Wild boar
My growing bone collection (sheep, roe, wildboar, crab, rabbit, hedgehog).
This crown in particular from a poster of the Viking’s show introduced me to osteology.
The job where I work allowed me to replicate the concept of the crown, but using rabbit mandibles, since rabbit heads are usually discarded whole as meat waste (no live animals were used or sacrificed for the purposes of this project).
Cleaning bones is an old practice i have left behind, but that I plan to return to this summer, so unfortunately I do not have graphic documentation of the process. In the case of the rabbit heads, the procedure was:
-Boil the meat-and-bone piece for 10 minutes.
-Power wash.
-Boil the ramaning bone with hydrogen peroxide (supermarket availability).
-Dry.
– (Animals with a high body-fat percentage require degreasing by soaking the bones in acetone for several weeks/months).
-The cat on the left was left buried in soil and cleaned through natural processes involving insects and decomposition. A method I do not recommend since it involves bad odor, requires a long time, and leaves the bones stained.
-The wild boar on the right was processed using the power-washing technique. One important thing to keep in mind when treating pig bones is that they require extensive degreasing with acetone. My intention for the wild boar is to reconstruct the skeleton by attaching the bones with screws, so that it can stand similarly to the osteological displays found in natural history museums.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
-The youtube channel “WHITEBONE CRATIONS“, step-by-step guides on cleaning, degreasing, and preparing bones.
-The blog “ODD ARTICULATIONS“.