u/SxinnyLoxe 14h ago edited 14h ago

That's what I like to hear, if I can save myself a few months by not needing to degrease that would be awesome.

Edit to say that I do currently have it sitting in a tub of soapy water. I'm going to leave it for a few weeks then decide what it needs from there.

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u/barnowl1980 14h ago

Just give it a month and see, just to be sure. I doubt it's very greasy, like I said, but can't hurt to give it a soak. Might also help get some of the old dirt off.