[TheForge] Cleaning bones for knife handles

[John Higgins]

 Hi All,
John here from Australia, a long time watcher but first time commenter.
As part of my BSc I had to prepare several skeletons for biological specimens & the process may be useful.
The uni posted me freshly killed animals; a lizard, a bird, a rat & a kangaroo head; thankfully in winter for the sake of the postie.
The process was fairly simple but be warned I lived on a farm then & I would not try this in an urban area.
The first process, which is probably the only one needed for knife handles, was maceration.
See this Wikipedia link.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maceration_(bone)
Placed the items in a garbage bin then covered with water, added some dissolved washing powder & some gentle liquid detergent (this is to emulsify the fats a bit & hopefully stop the bones from staining or going brown), then covered with a lid with several bricks on top to prevent removal by the local wildlife. (I found my items tended to float & come out of the water so I put a weight on top; make sure it's disposable).

This was placed in a shady sheltered position as far from the house as possible as it will be putrid & stink like nothing else.
Every 2 days the water mixture was replaced; use a peg for the nose or at least hold your breath & wear rubber gloves & old clothes as any spills are impossible to get rid of the smell.

Depending on the amount of flesh & the temperature this could take 10 days to 2 or 3 weeks.
When complete the bone should be free from flesh & sinews as the bacteria will remove it all.
If any staining or off colours exist these may be bleached with a very low hydrogen peroxide solution, but this will slightly weaken the bone. 

Hope this is of some help, the ants or beetles are a better alternative but hard to find.
Love the forum & all the great info.
Regards,John.
    On Thursday, 3 February 2022, 08:30:05 am AEDT, Charles <xlch58 at swbell.net> wrote:  
 
  The bot does not like links.  remove the spaces if you want to watch the episode.....
"vimeo . com / 293217375"


Charles    On Wednesday, February 2, 2022, 03:21:04 PM CST, Charles <xlch58 at swbell.net> wrote:  
 
  There is a Dirty Jobs episodes that covers that:
Skulls Unlimited is Featured on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe


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Skulls Unlimited is Featured on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe


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They use beetles.

Charles

    On Wednesday, February 2, 2022, 12:23:01 PM CST, Ron Childers <ron at munlaw.net> wrote:  
 
 How is the best way to remove the flesh from beef and deer bones to use for knife handles? Ron
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