Ready2Rut
FNG
I have ten bear claws that I removed from my fall bear this year that I am hoping to clean and make into a hat band or necklace. After cutting off the claws at the last knuckle and cutting off all the extra flesh I could, I covered them in borax in an open container for about a week.
Yesterday I pulled them out and started cutting the extra flesh off with an X-acto knife. The extra flesh came off easy, and I was wondering when I would start to hit bone. After a little while, I realized that the weak, red, somewhat spongy material I was slicing off was in fact the bone. This bone is far weaker and has a red/brown color than what I have encountered previously, and doesn't really seem suited to further processing of the claws. Just to be sure, I tried slicing off chunks of leg bone with the x-acto in the same manner and could not do it, so I think the issue in due to the bone and not the x-acto being too aggressive for the task.
Google's AI result mentions that burying the claws in borax could have caused the flesh and oils that were present in and around the knuckle to seep into the bone instead of drying out. However, I can't find any mention of this happening in any actual source, so not sure if the AI hallucinated it.
Has anyone had this happen, and been able to fix it? Maybe try degreasing in soapy water and then drying again? This is my first bear and I'll be heartbroken if I can't use the claws to make something beautiful.
Yesterday I pulled them out and started cutting the extra flesh off with an X-acto knife. The extra flesh came off easy, and I was wondering when I would start to hit bone. After a little while, I realized that the weak, red, somewhat spongy material I was slicing off was in fact the bone. This bone is far weaker and has a red/brown color than what I have encountered previously, and doesn't really seem suited to further processing of the claws. Just to be sure, I tried slicing off chunks of leg bone with the x-acto in the same manner and could not do it, so I think the issue in due to the bone and not the x-acto being too aggressive for the task.
Google's AI result mentions that burying the claws in borax could have caused the flesh and oils that were present in and around the knuckle to seep into the bone instead of drying out. However, I can't find any mention of this happening in any actual source, so not sure if the AI hallucinated it.
Has anyone had this happen, and been able to fix it? Maybe try degreasing in soapy water and then drying again? This is my first bear and I'll be heartbroken if I can't use the claws to make something beautiful.
