A HowTo Guide For My Crock Pot Methods

IMPORTANT EDIT: Too many people are misunderstanding this post and I actually considered deleting it because of the messages I've been getting. This is an absolute LAST RESORT process for LARGE BONES with tough stuck on skin/ligaments only after maceration has already been done. This is NOT for a fast and easy way to clean your remains. You will destroy your bones quickly that way! Especially if they are small/thin. They will crumble in your hands and you will be very sad. I don't want anyone getting mad at me for misunderstanding this post. SO YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! Stick to maceration and be patient. For strong solid bones it take a lot of time, period. I have been processing bones for over 30 years, I know this stuff very well. If you are new at this do not do it.

I've mentioned here previously in my 'Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH' post that my last resort for removing tough stuck on ligaments, skin and etc from bones is a crock pot. But I didn't really go into much detail. So this is my instructional guide for that.

This crock pot method is one of my own invention. I've never met anyone else that does it. It has worked well for me since the early 90s when I first started using it. I've further mastered it since and figured out other ways to use it for bone processing tasks... and I've used the same trusty crock pot all these years.

DEFLESHING:

When I have a really stuck on flesh mass, ligaments or something similar that maceration has not removed I use the crock pot as a last resort to remove it from the bone. Most of the time it works within hours but in tough cases I've had to leave it overnight or a full 24 hours.

I like to add a metal veggie steamer/strainer to the bottom of the crock pot to minimize the bones/teeth actually touching the hot ceramic pot since it is this extreme heat that can damage them. But if you can find a metal strainer that fits in your crock pot that won't rust, that will work well too.

This method is also a good way to carefully clean smaller more fragile bones that may start to break down during maceration. Put them in a metal screen style tea strainer if they are that small to keep from losing them, or another smaller metal strainer that will fit into the crock pot.

The reason I do this in a crock pot and not stove top is because I like to carefully regulate the temperature. Stove top simmering always seems to eventually boil. The lowest setting on my crock pot never boils. I've discussed why boiling bones is bad in my 'Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH' post.

I fill the crock pot with water well above the bone and put it on low and replace the lid. Being sure to top off the water as it evaporates. Best part is that there is nothing to do. You just put your bones into the crock pot and go do something else. Just like when you use it to cook dinner.



Vultures had literally just pulled the outer skin off this opossum so I decided to do a slow simmer in the crock pot instead of maceration. This worked very quickly with the flesh still so fresh/soft.

There's really not much of a need to add anything to the water. The slow constant heat alone will get the toughest dried on mummified skin off of anything. Often overnight. Sometimes I pour out what has cooked off overnight, add new water and start again... if it is something really fleshy like a mummified head.



These turtle skulls started off whole mummified heads before I added them to the crock pot. The process is so gentle that even the keratin sheaths (or rhamphotheca) that covers the upper and lower turtles jaws were unharmed.

DEGREASING:

If the bones seem very greasy I just add a little dish soap to the water and it helps the natural fats out of the bone and rise to the top. That's the only additive I've ever put in the water with the bones. But grease will still come out of the bone without you even adding soap to the water! This is why I say to add water well above the top of  the bones you've added to the crock pot. The grease will float to the top where you can easily spoon it out of the water.



These partial coyote skulls were quite visibly greasy so I put them in the crock pot overnight with some dish soap.



The next morning a good amount of grease was at the top of the water.



To easily remove the grease from the crock pot so it doesn't get back onto the skulls when removing them I just scooped it out with a spoon. Doesn't get any easier than that. Remember as I discussed previously in my post 'Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH' that boiling bone will draw the grease further inside the bone. So don't do that to remove the natural fats in animal remains.

SOFTENING BONE TO REMOVE TEETH:

Another thing I use the crock pot for it to soften bone so that it is easier for me to remove teeth. This worked well for these wild boar mandible fragments.

The bone became soft enough after a couple days for me to use pliers and wrenches to carefully smash and break the mandible apart and extract the teeth.



Much more about this at my 'Extracting Teeth From Bone' blog post.

My crock pot method works beautifully. Very low maintenance. Rarely any need to scrub anything from the bones afterwords. I've never even had any need to find another method. I do wish though that crock pots came MUCH LARGER...haha

I hope you enjoy my HowTo blog posts. For most of the time I've been collecting and processing bones the internet was not yet around and this info was not commonly found in books either. So I've had over 30 years of trial and error figuring out these things on my own. I decided to save everyone some time that comes across my blog and let them in on a few of my trade secrets. And hopefully keep some bones from being destroyed in the process.

