Cleaning bones: secondary projects

**your_comforting_company** · 09-16-2010, 12:56 PM

Not sure this is in the right place.

First off, I used a modern bucket for this experiment. Other than that, all you need is bones and water! Bacteria do all the work for you!!

The last deer of last season, I decided to take the advice of a fellow WSF member and look into "maceration" to clean bones. It's really simple, but really gross.
Basically, you just put your bones in a bucket with a lid. fill it up with water, and wait. Put the lid on, but don't close it all the way, or make a hole so air and bacteria can get in. Leave it in a warm or sunny spot, and once a week, pour out half the water, and refill it.
I did this for roughly 9 months now, and when I poured the water off the last time the bones were all clean!
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The ulna-radius bones will be my new hide scrapers. All the tools you need to successfully tan a deer are already there when you harvest the deer, except for the scraping beam. I will wrap the ends with rawhide to bind them back together, then add some padding for handles.
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I intend to use these femur socket pieces for an atlatl handle. Will probably embellish it a little and add some extension handle, and probably a sliding weight. It's a future project as tanning and hunting season are upon me!!
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The scapulas will become a saw and a hoe/shovel. I will definately have to come up with a handle structure for these, but they are already perfectly shaped for several different projects.
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When you harvest a deer, please take into consideration all the resources that come with that animal, and be respectful of that animals life. Thank the animal, and say a prayer for it. Thank the Good Lord for your blessing and treat the animal with the dignity you hope to be treated with when you transcend this life.

**your_comforting_company** · 09-16-2010, 12:57 PM

Oh, yeah.. these still have to be sterilized and oiled. They've been airing dry for about two weeks now.

**Rick** · 09-16-2010, 01:04 PM

That's just great!!! I don't think the hole is to allow bacteria in, however. The bacteria is already in there when you pop the lid on. The bacteria is aerobic, I think, and requires at least a slight movement of air. Expended gases from the bacteria will be vented through the hole and any change in natural air pressure will be accommodated.

This is a very similar process to harvesting tomato seeds. You cover them with water and a lid with a hole in it and drain and change the water daily. Good seeds will always sink to the bottom.

I think the whole thing is little more than fermentation. You are just doing it with bones instead of hops or grape juice.

**RangerXanatos** · 09-16-2010, 01:05 PM

Sounds just like decomposing but doesn't that leave a terrible smell? Why not just lay them near a fire ant bed? Either way, they're white and clean!

**crashdive123** · 09-16-2010, 01:24 PM

Good post YCC. Have you ever placed some of the bones on a fire ant mound? They are persistent little critters that work pretty fast.

**your_comforting_company** · 09-16-2010, 01:25 PM

If I leave bones out in the yard near an ant bed, the neighborhood dogs usually find them.
At first the smell is pretty bad, but after a month or two, it's barely noticable till you pour out the water.
I have more bones on top of the "chop shop" that have been weathering for the same amount of time, and they are nowhere near this clean. Started both on the same day and maceration was clearly the winner.
Of course, if you need them immediately the quickest way is manual cleaning, but I have enough projects going that I could wait

**Beo** · 09-16-2010, 01:27 PM

Wow, they look great... I have done the same thing but used bleach and water with no lid, 3 parts water and 1 part bleach. It helps to clean the bones and whitens them up real good (just in case you want real white bones, I dunno thats how I was taught... LOL.) and took about a third of the time, maybe three months.
Beo,

**LowKey** · 09-16-2010, 07:13 PM

I just put them in a hole in the ground. The hole is square, lined with wood and a large flat, heavy rock over the top that isn't exactly airtight. Let the bugs do the deed, not a lot of smell. Once those big black and yellow carrion beetles get in there it's only about a month. A quick dip in a bleach solution and they're nice and white if you want them white. Gotta be careful with that bleach or they de-ossify and get crumbly.

Another option to speed the process is to boil them, depending on what you are going to do with them after, but since mine are mostly 'found' I'm not into boiling rotten things.

I can't take the smell of that bucket of goo. That happened inadvertently once. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call the Board of Health.

**tipacanoe** · 09-16-2010, 09:08 PM

A few of the guy's I know around here take theirs down to the shore, and let them sit there for a few days, go back and every thing is cleaned up good, they need to be below the low water mark so that they stay submerged. Crabs & baitfish take very good care of them

**your_comforting_company** · 09-17-2010, 12:14 AM

Lots of good alternative here. Thanks guys. I'm also thinking of using some old fencewire to make cages I can stake down near an antbed so the dogs can't get them.