Bleaching Antlers

[Pine]

Has anyone ever bleached deer antlers ?
I'm wondering how that works and what ratio of bleach and water to use .
I have used sheds that have been sun bleached , and they look very nice .
I've heard that they can be bleached , so I'm thinking of trying it .
Thanks for your input .

[FerretWYO]

Do Not use bleach and water ever.

That will ruin them. The Bleach will continue to eat away at them for a long time to come.

You can try a couple other things. First I would wash them in soap and water. Scrub them up well.

Then go to your local beauty supply store and get you some 40% peroxide developer. Paint in on and wash it off several times and you should have the bleached look you are going for.

[Pine]

Thanks for the info . I was wondering if the bleach would be OK , but I heard that you can bleach antlers .
That makes sense because bleach will break down cloth fibers .

[Jon Stewart]

What Ferret wrote. I paint the 40% on and let them stand in the sun. wash off the peroxide with dawn dish soap and water , dry and let  them sit in the sun again. they will turn nice and white. I do this same process with deer jaws that I used for knife handles with my stone knives.  doesn't harm the bone a bit doing it this way. Also use this process for my turkey wing bone calls.

The 40% peroxide isn't too expensive either.

[Shadowhnter]

I have bleached/whitened a bunch of animal skulls. Theres other steps/processes for skulls, but in the end, peroxide is the main thing that brings out the white.
Here is an otter I done for example.

 

 

 

[bucknut]

Just curious why you want them bleached?

[Pine]

Because some antlers don't have a good color and when making draw pulls or knife handles , they look better .
I wouldn't do that to them all , some antlers have very nice color to begin with .

[peanut39350]

I just use regular household peroxide it won't get it as white as the beauty shop stuff but it works pretty good

[Longtoke]

used to make specimens for work study at school, if you do boil with bleach only do so on the first boil then immediately reboil with soap water to remove the chlor, which will continue to decay the bones if left on. rinsing them with water is fine but dont soak them, this will also make them break down faster.  

The real key however is to use dawn dish soap to remove the oil and peroxide to whiten.  We had a slight advantage however as we used dermestidae to clean the hard to reach spots.

[JimB]

I agree with Ferret but will say if you use a scouring powder like Comet,and a stiff scrub brush before the soap,it will remove more of the color before bleaching.

[fireman_3311]

It's not actually 40%, it's called 40 Volume.  It's around 12-15%!  But yes, it should work fine!  You can get it in powder, liquid or creme. I use the creme, and brush it on the larger skulls I clean with a 1" paint brush.

[fireman_3311]

Originally posted by Shadowhnter:
I have bleached/whitened a bunch of animal skulls. Theres other steps/processes for skulls, but in the end, peroxide is the main thing that brings out the white.
Here is an otter I done for example.

   

   

     

Nice job on the otter!!  Beetles I'd guess??

[hunt it]

Leave them out in the sun is another option.

[Tom Phillips]

I have done quite a number of skulls using various methods and solutions and have settled on 1st of all cleaning off as much meat & flesh as possible & then bring water to just rolling boil and using ARM & HAMMER Super WASHING SODA which is found in Super Market and comes in powder form in 3 lb 7 oz. box @ $3.99 + Tx a box and use 1/2 cup per pan of water.Be sure to submerge skull,BUT if antlers are on skull do not let antlers sit in water it can stain antlers.I like to empty dirty water a couple times for whitetail skulls and even more for Bear skulls.I am very particular and get down to using fine tipped exacto knife to get out every little piece of flesh etc in all nooks & crannies and then paint on the peroxide listed above losely cover with saran wrap and set in sunlite for couple days in day lite hours and then rinse off good and then set in sun again they come out GREAT !! Also a piece of coat hanger with little bend at tip works great for getting into skull cavity to get lose pieces of brain that stay attached to skull.
 GOOD LUCK.

[TIM B]

A pair of hemostats works great too.  I've done more than I wanted to while doing taxi-- use the washing soda as stated above and don't rush it- don't bring it to a hard boil or the small bones become fragile.  
Soak in peroxide and after a good rinse it drys in sun