The Mathematics Of Maceration - A HowTo Guide For The Patient

I am constantly being asked how long maceration takes and replying "There is no set equation". So I thought it was time for this blog post for some clarification.

It takes as long as it takes. There are a lot of factors that can change the amount of time from start to finish. Time of year, location, size of remains, amount of remains, type of remains, how much flesh/hide is on remains, etc.

Maceration is my preferred method of cleaning bones of flesh, ligaments, soil, etc. It is one of the most gentle methods to use if you want strong, solid bones as the end result. It is literally a form of rotting or putrefaction. Where bacteria removes proteins from the bone. Simply by putting the carcass remains into a sealed container of water.

But it also takes patience. Lots of it. Here are images to explain.



Be safe, be sanitary! I always wear latex gloves when handling the early unsanitary steps of bone processing. Likewise, I prefer to wear a respirator when switching out maceration baths and pulling off tough stuck on skin and hide. That way I can work with it more slowly and carefully rather than rushing it because of the smell.


(click for larger image)

First Image - Nature/insect cleaned deer and wild boar bones with minimal amount of flesh/ligaments/etc. Added to maceration tub. Was filled to the top with water. Then tight fitted lid was replaced. You don't want any big chunks of flesh or pieces of hide/fur/feathers in your maceration tub. Try to remove as much as you can before you begin this process.

Second Image (top) - 3 weeks later the water in the tub was a rusty brown color. This is a good thing. Means the bacteria are doing their work to remove the fleshy bits. Water was NOT switched out that entire time. Sometimes I prefer to switch out the water now and then as it gets cloudy... say once ever other week. Depends on what I have soaking and time of year. As the oils rise to the top of the water and flesh falls off to the bottom, the water will become incredibly nasty/smelly. As it does, pour it out and replace with new clean water. The rule is that once the water is clear, you're done.

When it is colder it slows down the process. It will work best if kept in a warm location. I've read that maceration works best between 35°C/95°F and 50°C/122°F. I'm located in Florida so I can just leave my big maceration tubs sealed outside year round. The process just really slows down through the Winter.

Third Image (bottom) - There are still some meaty bits on the bone and some of the vertebrae were still attached. So not done yet. Threw them back into the bucket and added water and lid again. Takes as long as it takes. Bone processing takes patience. If you are impatient get several projects going in rotation at once. I usually have all stages of the bone cleaning process going at all time. If you are always messing with the bones or worst, cooking them because you're impatient... you are likely damaging them. True story.

Here's another maceration batch example image:



I left this similar batch of bones soaking for at least a month without switching out the water once. It wasn't planned, I was just busy and forgot. The water had turned this amazing blood red color. The bones rinsed off quite nicely and didn't need to macerate any longer.

They did however smell pretty awful. So I put them into a fresh batch of water with some dish soap to help get rid of the smell and to further degrease the bones. Larger bones like these deer/wild boar pieces take a bit more time to degrease. Some animals also seem to have more grease saturated into their bones.

Next step is to sanitize and whiten. Remember, do NOT use chlorine bleach, only hydrogen peroxide. Check out my blog post Bad Words: BLEACH & BOIL for more bone processing HowTo info about this.

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PRECAUTIONS ABOUT MACERATION ADDITIVES

Some people do use cleaning agents/detergents in their maceration baths to accelerate softening of the flesh and/or encourage grease to come out of the bones. However, I do not. In my experience adding anything manmade to the mix is only chancing weakening the bones. So the below info is just for informational purposes. I do not endorse any of these products.

Sal soda (sodium carbonate) is a water softener that some people use to accelerate softening of the flesh.

Biz is an enzyme-based bleach. Which makes me hesitant to use it personally. But I've had others tell me it works for them.

Oxiclean is a detergent and bleaching agent. I was told it does NOT work very well. Not only did it not get the fatty residue off of the bones but it also DISSOLVED some entire bones!

Borax (sodium tetraborate) is a laundry booster and will turn your bones to mush. So do not use it!

Vinegar will literally turn your bones rubbery. You don't ever want to use it in any step of processing.

The way maceration works is that living bacteria is in the water removing the flesh from the bone. If you put any sort of additional chemical or soap in the water that would likely kill bacteria rather than promote their growth. That just seems counteractive to me.

