Everybody was new at something, at one time or another, jbrad. Don't worry about. I didn't learn my trade over night either.
No, you can't really boil it too long.
The few times I do use the boiling technique, I like to tie a wire to the skull and pull it out by the wire once in a while to check it. What your checking for is to see how the meat is seperating from the bone. The jaw lines seem to be the toughest, they will leave a thin trace or stain where the meat was if not boiled long enough. Leave them in long enough and this will disappear also.
Yes, boiling will take care of the brain also, but it is a good idea to pull the skull out once in a while and pour the brain from the skull. If you boil it long enough you will be able to pour everything out that's inside the brain cavity. Pouring it out once in a while gets the loosened stuff out of the way, exposing more, and it shortens the boiling time a bit.
It's a good idea also to try and remove as much meat as possible before boiling. It just does a whole lot better job the less meat there is to remove. Removing the eyes ahead of time helps quite a bit also. You can skin it and throw it right in if you want, but removing some of this stuff sure helps out a lot.
Also...keep an eye on the teeth. As the gum line is boiled away the teeth will become loose and want to fall out. They will need to be glued in later, so try not to throw any out with the water. And watch them as you pull the skull from time to time to pour out the brain cavity. If there loose, take them out and set them aside, making a mental note of where they will go back.
As far as sealing them, we use the same spray on clear sealer that we spray fish mounts with as we finish them to seal them.
Plasti-Cote makes a crystal clear spray sealer that would work fine also. I've had people ask me if they can spray it with Polyurethane. I've never done it and I DO know that some poly's will turn yellow in time, and some will come right out of the can with a yellow tinge to it. All I can say as far as that goes is, if your going to try a Poly spray, test it on something white first.
~River Runner~
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[This message has been edited by River Runner (edited 04-18-2001).]