Wolf Skull: Brand (aka Handsome)

[naamah_darling]

I haven't done one of these in a while, and I have had this most of the way written up for a long time now. So here. Have some pictures of pretty pretty bones.

This guy is gorgeous. He's yellowed quite a bit since I took these pictures, but is still beautiful and just impressive as hell.

Comments

[kyrraven]

Do the skulls in your collection come to you already clean? I have some skulls found on the roadside which are quite dirty, but I'm not really sure how to safely clean them without damaging some of the more delicate bone structures.

[sunioc]

Companies that process animal bones generally use bugs to clean their skulls, but I'm guessing that won't be very viable for you. The easiest way to do it at home is to boil the skulls for a couple hours (how long depends on the size of the skull), until the muscle tissue pulls away easily. some of the teeth will probably fall out in the process, you can glue them back in later. and use a brush to clean off the flesh that remains on the bone. To bleach them, you can use a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide and soak them for a few days. After that you can use a clear lacquer to seal it if you like. There's a bunch of websites online that have more detailed instructions, just try googling bone cleaning or something like that.

[naamah_darling]

I don't clean my own, but it's not difficult to do. It just requires someplace where you can put a bucket or something for them to soak in. A lot of it depends on what kind of dirt it is (dirt, bits of old skin and flesh, and so on) and how white you want it. The whitening is really the hardest part.

Hit up the furhideandbone community, especially if you have pics; they can probably tell you exactly how to go about getting off whatever is still left on there.

[acinom19]

So jealous of your pack! I haven’t been able to add any skulls to my collection in years and I doubt a wolf will ever be a part of it :/

I found these on an Irish names site:
Conall or Connell: strong as a wolf
Conlan: can be either "strong as a wolf", or "fair; comely shape."
Conrí: wolf king
Caoimhín: beautiful birth, comely child

[snowcoma]

I didn't have a suggestion originally, but I want to throw another vote towards "Conlan". It's a beautiful name, and quite apt.

Thanks for the pictures of pretties, Naamah! I'm learning how to tell the age of an animal (and other details) from their skull thanks to these posts. :D

[acinom19]

I really like that one too. It's now on my "never having kids but this is what they would be named" list :P

[galiyah]

Oh, I like Conall. They're all good suggestions though.

[meccahi]

Honestly when his face popped up, the first thing that came to my head was "His name is Jack!".

I have no idea why. It's not a very wolfy name.

[aj_hyena]

Well, there's a webcomic called Jack in which the main character is a green rabbit of death (well, Jack is Death)... heh.

[meccahi]

I remember that comic... I used to read it a couple years ago. It was rather twisted.

[aj_hyena]

Still is, but some of the more recent stories are amazing.

[jnanacandra]

He looks like Baldur to me. Or Conan.

[aj_hyena]

For a name, Mjöllnir comes to mind for some reason. He would have come down like a hammer on those that pissed him off had he of lived to full size. Do you know what what killed him?

[naamah_darling]

Probably shot, frankly. He -- like a lot of my stuff -- came from a dealer in hunting leftovers where the parts that won't get used otherwise get sent. UNlike a lot of my stuff, he came from a clearinghouse dealer that takes stuff from everywhere, so I'm not sure exactly where he's from.