Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips
Turkey Hunting Tips => How To's -- D.I.Y. tips => Topic started by: VanHelden Game Calls on February 26, 2012, 02:31:49 PM
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This link will take you to my DIY blog where the instructions are simplified.
http://vanheldengamecalls.weebly.com/1/archives/02-2013/1.html
Hope this helps. I will try to fix the typo's.
You can do multiple spurs at 1 time. I etch the name in the back of the leg bone with a dremel. Caps only fit 1 bone, they are all unique so no need to keep them straight throughout the process.
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1948.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1953.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1954.jpg)
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(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1959.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1964.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1960.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1963.jpg)
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(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1969.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1970.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1979.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1981.jpg)
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(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1984.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1987.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1982.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1988.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1992.jpg)
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(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_1996.jpg)
PAINT THE INSIDE OF THE CAP!!
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_2000.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_2002.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_2007.jpg)
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(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/spur%20cleaning/IMG_2009.jpg)
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This is very close to the way that I fix up my spurs. Great tutorial.
FullChoke
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i usually just clean mine up with a razor blade and put them in a cup filled with just enough pure bleach to cover the bone and not get on the spur cap.... usually works good....
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very cool :thanks:
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Chilly your right there are a few ways to get the job done. I just like my stuff cleaner then others. What do you think happens to all the gunk under the cap?
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I'm sure it is all dried up.... Please don't take offense... I did not say anything wrong with your way.....I would not doubt your spurs are cleaner than mine are....
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No offense taken. Just wanted to let people know how easy it is to get really nice spurs with nothing to rot. I started off doing it similar to you. But after a few spurs where the peroxide wicked up behind the spur and whitened underneath I needed to find a way to fix it. And I stumbled upon the fact they come off. And that lead me on a new way of doing things.
I was just shown a different method of removing the caps. If it works it will make this tutorial a lot shorter. Basically cut around the fresh spur caps with a razor blade, use padding and grab with a pliers twist till it pops and walla. This will eliminate hot potato and the blo treatment. And make cleaning and cooking a snap. :)
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Thanks for the tutorial. I've started doing it in a similar way to this. I've been able to get the bone a little whiter by letting it sun bleach for a few days after the peroxide. Although, I've had some stange comments from people who saw the spurs sitting in the back window of my car.
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Great method. Nothing to smell later if rehydrated. A warning, it can go wrong. I was cleaning last years kills and had several sets boiling on my Coleman stove in the garage and let the water boil off while cleaning skin off more. I melted the caps on three great pairs of hooks. I wanted to cry.
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Yes that is a good warning to make sure you always have water in the pot. It should not take that long to pop the caps off though.
And some sunlight does not hurt, even though from my reading its the heat combined with peroxide that does the whitening. Putting the solution in the sun just adds the heat, and putting in the sun after just dries it faster and more thorough. If you did not rinse the peroxide the sun would again add the heat but be warned of whitening anything it comes in contact with.
I am also always concerned of offering free easy lunch to little bugs. Last thing I want to do is give them a reason to come and infest my mounts.
Douglas
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So what steps would you recommend for someone like me who just cut the spru off, pushed out the gunk and hung them on a string?. Some have turned all white but now I decided I would like to purty them up. Thanks Sam
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You mean you left the skin on? If so I would try to soak/rehydrate them in warm soapy water to soften the skin peel it off and start scraping.
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Thanks for posting this. :thanks:
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So what do you do after you are done with them?
Do you just string them up?
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Different things.
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/Misc%20projects/IMG_3595.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z233/madarchery/Misc%20projects/IMG_3598.jpg)
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Those are neat - Thanks
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You gave away alot of the trade secrets there. Great post
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Fantastic post. Just found it. Thank you for putting it up. :thanks:
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Worked great! Thanks for sharing!
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cool stuff
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UPDATE!!
To ease the process remove caps while fresh sooner the better. Take a razor and cut around base of spur cap. Use a pc of vinyl hose to slip over cap and use a pliers to twist and pull off cap. Doing this makes bone cleaning much easier and faster, and you can eliminate the BLO on the caps later if you wish. I still do it though.
Rest of the process is the same. Just be careful with the pliers and the caps as you could crack the cap and or leave the tooth mark of the pliers in the cap. But its another option.
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Great post. I use bone to make some other things and I also soak in peroxide. I was told by a Taxidermist that soaking in bleach will actually cause the bone to oxidize and begin to deteriorate. He is the one that told me about the peroxide and he said to make it whiten faster put them on Foil or a mirror to reflect the sun back up on them.
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bookmarked. i have a lot spurs from over the years when i just cut the legs off and stowed them in a coffee can. i may try to go this route with them, because they look so good. thanks for posting this in such detail.
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i always just took the cap's off going to try this out .
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Great post!! Thanks for the info!!
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Nice tutorial and pics! I do the same thing with pronghorn european mounts and they really clean up nice! That's definitely a thorough job of cleaning and ought to keep the bugs away. I've seen a couple mounts where guys have boiled the entire bottom leg bones w/toe-nails and spurs attached. I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to boil the entire bottom leg and glue the toe joints together to add to a mount? I've seen a similar thing done with turkey skulls and neck bones. Have any of you tried to do either of these?
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Nice tutorial. Thanks for posting.
A taxidermist told me to use powder dish washing detergent to keep fats & oils out of the bones. It sure looks like Dawn does a fine job for you though.
I do Whitetail skulls the same way, but boil them longer.
Jim
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Not sure it makes much difference as long as you are using a detergent that breaks down natural fat/oils. I have heard of some colored detergents staining/dying the bone but have yet to have a problem.
