How to Make a Turkey Spur Necklace

-- by Rob Ramsdale --

After managing to take a nice gobbler through skill or blind luck, most hunters will want to preserve as much of the memory of the trophy as possible. One nice way of doing this is preserving the spurs on the gobbler.

In many ways, the spurs on a turkey are like the horns on many big game animals. Spurs are not shed each year like antlers on deer, but, like antlers, the size, length and sharpness of the spur increase as the gobbler ages. Spur length and sharpness are really the only reliable indicators of an old boss gobbler.

Many hunter's like to dry the feet of a gobbler and incorporate that into their trophy mount somehow. Another popular option is to cut off the spurs and make either a necklace or hatband using a string of spurs.

This may be accomplished by anyone with a little time and effort. The hard part is getting a gobbler to part with his spurs.

Here are the general steps involved in making a spur necklace. This is how I did all of the spurs shown above but remember each set of spurs is a little different so you may have to adjust boiling times etc. Just be careful and watch them closely during the boiling stage.

1. Take a hacksaw or some other very fine-toothed saw and cut through the leg above and below the spur. This will leave you with a piece of the leg bone about 1/2" long that has the spur attached.
2. Take a knife and remove as much of the skin and ligaments from the bone as possible. Also, take a pipe cleaner or some other instrument and push out the bone marrow from the leg bone.
3. After they are as clean as possible, put them into a pot of boiling water which has a couple of tablespoons of dish soap added to it. Boil the spurs for a few minutes and remove them, let them cool, and try to scrape off any remaining material. Most of the time, you will have to boil them more until they are clean. This is not an exact process. You'll have to closely watch the spurs and decide for yourself when they are clean enough and making sure the spur's covering is not discoloring too much. The spur covering will lighten during the boiling process but it should darken back up.
4. After the spurs are clean, remove them and let them dry and see how white the bone is. If they are not white enough, you can prop the spur up in a small pan or dish of hydrogen peroxide to just soak the leg bone part only, leaving the spur dry above the peroxide. If you try to use bleach here it will eventually eat into the bones but I've soaked bones in peroxide overnight with good results. Also, some bones for whatever reason just don't take on a nice white color. I've found that cleaning the spurs as soon as possible after shooting the gobbler will give the whitest results.
5. After the spur has dried, take a Dremel-like tool and grind off the ends of the bones to get the desired width. A file and/or sandpaper can accomplish the same thing with a little work. I like a little bone showing past the spur while many others will take off more bone than this.
6. String up your spurs as they are on a leather lace or string. Or, spray the spur with some clear polyurethane for a glossier look. Wooden beads make good spacers and can be found at any craft store.

Good luck!!