Antlers have been in velvet for three days now to get back home. how long can i leave them like this before i remove the velvet.I shot it Sept. 5 th. And can i remove with scalpel. Thanks Tom H.
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Tom,
If you use a scalpel, you are looking at allot of time and probably allot of cut marks on the antlers. I use a regular old spoon to get the velvet off. You can work the edge under the velvet anrun it right up the antler. It will work and fast.
You should try to get it off as soon as possible, before they start to rot. You will need to soak them for a few weeks and the sooner you start this, the less trouble you will have with black spots from all that blood.
Soaking the antlers in salt water will pull some of the blood out. The black or dark spots that you will get can be bleached out with peroxide. If you mix peroxide with baking powder to form a paste it will work better to keep it only on the spot you need to bleach
I havn't needed to use a knife or a spoon to remove the velvet if you let it soak long enough till the epidermis just starts to slip. I have also used boiling water to remove the velvet.