elk bone carving- PREPERATION

[AZELKMAN]

Hello All,
I recently harvested an archery elk, here in Arizona. I have taken the meat to the game processor and the head to the taxidermy. I am holding on to all 4 leg bones and wanted to know how to prepare them for carving. I am new to the whole idea of bone carving, but wanted to get some feedback.
Should I boil the bones and then bleach them? Or do I dry them in the still 100 degree Arizona sun ( for a specified amount of time) ????
I was referred to the website by a very knowledgeable individual, who suggested someone may be able to assist.
Thank you in advance for any assistance that you can provide.
Regards,
AZ ELK MAN

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

The only one I know that might help you is Kathy Krumei, and you can find her on the "knotholes" woodcarving forum http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knotholes/messages she carves mostly moose antlers I believe, but you might try her. You will have to join the forum to post to her, but thats not a problem.

[Colin-Partridge]

Dont know a whole lot about bone carving except I dont think I have ever seen large bones carved it is always the smaller ones. I do know as Smokey has said the marrow will be a problem. I also know that if you are carving antler or bone you had best have a really good respirator as the dust is full of bacteria and can be very harmful. I would agree that baking them is probably the best idea but you would have to open up the ends so that the marrow was not sealed in. I had a bear skull that I was going to carve and paint it had a lot of meat on it. What I did was I found an ant hill and put the skull next to it and left it there for the summer. By the fall the ants had stripped it clean and the sun had bleached it. I dont know if this is any help maybe someone else has another idea.
Colin