more (you guessed it) pig skull stuff
Heh. The interesting thing is that the bubbling (caused by the hydrogen peroxide solution reacting with the stuff on/in the bones) is actually more vigorous this evening. Not sure why, unless it's because the water is evaporating, and the remaining hydrogen peroxide is more concentrated. That doesn't make sense, to me, so if anyone can tell me how hydrogen peroxide works chemically as a bleaching solution, I would appreciate it.
Also, may flies (or maybe fruit flies, I don't know) have been falling in the bleaching solution. Or more likely, landing on the surface by accident, and then dying. But that is only an incidental in the great pig skull cleaning adventure.
At any rate, the bones are bleaching nicely. I'll need to check my reference document again to see how long I should keep them in the solution-- as I recall it said "until it stopped bubbling". Well, it hasn't. Heh.
More tomorrow.
EDIT: Well, actually, more now. I have not been able to find a definitive answer on how long bones should soak in a H2O2 solution. It has ranged from less than an hour to several days. I did discover one thing-- my H2O2 is actually a lot weaker than a 4% solution-- the original solution was 6% (a 20 volume solution), and I made it a lot weaker by adding water to it. Like, a 1.2% solution, if I did my math right. This is much, much weaker than even the stuff you can buy for your medicine cabinet (which I think is 10 volume, or a 3% solution). I guess I should be grateful that it's bleaching the bones at all.
Still, I will probably remove the bones from the solution tonight, since almost every site about H2O2 bleaching & bones said that eventually, even H2O2 will degrade the tissue of the bone.
Hopefully, I have done enough to degrease the things with my "hot water maceration" method. Problem is, if there is residual fat in the marrow that I didn't manage to remove, it can appear to stain the skull weeks, months or years later. Some sites mentioned using the H2O2 as a degreaser as well as a bleaching agent, so hopefully that and the detergent I used will have done the trick.
Also, may flies (or maybe fruit flies, I don't know) have been falling in the bleaching solution. Or more likely, landing on the surface by accident, and then dying. But that is only an incidental in the great pig skull cleaning adventure.
At any rate, the bones are bleaching nicely. I'll need to check my reference document again to see how long I should keep them in the solution-- as I recall it said "until it stopped bubbling". Well, it hasn't. Heh.
More tomorrow.
EDIT: Well, actually, more now. I have not been able to find a definitive answer on how long bones should soak in a H2O2 solution. It has ranged from less than an hour to several days. I did discover one thing-- my H2O2 is actually a lot weaker than a 4% solution-- the original solution was 6% (a 20 volume solution), and I made it a lot weaker by adding water to it. Like, a 1.2% solution, if I did my math right. This is much, much weaker than even the stuff you can buy for your medicine cabinet (which I think is 10 volume, or a 3% solution). I guess I should be grateful that it's bleaching the bones at all.
Still, I will probably remove the bones from the solution tonight, since almost every site about H2O2 bleaching & bones said that eventually, even H2O2 will degrade the tissue of the bone.
Hopefully, I have done enough to degrease the things with my "hot water maceration" method. Problem is, if there is residual fat in the marrow that I didn't manage to remove, it can appear to stain the skull weeks, months or years later. Some sites mentioned using the H2O2 as a degreaser as well as a bleaching agent, so hopefully that and the detergent I used will have done the trick.