Cleaning pig tusks

[Halcyon Daze]

I know it's a little strange but any advice on polishing up old pig tusks would be really helpful right now. I have been given some real beauties. They are fairly white but have a few brownish marks, so I'd just like to get them nice and presentable.

Maybe I could polish them with baking soda or soak them in dilute acid or something.

Thanks!!!

[Stillman]

bleach will pull the white up? and then maybe seal them with a clear wood finish? Not sure how that would work but never cleaned pig tusks. lol

[Sallubrious]

Bleach would work for sure, it was a common practice for cabinet makers to use bleach on darker pieces of timber to even out the overall tone of the finished product back when there were real cabinets being made.

With wood bleaching you would normally start at a fairly low dilution and then do multiple applications and then allow it fully dry before checking the tone under several different light sources (sun, fluorescent, incandescent) until you get a consistent tone.

I'd do it outside as I have no idea what sort of compounds could be produced when bleach reacts with the tusk, plus bleach is nasty shit by itself anyway.

[brokenswan]

I will check with my husband but I'm pretty sure cleaning them involves soaking & boiling...he has cleaned up several pairs of deer antlers, and I must confess I didn't take much notice, but I seem to remember him cadging old saucepans...I'll ask him for details...I imagine pig tusks would be same same...

[satyr]

I used hydrogen peroxide (30%) for bleaching animal skulls/teeth.

[Halcyon Daze]

Thanks!! this gives me a couple things to experiment with. Thanks also brokenswan, your husband must be a bit of an expert.

I really want it to look resplendent for my next big job interview

Edited November 30, 2012 by Halcyon Daze

[in_spirit]

Pig tusks are just teeth, so use toothpate to polish stains down and then use brasso to polish. It is a good idea to boil or sterilise in some fashion pigs are notorious for carrying hepatitus.

[Halcyon Daze]

Pig tusks are just teeth, so use toothpate to polish stains down and then use brasso to polish. It is a good idea to boil or sterilise in some fashion pigs are notorious for carrying hepatitus.

 

So I should use my housemate's toothbrush then...

[dionysus]

boiling won't kill hepatitus, soak in lukewarm, detergent water.

[Sallubrious]

So I should use my housemate's toothbrush then...

 

Yeah but make sure you tell him after he's brushed his teeth with it a few times after you clean the tusks. The look on his face would be priceless.

Baking soda mixed with hydrogen peroxide is a good tooth whitener, you leave on for a few minutes to do its thing and then wash it off.

[dionysus]

^even bleach may not 100% kill hepatitis.

(there was a gent with hep at the same TAFE area as me who often would rock up on the 'done and slice himself on something, leaving the staff to clean his blood, and it was revealled by an OHS person that there methods probably werent cutting it, then a punk rocker lady (who was a punk rocker in the 80s or something, back when having hepatitis was cool) from my class revealed a trick she wish she had learned for her tattoo / heroin needles before her liver was dying, being cold or boiling water force the hepatitis cell to harden up in defense, wear as the lukewarm water will leave it soft and comfortable and render the detergent able to enter and destroy the cell)

[in_spirit]

Dionysus , yeah ur probably right i know my gp uses cold sterilising and it works on there gear maybe 99% of the time??? Not a doctor or anything, do you have any supporting evidence to the claim? I know bleach will kill hep but i have only seen it used straight out of bottle.i just threw the hep advice in cos i know pigs commonly have hep, i refer to wild pigs, especially up north.I dont know how bleach will react to the ?? Is it dentine? The soft core of the tusk tho, over time.

Edited November 30, 2012 by in_spirit

[dionysus]

only anecdotal in_spirit, i too am not a doctor, biologist or hepatitis specialist. bleach will kill hepatitis c, but not all the time and not 100%, it is a gamble. i think the process i described works similar to dropping a blood cell into a warm glass of water, osmosis leading to bursting or denaturing via the detergent. there is plenty of stuff around about hepatitis surving boiling and / or bleach exposure, lengthy exposure to the air and sunlight is the only surefire method as far as i can see. anyway, cant hurt to boil, bleach, detergent just in case, might coincidently clean the tusk at the same time ;)

[planthelper]

putting it into the direct sun and rotating it, will kill hopefully kill, everything.

i hope, you have no gunk stuck to the tusk, if so, either mechanicly scrape it off, of if the gunk is still smelly, bury close to an ants nest...?

here a pic of a bore tusk amullet, i fashioned, a while a go.

i wear it not often, but it makes me feel like im a "something", hehehe.

feels powerfull, to wear.

[in_spirit]

@dionysus yeah sounds like a good plan, better safe than sorry

[brokenswan]

Consulted hubby, he says bleach etc is a no no for deer antlers as it damages the bone...deer antlers are cleaned by putting in an appropriate size saucepan (stolen from wifes' kitchen) cover with cold water with a spoonful of Bicarb...bring to steady boil and leave boiling for 1 to 1 1/2 hours...topping up with water as needed. Best do this outdoors as it stinks!!! This should remove all the gunk...then they are hung in a shady place for a few days to dry...don't cool them in the water or cool them off in cold water....buggers them apparently...pigs' tusks may be different I guess so may have to experiment..

[Anodyne]

Acid is bad for bones too - it dissolves the calcium phosphate. If you do this with fresh bones (not sure how strong the acid needs to be, but I think I've seen science classes do this trick with normal vinegar), it leaches away the hard/brittle part of the bone, just leaving the rubbery collagen bit (which you can then tie in knots, etc). But with older dried bones, the collagen might already be gone (?), so they might just start to dissolve. I don't know how fast this happens - it wouldn't be instantaneous or anything, but it might damage them.

I think old methods of working bone used oil/wax to protect them after they'd been cleaned - apparently some of these can lead to yellowing, etc, but there's probably modern alternatives.

[Bigred]

what about a denture tablet would that work