Originally Posted by
Matheus
I never worked baleen, so I can't guess how can it be done for sure. Density and micro structure can be distinct from turtle sheets.
With turtle sheets the temperature is of the boiling water (100oC), just about a minute to heat and moist the things up to allow pressing further. Oh, the press, or clamp, or something you use to apply pressure must be heated too. Not so hot as the water, just to avoid cooling down the pressed parts too fast. Turtle sheets also were sanded with steel whool prior to clamping.
Oh, just to clarify the things: I never hurt a turtle... I used to live at the beach (and I was at college - biology), and very often dead turtles and all sort of creatures were washed at storm season. I scavenge on that, and collected multiple good biological pieces as albatrosses, petrels, eventually whales, dolphins, sea lions. Assembled lots of good skeletons for the college. My car had a distinct stench by the time, booze and chum.:p
Boiling dead turtles to remove the shell scales was part of the processing procedure to get the skeleton, and the granddad of a fishing pal (japanese) told me to spare the scales and showed me how to weld together the leftover sheets using an eletric pan :hmmm:. He (the old guy) worked making frames for eyeglasses when young at Japan.