Euro Mount Cleaning Antler Base/Antlers

[treillw]

Working on two elk and one antelope euro mounts. I've been cooking them with a sous vide machine with oxy clean and they are turning out well. All except for the inch of skull bone that leads to the antler base on the elk - the water cannot cook this part of the head without also cooking the antler, due to the head geometry. I don't want to ruin the antler here. How do you clean this part?

Also, how do you clean antlers and horns? The insides of the antelope horns are still gross. The outside also has some slop on them from the cleaning process.

I've heard of antler treatments. Recommendations here?

Thanks!

 

[realunlucky]

For antler bases i wrap tight with cling wrap and black electrical tape tight around the pedicules and a few straps above with never a problem.

For horns once you remove them from the bone and discard the stuff inside (important to remove the connective membrane and completely remove the horn) I place each one in a zip lock filled with borax. I like to oil my horns with a burnt linseed mixture every couple years when i clean the mounts and it really makes them look great but it's unnecessary.

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[butcherboy]

You can wrap the antler bases or just recolor them. For horned animals you need to scrub out the inside tissue with a stiff brush. I always used something with copper bristles. I made a tool for doing long Oryx horns by soldering a copper rifle cleaning brush onto a long copper soldering rod. I would then wash them in dawn soap and pine sol or dawn soap and ammonia. Pour borax inside then dump it out leaving the coating of borax. Slide them back onto the horn cores and let them dry. If you don’t let them dry on the cores they can really shrink and you won’t be able to get the horn sheaths back on without sanding the cores or resoaking the sheaths.