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Cleaning meat from deer bone--does boiling spoil the bone?
footfootfoot:
I want to experiment with making some bone tools and arrowheads from the deer bones I have. There is still a bit of meat on them and I thought boiling or simmering the meat away would be easy enough given the lack of access to beetles or ants at this time of year.
I am wondering if the heat affects the strength or characteristics of the bone in a negative or positive way?
Any experience? I read through the Euro Skull Mount thread and it looks like 30% hydrogen peroxide would probably work, but how much meat will it remove?
JW_Halverson:
Boiling bone will change the characteristics of it. Bone is, in simplest terms, made up of two components. There is the calcium and then there is the matrix of collagen that holds the calcium in place. The cooking really does nothing much to the calcium because it is an element and we are not talking alchemy here -we are not changing calcium into gold. But cooking the collagen part of the bone weakens and softens it. Collagen is the stuff that makes your skin stretchy, makes sinews - ligaments and tendons, fingernails, too.
It's a protein and by cooking, you chemically change it in a direction that cannot be reversed. Kinda like when an eggwhite cooks and becomes white instead of clear.
If want it good and clean you could try maceration. Immerse it in water and keep it lukewarm. The meat will spoil, rot, and eventually come off with just a little effort leaving the bone nice and solid. Or call a few taxidermy places locally and see if anyone has any dermestid beetles you can borrow. Just keep the beetles far from your home, they also eat feathers, glue, leather, and have a special love for destroying trophy mounts.
footfootfoot:
Thanks for that clear explanation! It is just what I was looking for. I never realized there was collagen in bone. Makes sense now that you mention it.
I'll try the maceration route if I can't locate any beetles.
Gus:
Yes Sir,
I toss all my bone in an unoccupied rabbit hutch out back and let nature take it course.
They have to be caged around here or my girls (Furry Children) will hardly leave me anything to work with.
:)
-gus
Henrik:
Hmm aren't there some flesh eating beetles you can buy in pet stores that will clean up bone in a few weeks better than any other method?
Check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heRtDDTntRg at around 1 min they start talking about the beetles
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