Preserving Spurs Method

[PharmHunter]

Spur Hunter's post got me thinking that I really need to do something with the bag full of spurs in the freezer.

How do you guys go about your process prior to looping whatever thru them etc.?

[dixiedeerslaya]

scrape all the scales, blood, and gunk off. boil/simmer for a minute or so, string em up. the key is to not let them start rotting before you clean them up. if they rot, the spur cap will actually come off. if that happens, just glue it back on.

[gooseaholic]

I remove all the tissue from the bone, wash with dish washing soap, and dunk the bone (not the spur cap) in some hydrogen peroxide. After rinsing the peroxide off and drying, I thread some black 550 cord through the bone and into the base of the shell I used.
Use hot glue to bond the cord and base of the beard in the brass base. The 550 cord makes a nice loop to hang somewhere.

There are more elaborate methods but this works well enough for me.

[Spur hunter]

They clean easier when green. I cut the section a little long, clean them as described already but leave the spur sheath and burr intact. Will use a little borax to help solidify the gunk, easier to clean, then let them sit in borax a couple weeks to dry out. Cut section down to the desired finished length, sand edges. Will submerge bone section in peroxide overnight if I want it whiter but careful to keep it off the sheath. A little bees wax on the spur sheath will re-moisturize it and bring back the original natural deep color, at least to my eye. Once in a while, not often, a spur sheath will come loose during this process. If so I wipe it clean as needed and super glue to reattach it. Wouldn't argue against any other method but I don't recall ever having one I've done come loose later on, any stink or rot or such. Have seen the boiling method on other sites and folks talking about using paint on the inside of the sheath to get the color back. I just can't see going to all that trouble. I think that little bit of red skin left under there is fine once it dries and looks better that way.

[Timber Ghost]

After dry, put them on a buffing wheel to really polish them up.


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[WoodieSC]

Spur Hunter, do you put the entire spur in the borax, or just the bone?

[gooseaholic]

I forgot to add the borax step to my description. I keep mine (entire spur and cap) in borax for a week or so before stringing onto the 550 cord.

[Hookspur]

I also cut them a little long first, but use a sanding wheel to grind them to their finished length. I usually don't get around to working on spurs until summer, so they are rather dry by then. I use a knife to split the tendons away from the bone and peel off all the skin up to the spur, then drop them in a cup of bleach for 10-20 minutes while I'm working on the next pair. Don't let them sit in the bleach too long or it will "melt" them and cause the spur cap to disengage from its base, but I like to use the bleach to kill off any bone marrow and other organic material. Then, I rinse them real good and scrape away any residual gunk before heading to the sander. Afterwards, I use a drill press to open up the hole in the middle of the bone to accommodate a 3/16 brass rod, which is how I display them.

[WhitewaterDuck]

So...are y’all saying that at some point in time, the Spurs I’ve cut off of every Tom I’ve killed dating back to my first bird in 1992...they are going to start rotting...or turning or something? All I’ve ever done is saw them off and run a strap of leather thru em.

[Carolina Counsel]

I will also recommend not leaving a ziplock bag full of spurs anywhere that has mice or other rodents- like a garage. I lost 20 years worth of spurs some time in the last year. Gnawed to practically nothing.

[Spur hunter]

So...are y’all saying that at some point in time, the Spurs I’ve cut off of every Tom I’ve killed dating back to my first bird in 1992...they are going to start rotting...or turning or something? All I’ve ever done is saw them off and run a strap of leather thru em.

No. But they get scaly looking sometimes. Most of this is probably overkill. I think a little borax helps dry them quicker, bugs don't like it and the wax I mentioned, or whatever, makes them look better if you are going to display them. I got a bag full of them cut off with scales still on them and a bunch like that I used to dip in polyurethane back before I gave a crap about looks. Before those I just nailed a bunch of the legs to the barn and strung the beards on a string on the back porch. The ones nailed on the barn didn't last but a few years though but I just replaced them.

[YoungBuckTX]

all Ive ever done is drill out the bone and let it sit in salt for a few weeks