If you read through the maceration HowTo guide of one of today's biggest bone companies that specializes in selling high quality bones, you'll see they just use water. Nothing more. That to me says all I need to know. See for yourself, here is The Bone Room.

I'll just close with that thought.

Extracting Teeth From Bone

Besides bones, I mostly use teeth in my jewelry and art.

The necklace seen in my banner above was made nearly 20 years ago from my own wisdom teeth. Yes, I sometimes use human teeth but they are a lot harder and more expensive to come by than most other animal teeth. I recently acquired a vial of 47 vintage human teeth. Sadly because of their poor condition most can not be used. But stay tuned for the rest in upcoming creations.

I usually get my animal teeth from partial skulls and broken jaws. Which sadly is often the case for most roadkill. Here is a selection of those before I cleaned them and removed the teeth. Animals range from elk and wild boar to dog... some human teeth pictured as well.

Click for larger view.

Now you don't want to just grab a pair of pliers and start pulling. That's a good way to chip the enamel, break off the roots or break the jaw (if it is one you wish to keep intact).

I dropped all of the partial skulls/jaws in a crock pot of water and slow cooked them for a couple days on the lowest setting. Topping off the water as it cooked off. If you don't have a crock pot you can still do it on the stove. But it works best in a crock pot because you want a constant low heat, not a rolling boil.

Otherwise it may cause the enamel to chip and teeth to break in half. Also take into consideration that if the skull/jaw has been outside for a long time, very old, very porous or buried a while it is going to be more brittle. Believe me, I found out the hard way about these things. This is a process not to be rushed!

Here is an Elk tooth that became very brittle after getting too hot for too long. I had found it buried out West in Colorado and no telling how long it had been there. Much of the roots broke off and the enamel is now chipping away.

After a couple days of crock pot cooking the bone should become soft and brittle. Most of those skulls/jaws pictured above were quite old, sun bleached and porous so they started to fall apart quite easily and I ended up with this:

After you're done cooking pour the bone/tooth stew through a strainer into your sink and rinse a bit to slightly cool the bones/teeth just enough so that you can handle them. Now while still warm quickly start working on getting the teeth out of any remaining bone with pliers. I found it easier to pull the teeth out and tear apart the bone while it was still warm and wet. You don't want the bones to cool completely or dry. The bone will tighten around the teeth again.

You know you have cooked long enough when the bone is soft enough to smash and break with pliers. Be careful when pulling the teeth, you can chip the enamel if you squeeze too tightly or break the roots if the bone is not soft enough. Don't forget there are really long roots on some teeth so you want to be careful where you crush into the bone.

Here is a much harder and newer wild boar jaw that was slow cooked for two days. You can see that it is much more solid than those bones above. When breaking apart bone like this you want to be careful not to cut your hands with sharp bones pieces. It is quite possible and nearly happened to me plenty of times before.

I carefully started by pulling some teeth at the front of the jaw out. Wiggling them and cutting away at the bone with pliers until they came out with ease. After a few teeth were removed the jaw split in half beautifully exposing the roots.

I worked up the jaw on both sides this way. The teeth in back just needed a secure tug with pliers and they came out once enough bone was removed. Once you have your teeth out give them a good rinse and lay them out of a towel to dry. If you want them whiter drop them in a hydrogen peroxide and water bath until they are the color you like.

I also have extensive experience in tooth extraction because of a previous photo project I started in 2008 - "Nothing But Teeth."

This photo series started as a project for a band's album artwork and continues because of my love for teeth.

You can see my whole "Nothing But Teeth" Photo Set HERE.

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Starting Over, Learning Anew

IMPORTANT NOTE: At the time I wrote this blog post I was unaware that it is actually illegal here in the US to walk train tracks or even be within a certain distance of them unless you're crossing at a designated public crosswalk. While these particular tracks I was on were no longer used, walking on tracks still in use is incredibly dangerous. Please stay safe while collecting!

So I've been going through a bit of culture shock the last several months. I moved from deep in the undisturbed country to the middle of where I honestly thought I'd never find myself again... suburbia.

I went from no neighbors, fences or paved roads ... to prying eyes, having to hear the business of others at any given moment and pretty much an entire lack of privacy. I can't even seem to go outside most days to enjoy some fresh air without someone wanting to know who I am or what I'm doing.

I previously lived in nearly pure privacy for over 8 years and didn't talk to anyone unless I wanted. Don't get me wrong I'm exceptionally friendly. Especially with complete strangers. Most times I'm standing in line at the grocery store or post office I start talking to someone else in line.

