Bear claws

[rabjr]

Ok I cut out and have a pile of bear claws that need to be cleaned up. I'm guessing these can't, or shouldn't be boiled to clean the flesh off them? Just scrape these clean with a knife?

 

[roundball]

Ok I cut out and have a pile of bear claws that need to be cleaned up. I'm guessing these can't, or shouldn't be boiled to clean the flesh off them? Just scrape these clean with a knife?

FWIW, I just googled "cleaning bear claws"
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"The best thing to do is to soak the claws in a mild and warm brine (salt) solution, with a little bacteriacide added to it.

After a couple of days check the hard areas of the claw sheath to see if they have "limbered-up" some.
If they have, you can start carefully paring away this dried tissue with a knife.

When more hard, dired tissue is reached place the claws in a fresh warm brine solution.
Repeat these steps until the claw itself is completely exposed and no longer attached to any sheath tissue."

 

[rabjr]

Cool, thanks roundball, I'll do that.

 

[rabjr]

Ok made a brine with salt and a dab of bleach. Put the pan on a cast iron plate on my gas heater. Figure every time it kicks in, it will warm the water a little bit. I'll keep an eye on em and see what happens in a couple of days.

 

[roundball]

Ok made a brine with salt and a dab of bleach. Put the pan on a cast iron plate on my gas heater. Figure every time it kicks in, it will warm the water a little bit. I'll keep an eye on em and see what happens in a couple of days.

SR, just so we're clear...you saw where I said I Googled up "cleaning bear claws" and got that hit...I have absolutely no knowledge that it's appropriate of not.

As to the bleach...as rare as a set of bear claws is, do you personally know that bleach won't harm them?

If not, I wonder if it would make sense to either do some more research, or just experiment with only one claw for a few days, in case it turns them white or yellow or something...dunno.

I simply found that hit on google...

 

[rabjr]

Gah ok I poured the brine out, rinsed and started over with just salt to be safe.

I scanned the google hits real quick roundball and didn't actually see the one you posted. The first one from the taxidermy site?

 

[roundball]

I typed in the words with quotation marks around them like this:


"cleaning bear claws"

 

[rabjr]

This method worked but pooo its smelly.

 

[roundball]

This method worked but pooo its smelly.

:hmm: ...better not do that in the house or your Bride might get after you!

(good to know it works though)
:thumbsup:

 

[Black Hand]

I cleaned mine while dry and removed the dried flesh with a knife and pliers. I then scraped off the rest of the junk. I would hesitate to boil them for long for fear of damaging the claw.
Black Hand