Chemicals for Namibian Taxidermy & Trophy Work

Hydrogen peroxide — the catalogue lists it precisely for taxidermy skull work and bone whitening — used after thorough cleaning and degreasing, never as a shortcut around them. Soak or paste the peroxide onto grease-free bone; grease under peroxide is what causes the yellow bloom months later. What ruins skulls is household bleach (sodium hypochlorite): it attacks the bone structure itself and mounts turn chalky and flake. Peroxide, patience and proper degreasing are the professional sequence — we stock all three stages.

Salt, shade and speed. Flesh the skin promptly, salt heavily with fine salt into every fold, drain and re-salt within a day — in our temperatures bacterial slip starts in hours, not days. Keep salted skins shaded, dry and ventilated, never in plastic. At the studio, the pickle (formic or sulphuric-based, from our acids range) stabilises the skin for tanning. We supply salt chemistry, pickle acids and borax in trade quantities through the season; hunting-farm skinning sheds keep 25 kg bags standing.

Mechanical fleshing first — no solvent fixes a badly fleshed cape — then borax working the flesh side, which the catalogue notes taxidermists use exactly for getting fat off skins. For the grease-heavy species, a solvent degreasing stage with perchloroethylene or white benzine lifts what borax cannot, and repeated warm degreaser baths beat one aggressive one. Grease left in the cape is the classic cause of slipping hair and yellowing mounts a year later, so this stage earns its time. All three products come from one counter here.

Yes — the composites range covers the mount, not just the skin. NCS 215 clear casting resin handles reproduction work and water features in habitat bases; GP polyester with chopped strand mat builds forms and rockwork; Cabosil thickens fillets and detail paste; pigment pastes colour bases; and Dragon Skin silicones take moulds off originals — noses, ears, fish heads — with the release agents to match. Sicomin epoxy serves the fine clear work. It is the same professional lay-up basket the boatbuilders buy, sized down to studio quantities.