Boiling heads - won't leave it so long next time

willie_gunn

Well-Known Member
Well, I finally had to give in to all the comments such as "there's no room in the freezer", "when are you going to sort them out" and "I am going to turn the freezer off if you don't do something about those d*mned heads".

So on Sunday I had (for me) a mammoth head boiling session, removing four heads from the freezer plus the one I'd shot that morning, setting the boiling pan on the gas ring and digging out the roe head cutting jig.

Here's the result:









The one on the right is the buck from Sunday morning.

Those of you paying attention will have noticed that there are only four heads shown - the fifth was another antlered doe but with only bumps rather than actual antlers, so that one I decided to ditch. You'll also have seen that the jig needs a bit of adjustment :oops:

The antlered doe I will keep for my next talk on deer, the others will probably re-appear as walking sticks, key-rings or somesuch.

willie_gunn
 
how did you manage to get a different line for each one you cut???? were you experimenting to see which looked the best :lol:
 
I left my best head in the conservatory to dry.
my cocker spaniel sniffed it out and chewed it up !!
​the little t**t
 
Nice one - but why do you bother boiling the heads if they end up as keyrings?

A good question!

A couple of them I might keep entire - for example the better of the bucks - though these days I only have one or two "special" heads on the wall and the rest in the garage. The antlered doe I will use when giving talks on deer.

Alternatively I may just decide to sell the buck skulls, in which case I would prefer to sell them as "heads" rather than just antlers, and once the antlers are cut off there's no going back ;)

Roe antlers don't seem as versatile as the other species when it comes to re-using, or at least I have not found a good use for them. I have seen whistles and roe calls made from roe antlers, but I haven't figured out how to do these myself yet. Apart from the occasional one, roe antlers don't lend themselves to knife scales, thumb sticks, etc.

I'd be happy to hear from anyone with alternative uses though.

willie_gunn
 
I left my best head in the conservatory to dry.
my cocker spaniel sniffed it out and chewed it up !!
​the little t**t

:rofl: One of our labradors was walking around the kitchen and I saw a tiny bit of something sticking out of the corner of its mouth - the little b*stard had grabbed one of my muntjac antler keyrings off the kitchen table and was chewing it. Fortunately no damage done to keyring or labrador :D Reminds me of the time the older labrador had a bit of fur showing from its mouth. I grabbed it and a whole (but decaying) rabbit came out. It was like a magician's trick.

willie_gunn
 
A good question!

A couple of them I might keep entire - for example the better of the bucks - though these days I only have one or two "special" heads on the wall and the rest in the garage. The antlered doe I will use when giving talks on deer.

Alternatively I may just decide to sell the buck skulls, in which case I would prefer to sell them as "heads" rather than just antlers, and once the antlers are cut off there's no going back ;)

Roe antlers don't seem as versatile as the other species when it comes to re-using, or at least I have not found a good use for them. I have seen whistles and roe calls made from roe antlers, but I haven't figured out how to do these myself yet. Apart from the occasional one, roe antlers don't lend themselves to knife scales, thumb sticks, etc.

I'd be happy to hear from anyone with alternative uses though.

willie_gunn

I turned some into bottle openers from i'm sure a link you posted for sgian dubh blades, had a look and saw some bottle opener tops.
bottleopeners_zps590900a8.jpg
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Moose
 
Damn i was going to get some more, as i gave those ones away.

​Moose

Moose - good news and bad news.

The bad news is that they don't have any of the old style bottle openers in stock and don't know when they will be getting more. The good news is that they will soon be stocking Damascus "blade" style bottle openers.

willie_gunn
 
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