I teach techniques and principles for skull carving and skull art

A Beginner’s Guide to Skull/Bone Carving

If you are interested in learning how to start carving skulls I put together a short guide! It’s 7 pages and I cover the tools you need, preparing the skull, burrs that I think are great for starting out, styles of carving, and safety equipment. It’s free and you can download it below.

SKULL MONEY E-BOOK

How to set up your skull business so that you get noticed and get paid. If you are going to try and make money from skull carving or skull art, you’d better do it right! I cover the business side of selling skulls and how to set yourself apart so that you actually sell skulls and make money.

FREE BOBCAT SKULL ANATOMY POSTER

I paid a professional photographer to take high quality photos of this bobcat skull I have and then made this poster. You are free to use the poster however you like, displayed with your collection, in a classroom, for your kids, or simply as decor. I labelled 18 different parts of the skull!

Dremel 4000

The number one tool you will need to carve skulls is some type of rotary tool. I much prefer the Dremel 4000 for carving for several reasons. The Dremel 4000 has a speed range of 5,000-35,000 rpm and a 1.6 amp motor, making it both great for carving out large areas of tough bone as well as carving finer work at the higher speeds.

Flex shaft

Using some type of flexible shaft attachment to your rotary tool is really going to make carving skulls easier, as well as allowing you to do finer work. Holding a heavy rotary tool can be hard on your hands and simply does not allow for the same free movement that a flexible shaft will. I used the Dremel brand Flex Shaft with my Dremel 4000.

Adjustable Chuck

An adjustable chuck is kind of an undiscovered genie of a tool as it opens up so many opportunities for different burrs that regular collets just can’t do. Using an adjustable chuck allows you to use larger shafted burrs as well as small dentist burrs. The adjustable chuck ensures a good fit for each burr, which cuts down on any wobble you might get with collets.

Respirator

Breathing in bone dust can be very bad for your lungs so make sure you are wearing a good respirator! I like the 3M rated for lead paint as it will protect you from micro particles and has replaceable cartridges.

Ear Protection

Although not a must, I still recommend using some form of ear protection as any type of rotary tool can irritate your ears over an extended period of time.

Ball Carbide Burr

(#105 from Dremel). This ball burr is great for outlining designs, stippling, and adding detail to a skull carving design.

Inverted Cone Burr

(#108 from Dremel). This is my go-to burr as it is great for creating crisp clean lines. You can use this burr to clean the outlines of a design, do checkering, or any other straight line on a skull.

Cylinder Carbide Burr

(#111 from Dremel). Similar to an inverted cone burr, this will carve clean lines. The advantage to this burr is that it will remove more material when you carve, making for a larger valley and a more 2D effect.

Large Ball Carbide Burr

(#107 from Dremel). Similar to the #105, this is great for making more defined outlines and removing negative space around a design.

Diamond Dust Football Burr

Use this burr for smoothing out areas around a design and for shaping areas of a design that have more gentle shapes.