But my privacy and freedom have always been very important to my well being... and now I rarely have either.

As a person that collects the remains of animals to use in art, jewelry or for display... my life has become especially limiting. And I have to relearn many things because of these new limits.

Before, I could have an entire deer carcass on my property and nobody would flinch at the smell. Now, anything larger than a squirrel would attract far too much attention from the 4 neighboring houses so closely backed up to the short chain linked fence.

So far, all carcasses I've put in the back yard have been taken by an opossum or raccoon. So I have to figure out how to resolve that without having a big cage like I did in the country. That's not something that's socially accepted by the neighbors here I'm sure. Plus, there are small children in the yard. That's right, I'm also trying to adjust to being an instant Mommy figure... to twin 3-year-old girls. My boyfriend's girls.

For a suburban area there is an abnormally large amount of nature here compared to say where I grew up. I'm especially in awe with the low flying vultures everywhere. I find myself trying to make a mental note of where I see them roadside eating roadkill. In hopes of coming back to get the remains.

I did just that recently when I hopped onto my bike with many plastic bags in tow. I went alongside train tracks that also ran parallel a main two lane road into the center of town. I headed out fairly late in the day to minimize the heat and sun.



Within five minutes I found the remains of the opossum I saw a vulture eating weeks previous. If only I had got to them before the big city lawnmowers they' be in better shape and the skull might still be around.



There had also been a lot of severe thunderstorms and tornados in the area so much of the smaller remains were lost in the sand.



This particular area was covered with hundreds of tiny armadillo bone plates (or osteoderms). But just too many and too small to pick up.

Just beyond this I found what I thought at first was the spine and ribs of a small mammal. But then realized it was a small part of the remains of a fish skeleton. I found four more sets of remains of fish on my trek along the tracks that day. Mostly at the bottom of large telephone poles. Which makes perfect sense because I see Osprey flying overhead frequently with fish in their talons. I imagine they sit atop the poles and eat their catch there before dropping it.



Funny, because only a day earlier a friend brought me the remains of what he thought for sure was a reptile skull. Which I quickly figured out was only part of a large catfish. He found it on a sidewalk in the middle of town so no surprise he didn't think it was a fish.

I also saw several animal dens going under the tracks. I wondered what kind of creature lived in them because I saw no fur or tracks.



Sadly I think that question was soon answered when I found the remains of what I believe was a large gopher tortoise (which I left since they are a protected species) that looked as if it was traveling down the tracks when it was hit by a train.



Nearby were the remains of a vulture that appeared to also have been struck by a train.. perhaps while eating the remains of the tortoise.



Amazingly there were only feathers and some skin left behind of the vulture. No head, beak, bones or feet. Something really stripping it clean. Not that I'd pick it up anyway since it is illegal to have, being a protected species of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The ride home was quite stunning for suburbia.





And when I really looked at my bags of loot I didn't do too bad.



The remains of several opossum, 4 various fish, water turtle bones and possibly various cat/dog/raccoon/rabbit/deer bones. I realized afterwards that I need to make this bike ride more frequently if I want to get the remains before they are damage or taken. Plus, there's a LOT more I can explore. This was all found only after a couple miles!

So while I can't process my roadkill finds like I did out in my country home, I do have options. Finding bones mostly flesh free hurries the process and I don't have to have large carcasses in the yard.

I now have these remains in two different sealed containers. One has water and fleshy bones that need to rot off to nothing but bones (maceration). The other has flesh free remains that are soaking in a peroxide bath to whiten. Much of these are already heavily nature cleaned so they won't likely need degreasing.

Fingers crossed this works without a terrible smell coming into the house.

Gift Bones - Part 2

Much of my bone collection is found, prepped, and cleaned by myself. Some is bought, and the rest came as gifts from exceptionally understanding friends.

One of my earliest bone gifts is a painted deer hip bone from my friend Jason. I got it from him about 22 years ago. I love how it seems to double as a mask.





Earlier this year my niece, Liz, surprised me with bone gifts. Some misc animal bones, a pile of small mammal jaws retrieved from owl droppings, and a cat skull. I like to believe I've been a good influence on her...heh



The cat was sadly hit by a car. She buried it, dug it back up, and glued the broken skull back together. I don't normally bury the road kill or hunted game I find. It can stain and rot the bones at a faster pace than using a "bone box".



