How should I go about boiling moose antlers? The antlers are right at the side of the head and it's very hard to find a pot the corect size. Any hints? Does anyone cut the antlers in half at the skull and boil each side sepratly? This is my first set of moose antlers, I'll be looking for a cape later.
Alexander
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I'm assuming you're boiling all your skulls prior to mounting. I guess I've never got in that mode as I had one separate on me once. You really don't need to boil a skull in my opinion if you take the time to remove all the meat with a scalpel and pull the brain membrane out of the skull cap. After I get all the red meat off, I simply cover the skull with dry preservative. If you still want to be more fastidious, you can take a small wire wheel and clean it after the DP has dried.
While I agree with George, sometimes a set of antlers comes in with "too much" dry material on the skull plate. Cooking is them the best option if you're in a hurry. Since the moose is difficult to get into a pot for the cooking(don't boil, just simmer) you can use a heavy aluminum foil to cover the antler base and hold in steam. Just get as much as you can in your pot and cover the rest with the foil to trap the steam. The steam will do the cooking as well as "boiling", without the possible damage to the skull plate. If there isn't that much dry material, use George's suggestion, it will do the trick.
Thanks for the sugestions. There is a lot of dry material, in fact the skin is stil on it. I'll try steaming first and if that doesn't work I'll see what I can do by hand.
i had an empty beer keg that i cut the top quarter out of.the antlers set in it rather nicely. get the water to boiling and what isn't covered by water, you can dip the hot water with a pan on the rest and only takes a few time until it's done.