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Thanks for looking but I found my answer. I used bad search terms:o
http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...bone-town.html
After a successful hunt I was cleaning my deer tonight and got to thinking of making some scales from the bone. Any advice or a point in the right direction about preparing/cleaning the material would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Tim
I'm not sure if you want to prepare your bone like that. I don't think the methods used were the best for long term stability. Someone asked about this a while back, so I looked up some info out of curiosity/possible future use. You basically want to macerate the bone to remove the tissues, degrease the bone to get rid of fats and oils that will leech out over a period of years, then bleach with hydrogen peroxide to the color you want.
It looks pretty easy, you soak the bones in warm water that you partially change for about 5-14 days (maceration). Then soak in Naptha for about ten days (degreasing), then in hydrogen peroxide. Boiling and using bleach don't generally seem to be recommended, at least not by taxidermists and the people who sell specimens for the long term.
These are the links I bookmarked that have more detail--
http://www.boneroom.com/faqs/maceration.pdf
Skull Preparation
http://www.skullsite.com/misc/macerationmanual.htm#8
If you have a taxidermist friend with a beetle colony, those beetles will do most of the work for you. It turns out that beetles want the stuff that you don't want, and vice-versa.