But I think the distorted skull, missing part of the nasal cavity, and lack of row of teeth really adds to it. Plus the way the skull is stained really brings out the teeth.



My most recent gruesome gift is thanks to Amanda. She found this unknown bird species head on top of a car. I suspect that it was eaten by a larger predator bird by the way the back of skull and neck bones are exposed. I imagine as it ate the smaller bird, the head fell from the tree above.



It could have been caused by a cat as well. But they don't normally carry a bird on top of a car to eat. Rather, they'd want it in a safe hiding place. And cats are know to eat bird and small mammal heads entirely.

Amanda came out to visit me where I was selling my photos recently, and presented me with this lovely package that looked like two blooming flowers.



Inside was this:



As a "thank you" gift I gave her one of my dead bird prints. It may have been this one:



Thanks so much to Jason, Liz and Amanda for these uncommon gifts!

Stay tuned for more in this series of "gift bones" to come.

Gift Bones - Part 1

Much of my bone collection is found, prepped, and cleaned by myself. Some is bought, and the rest came as gifts from exceptionally understanding friends.

One of the single largest bones I own is this HUGE moose antler which was a gift from my parents. Which came originally from Canada or Alaska, from a male (bull) moose. It was on my wish list of odd items so I was very excited about this surprise gift!



It measures 41 inches across the back curve. And has a pretty good weight to it. Here is a self portrait with it to give you a better idea of how large it is.



Want to see something really fantastic? Check out The New Hampshire Locked Moose Antler Project. Which involved two moose carcasses found locked in eternal combat turned into a traveling educational taxidermy exhibit. Absolutely stunning. Such a fantastic way to honor these majestic beasts.

With the birth of this blog I started to get "hey do you want a...?." questions more and more often. And of course if it is bone related, I likely welcome what you have to offer. So I started to get some pretty interesting things showing up in my mailbox.

One night while I was out at a show in Gainesville I was located by my friend Will who had some fantastic gifts for me. I love the conversation he must have had with the door guy explaining that he had "something for someone inside".

"Can I just find my friend to give her something?"

"What is it?"

Will lifting the plastic bag with protruding bones.

"A horse skull and a shark jaw."

"Uhhhh sure."



This is one of those cases where I loved the way the horse skull was weathered and won't likely be cleaning it.



I especially love the cracking of the tooth enamel.





The shark jaw is 10 inches across so it wasn't a very big one. Anyone have any idea what it is from?




Thanks so much to my parents and Will for these uncommon gifts!

Stay tuned for more in this series of "gift bones" to come.

Found Bones - Part 1

I live way out in the country of Florida. There are so many different kinds of wild creatures to be seen in my yard alone. Deer, boar, turkey, rabbits, opossum, armadillo, snakes, frogs, mice, raccoons, owls, woodpeckers, lizards, skinks and on and on.


Juvenile Grey Rat Snake.


Wild Turkey chick saved from my cat and returned to mother.


Playing tag with a young Nine-banded Armadillo.

Much of the bones in my collection have been found over the years. But once I acquired part feral dogs, they seemed to just appear in my yard. I consider them gifts from my dogs. :)

I find bones fairly regularly in my yard because my dogs, Falcor and Artax, find the remains that hunters throw in the woods... or roadkill.

While I moved out here to be one with nature, much of the original residents here enjoy killing the animals I love to catch a glimpse of. I really don't like hunting but I have also come to realize that a lot of the people that live out in rural areas like this feed their families this way. I imagine there are even more people hunting now with the economy so bad.

From time to time the dogs drag a skull of a wild boar into the yard or I just find remains of the teeth or part of a jaw. This is the largest remains of a boar skull I've found yet. Looks like it has been in the woods for a long time. Wish I knew where my dogs were finding these!



Below is a found Wild Boar jaw that I wedged in between tree limbs. If you look carefully you can see where animals have been gnawing on it for calcium. I have deer antlers outside that they have nearly completely chewed up. This jaw has been here for so long now that the tree is actually growing into it. Amazing.



I'm hoping that my dogs didn't kill the dog this skull is from. They had been chewing on it in the yard and broke it. I plan on attempting to glue it back together.



One day I found this huge spine and ribcage in my back yard. It is either from a wild boar or deer.



But Falcor wasn't letting me near it for long.



By the next day all that remained was part of the spine. So I tossed it somewhere the dogs couldn't get to and it is cleaning up real nice all by itself.



Stay tuned for more in this series of found bones to come.