Clean bones and skulls

[jkane]

Fire ants are nasty bugs! Lived in Texas for a few years. Had a dog die one evening. I think he got bit by a snake. Laid his body next to the back garden to bury it later. Went back out the next day and it was half covered in fire ants! Decided not to try and anger the fire ant gods and disturb them right then and there. 3 days later there was only some fur and the bones left. Meat was pretty much gone.

Then the killer bees showed up. I took the family and migrated back up north where the snow keeps those creatures under control!

Anyhow, my son got his first worthy white tail rack this fall. We want to mount it (just the horns, not the whole head) There is some skin yet, and was thinking about hanging it from a tree over winter and letting the birds pick it off, or boiling. Good timely topic!

[tyger]

Anyhow, my son got his first worthy white tail rack this fall. We want to mount it (just the horns, not the whole head) There is some skin yet, and was thinking about hanging it from a tree over winter and letting the birds pick it off, or boiling. Good timely topic!

The problem with the "hanging-heads-out-and-seeing-how-it-goes" approach is that you don't have any control over what happens! Birds won't work for you, and any vermin are likely to steal your trophy.

I had a skin in pickle, stirring it every 12 hours, and went to go stir it and found out that some rascal (probably a 'coon) had taken it out of the pickle, drug it 15 yards to a privit hedge, and chewed both the ears.

The cleaning process that is described in this thread is a good way to make a really fine presentable European mount for the antlers. It is traditional, and very good looking, particularly for out in the house where people who might be squeamish about glass eyes and hair are likely to confront it. What you hang in the man-cave is....well.....anything you want!

[Bugbear]

we've got the killer bees over here in Arizona, too. They make bigger hives and colonies than the European bees.

I forget how big it was but someone down the way had a huge killer bee hive in an old couch in their back yard a few years back. It had several pounds of honey in it.

[Dixiecat]

Are you referring to me, or to Ted, or is it a collective 'you'?

Ha!

I was actually referring to the pot of boiling skull. We always had to ask if the pot on the stove was actual food or something for her collection. I do believe she preferred laundry detergent for her boiling up.

[Tartan Hiker]

This entire discussion makes me smile. I teach biology and vertebrate field bio is my specialty. I have a classroom full of cleaned bones.

They call me "Road Kill Bill" at school, and for good reason.

[Woodsman]

I collect interesting skulls, turtle carapaces and other bones too as I find them in the field. The easiest is when mother nature has already performed the cleaning and bleaching for you but often that's a rare find. I've used Chlorox bleach solutions to clean off the meat and bleach bone but this can be nasty -left for too long it starts attacking the bone. I've learned to soak such cleaned items in several after-washings of fresh water to assure all the bleach is gone.

On the other hand I also have 2 turtles (Terrapene and Chrysemys) buried in my back yard near a compost pile that should be about finished now. One is contained in a screened bag as an experiment. Unfortunately I no longer remember their exact location. Chelonian quest anyone?

[Tobus]

The easiest is when mother nature has already performed the cleaning and bleaching for you but often that's a rare find. I've used Chlorox bleach solutions to clean off the meat and bleach bone but this can be nasty -left for too long it starts attacking the bone.

Mother nature herself will start attacking the bone too, if left out to weather. One of our friends brought us back some nice bovine vertebrae and a pelvic bone she found in the desert, and we put them on the porch as decoration. After a year or two, though, the rain and sun had all but destroyed them.

While we're on the subject, though, I thought I'd share what someone told me years ago on making deer antlers look "new" again. If you find an old shed in the woods that's been bleached by the sun and weathered, you can bring it back to somewhat newly-shed condition. Clean it off first. Then blacken it over a candle if desired, and wipe off. This will give depth to the crags and such. You can also use brown shoe polish, I'm told. Once you get the color back, then put a paste wax over everything and buff it. This *should* give a color and finish that looks like it was when it was still on the deer's head.

Disclaimer: I have not yet tried this method, so I won't guarantee any results.

[Tartan Hiker]

Potassium permanganate is the chemical that is usually used to stain antler back to its "fresh" condition.

[Pleater]

Watch out if your bone might have been baked - back in the days when I was with the English Civil War reenactors somone had a knife with a bone handle and he said it was from a leg of lamb they'd had for dinner.

I warned him that it might be brittle, but he obviously paid no attention - on one of the meets I did not attend he was using the knife and the handle shattered, slicing his hand on the points and edges of the bone.

Apparently the apperance of several bloodstained members of the Roundhead Association in costume at the nearest A & E department caused something of a stir.

I think that boiling is fine - but at higher temperatures the strength is reduced.

Dogs should not be given baked bones for the same reason - they can get perforated guts from snapped off splinters, also cuts around the mouth from the broken edges.

I first learned of the danger when a dog was brought into the RSPCA clinic with a spike of bone stuck through his tongue and out through the lower jaw.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Bugbear]

Ya, I forget why the bones get brittle when they are heated like that. When I throw a chicken in the crock pot, which is kind of like what they are doing here, the bones don't get brittle.
When you go to grind them up, they
kind of have a fiber-like softness to them. Baked bones shatter and you can smash them into dust with a sledge hammer.

Cow bones kind of start falling apart on their own and start splintering if they're out side too long.