[Music]
Not everyone is a bone collector - usually because they'd prefer not to be single.
'I'm not having that thing in my house' or 'will you stop stinking the place out' comes
with the territory.
But if you are willing to buy your way out of trouble or you are indeed single and happy,
boil and bleach away, and here's Roy to show you how..
First, here's what can go wrong.
This is one of the worst examples of a skull I have had back and this is a kudu from South
Africa and you can see they really have done a terrible job on it.
It is split, wrecked and there is not a lot you could do on that to rectify it unfortunately.
A few mistakes there - all of which we'll try and show you how to avoid.
Now it's time to clean the heads while the water boils.
Roy has thawed two roebucks over night.
So the most important thing to do before you start boiling is to obviously make sure all
the skin is off, because trying to boil it with the skin on really does become very tiresome.
So again you have got to cut round and try and get as much of the flesh off as you possibly
can and then all we are going to do is bend the knife in and cut up along the pedicles
again keeping it tight in and then cutting up into the base of the coronets.
Roy does his best to clean the heads - but don't bother with the eyes.
They are easier to sort out after the boiling.
Roy removes the jaw bone which he'll also boil and bleach.
They hold lots of information about your deer.
So here we have got one skinned off head and one jaw bone.
Again just got a little bit of excessive meat left on here.
Just put my knife up there and trim that off.
Again making sure to be very careful with your fingers.
We head outside and it's a quick dip in some cold water, taking care not to damage the
nasal bones.
Just give them a quick dip in just take any excessive blood out that we can do.
Again just be very careful when you are immersing them in water, even like this just to keep
the coronets above the water if you can when you are leaving them overnight, because you
don't want any of the scum collecting in the coronets there because once you start boiling
you don't want to be cleaning the coronets off because you will lose colour.
Normally he'd soak them like this overnight but today it's a quick in and out..
Drop the head in and again I want to suspend it and what I am going to do I am actually
going to bring the water level up to the coronet rather than push it down because if we push
it down all that is going to happen is we are going to be pushing the nasal bone against
the base.
With the water boiling we can add the heads, and jaws, and something a little extra - normally
it's bicarbonate of soda, but needs must...
It is going to have to be a Finish Power tablet to see if that works.
I don't know what will happen ... ooh that has made it bubble.
That is interesting.
You can see all the scum starting to form on the top here.
What ever you do don't think it is soup.
Roy regularly checks the water level.
It needs to boil for 25 minutes - enough time for a cuppa in a very special mug.
After 25 minutes they're done and Roy has made a slight boo boo.
He says it's probably best to cut the skull before it gets piping hot and the bones get
brittle.
When you are working on the heads, bear in mind all this sinew dries on incredibly quickly
if you keep it out for too long.
So you want to get it all done and off as quickly as you can as soon as you take it
out from boiling.
I am just trying to cut through here.
As I say I am not sure if this is going to work because the skull might be a little bit
fragile.
I have got to try and remember my woodwork classes and there we go.
So we have met up.
So you can see from the back there that we have got quite a good line and it should lay
pretty much flat.
Luckily he gets away with it and the skull is starting to look the part.
Whilst it's piping hot it's vital that all the leftover flesh is removed - including
the eyeballs.
It might be worth investing in some dental equipment to assist with the smaller orifices.
Pick up all your bits as you go as the dogs like nothing more than eating all the bits
and then regurgitating it in your living room later on in the evening.
So like horses hooves they are drawn to them.
With all the obvious bits gone Roy needs to secure the head - a drill and 4 well positioned
holes in a piece of wood make it easy.
So all I am going to do is put the antlers in like that and that will act as a bit of
an anchor point for when we are cleaning.
Roy dons shades and a mack.
:Looking like an extra from the Matrix, he powerhoses the heads.
Be very careful when you are pressure washing because you want to get rid of all the material
which is tucked up under the coronet.
So we are going to tip him back over again and wash quite heavily under here but you
don't want to be taking any colour from the coronets.
It's an effective tool and all that's left to do is the bleaching.
This is the most surprising tip of all - this gem came from his hair stylist - yes, Roy's
hair is professionally styled and possibly dyed....
With the liquid peroxide if you just pour it on it will just roll off.
With the cream peroxide it stays on there and froths up.
You just pour it on.
Make sure it is in all the nooks and the crannies, leave it over night and wash it off in the
morning.
Obviously when handling peroxide just be aware because it is a bleach.
I am just going to tip him upside down and again being very careful in this process,
making sure we don't get any on the antlers because if you spill any on the antlers it
will take the colour completely off there.
Put that on there like so, making sure that a lot in there, in the brain cavity.
You want to make sure you build it up under the coronets there so that you get all that
bleached.
All down the nasal bones.
On the eye sockets all the bone there.
Up into the eye cavities.
We did that when we had it upside down and that is pretty much it.
So all we will do is leave that over night, wash it off in the morning and leave it to
dry and away you go.
It's vital to keep this stuff away from animals, children and tell everyone in the house what
you're up to - but they'll probably work that out for themselves.