I do soak at least a week in ammonia to help remove and break down any fat/oil in the bones. Sometimes longer as I get busy with life :toothy12: Heard some cook longer and go straight to the whitening, so there are plenty of ways to go about this, just find what works for the quality you want and go with it. :gobble:
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Awesome tutorial. One thing I have found that makes them a little whiter is to mix whiten flakes to your peroxide.
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Bringing this thread back to life. :) Thanks for taking the time to post your process. I have several legs that I just cut off and left on my shed's workbench. I'm going to try this out.
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Thank you for posting! Going to try and mimic this spring.
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Great info ... Thanks for sharing!
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Kool! A lot kleaner than just drying in borax!
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(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/28/yja4ezah.jpg)
Worked great! Awesome tutorial.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I found a new way to clean!!
After popping the spur caps and an initial boil in salt water to remove as much gunk as I could I tossed BONE ONLY! into my diswasher's silverware rack. Came out better then I could have imagined, almost to good as it cleaned out every pore in the bone and 2 days later it shows no grease leaching - so I am thinking it eliminates a step and gets you from popping caps to ready for whitening in a day or 2.
I have a Bosch dishwasher with sanitize feature, used rinse aid and Finish pellet detergent. Seems the detergent is stronger and with the high heat/steam it got into the bone and did a great job.
All that needs to be done from here is the finish cuts and some sanding and tossed into peroxide. Then follow the tutorial for paint and glue-up.
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So no ammonia or peroxide using the "dishwasher" method?
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Looks like it says peroxide still
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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So far so good with the dishwasher. Yes it seems you are able to skip the degreasing, you can scrap, boil, DishWasher and peroxide whitening.
This is a new procedure and I am unfamiliar if the results are reapeatable. I will have a new test this week of 4 other sets. So please use caution, and if you have further results please update here.
Thanks
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Upon further DW testing I am not sure it will eliminate the degreasing step. While it seems to "help" it does not eliminate the basic steps in the tutorial.
I have tried a total of 5 sets and have a mixed bag of results, seems every bird has a different bone density and grease/oil content.
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I am trying my first set of Spurs and I soaked them in the 40 volume peroxide and when they dried there was no change in the color. What am I doing wrong?
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Scott, tell me more about the procedure you used to clean the bone before the peroxide. Also how long did you soak in peroxide?
I find a good degreasing to be a key component to quality spurs. I let soak in ammonia for a week and then whiten.
Some other tips I have learned to help this entire process:
1. If the kill is fresh take a razor blade and cut around the spur base, you can twist and pop the spur cap off before you start the scraping a cleaning.
2. Use dishwasher MACHINE detergent when cooking - this detergent does not foam and is a better degreaser, I also run the bones in the silver ware tray after the degrease before whitening. Not sure it does much but its easy to do :)
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I think I just did not degrease them well enough. I have bleached deer skulls before but I mixed the peroxide with a powder called basic white. That stuff will take your breathe away and it pretty much turns everything it touches completely white.
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I have always just cut the bone, pulled the inner junk and tossed in a sandwich baggie of borax.
I need to finish them so they look as nice as yours.
What steps would you recommend me go from here?
Boil... Pull caps...Ammonia bath... Peroxide bath?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I would start with a day soaking before the boiling to rehydrate so the caps pull earlier in the cooking process.
When dealing with dry and aged there will be some trial and error.
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Ok So now I have soaked, boiled in dawn, pulled caps, and have the bone soaking in ammonia.
Do you also soak the caps in ammonia?
Also the painting the inside of the caps, is that just to darken the cap? What if they are not painted and just polished with the linseed oil?
Thanks for the tutorial
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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No, the caps you let dry and then lightly sand, clean up the base if needed and then apply a wood oil finish such as true oil, boiled linseed oil, even use varnish you have lying around - the point is to wipe on let penetrate the surface and buff off. You are just replacing the oils lost thru cooking and just drying out. They do make a taxidermy product for this but for our purposes it would be a waste of $.
After the caps dry, paint the INSIDE with acrylic paint to replicate the natural color. The color depends on your bird - some are Black, some brown and some spurs are blonde in color. You will have to pick.....
Then after you have the bones degreased and whitened in 40volume peroxide you just glue on the caps - I find a small dab of hot glue on the back side spur bone is best - then just slip the cap back on.
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I use the air compressor and blow the marrow right out and used a wire wheel to get the excess tissue off the bones after boiling in dawn with good success too
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Yeah the air compressor works but I don't like splatter in the garage, that and by the time the compressor charges I am done with a wire.
Careful with the wire brush, brass worked for me but the steel I have had leave metal residue on the bone that I could never remove.
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Thanks for the advice
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Great info. Thanks for sharing.
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Just a question with this method, all your spurs turn out "black" from tip to base then? When I kill a bird I only notice that my short spurs are all black, the good ones seem to have multiple layers of color from the base up the tip and that portion being black... Just wondering if you see this?
MK M GOBL
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They do not all end up black ot is dependent on each bird, seems the areas I hunt black is the main color even on the big boys. I assume it genetic and maybe minerals in the feed? But I have done blonde and they stay blond as long as you remember to paint the inside a natural fleshy red. T ake note of the color when you pop off the nail.
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Looking for someone to do this on my spurs
Who is qualified to do it?
Thanks
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Great thread. Working though some spurs now. I went ahead and popped the spur caps off before I boiled the bone. Do you think I’ll still need to paint the inside of the caps before I glue them back on? Also - do you typically trim the thin section off the bottom of the cap after you pop it off?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Yes you need to paint most of the caps on the inside. Remember you are taking away the flesh with blood and whatever else composes it so it must be replaced. The glue replaces the physical properties but not the color unless you tint the glue bt that seems like more work then its worth. A little acrylic paint and let it dry and then glue them on.
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Great tutorial, appreciate sharing with us. Thank you.
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Just bumping to the top. Lots of great info in the thread.