Gobbler Nation

That old yellow, oil soaked bone marrow has got to be some of the nastiest stuff around. I’m wondering how many coats of varnish do I need to put on them to cover the smell.

I've never used varnish and laugh if you want to, but I've always used clear fingernail polish. I paint it on and inside the bone with the little brush. A couple coats and when it dries, I've never noticed any smell. Of course I do it when Shari isn't home and she never knows.

I take a nail just smaller than the 2 openings under the spur & push out the bone
marrow & tendons. I then put the spurs in a container with 20 Mule Team Borax
making sure the bone & tendon sheath are filled with the borax. I let then sit for
a couple of weeks after which I make sure all the borax is out of the bone & sheath
& off the spur itself. No smell. I have bever used varnish or anything else on any
spurs & they have all come out fine.

I also stick the end of beards into borax for a couple of weeks to "cure" them.

HunterGKS wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2019, 7:17 pm I take a nail just smaller than the 2 openings under the spur & push out the bone
marrow & tendons. I then put the spurs in a container with 20 Mule Team Borax
making sure the bone & tendon sheath are filled with the borax. I let then sit for
a couple of weeks after which I make sure all the borax is out of the bone & sheath
& off the spur itself. No smell. I have bever used varnish or anything else on any
spurs & they have all come out fine.

I also sticky the end of beards into borax for a couple of weeks to "cure" them.

What I do to now.
Long time ago I boiled a couple and removed the cap but it’s troublesome and not worth it.

Try putting them in the freezer till you're ready to cut them. No smell and it helps keep the spur color from changing.

I just boil them for a little bit then cut the meat/skin off and push the crap out then put them on the string. Never thought that it smelled or had complaints from the wife. On a side note, I have also skinned mink, skunk, coyote and coon in the basement. They did raise a fuss when I nicked the mink gland, but they got over it in a couple months. Ish. On the plus side I got the go ahead to build a shed.

Maybe cutting the feet off and leaving them laying on shelves and/or buckets for years didn't help....seems like some of you are a little more proactive. Just ordered some borax, not doing that again.

I throw mine in the freezer shortly after the extermination. They are easy to clean, whenever you get to them.

SwampDrummin wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2019, 11:10 pm Maybe cutting the feet off and leaving them laying on shelves and/or buckets for years didn't help....seems like some of you are a little more proactive. Just ordered some borax, not doing that again.

Confused. I left a pair set for a couple months and they were easy to clean. Proactive is best, I agree. But they were easy to clean.

But why did you order borax and why will you not do that again? I use mule team and I swipe it from my wife.

southpaw wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2019, 11:56 pm

SwampDrummin wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2019, 11:10 pm Maybe cutting the feet off and leaving them laying on shelves and/or buckets for years didn't help....seems like some of you are a little more proactive. Just ordered some borax, not doing that again.

Confused. I left a pair set for a couple months and they were easy to clean. Proactive is best, I agree. But they were easy to clean.

But why did you order borax and why will you not do that again? I use mule team and I swipe it from my wife.

I’ll clarify. I guess I assumed everyone had my experience to begin with. All i’ve ever done as far as spur display is cut off the feet and dried them. I.e. laid them on a shelf then threw the dried feet into a bucket with the rest of them. Well eventually I had too many buckets of feet so I decided i’d cut them off and put them on a rope and maybe put some gloss on them. When I started doing this and the bone marrow was all sorts of nasty. Some was dry, some was oily, some was straight up wet and all of it had the distinct sharp odor of dried turkey feet. Getting all the marrow cleaned out so that smell was minimized in the final display was a tall ordor. I’m not doing THAT again. I bought some borax and i’m gonna use that and/or throw the feet in the freeZer in the future.

HunterGKS wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2019, 7:17 pm I take a nail just smaller than the 2 openings under the spur & push out the bone
marrow & tendons. I then put the spurs in a container with 20 Mule Team Borax
making sure the bone & tendon sheath are filled with the borax. I let then sit for
a couple of weeks after which I make sure all the borax is out of the bone & sheath
& off the spur itself. No smell. I have bever used varnish or anything else on any
spurs & they have all come out fine.

I also stick the end of beards into borax for a couple of weeks to "cure" them.

This is how I do it. No smell at all.

HunterGKS wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2019, 7:17 pm I take a nail just smaller than the 2 openings under the spur & push out the bone
marrow & tendons. I then put the spurs in a container with 20 Mule Team Borax
making sure the bone & tendon sheath are filled with the borax. I let then sit for
a couple of weeks after which I make sure all the borax is out of the bone & sheath
& off the spur itself. No smell. I have bever used varnish or anything else on any
spurs & they have all come out fine.

I also stick the end of beards into borax for a couple of weeks to "cure" them.

Exactly what I've done for 20 + years.