Shark Jaw Mounting Project

[1morecast]

After the accidental demise of a Soup Fin shark last week, I decided to take the jaws to mount them on a plaque. Here is a picture of the jaws after I removed it from the shark's head.



After about an hour of using a filet knife and pliers I had this:



I placed the jaws in a large zip lock bag containing a 1:3 Hydrogen Peroxide/Water solution. The jaw and remaining flesh started turning white.

After letting the Shark Jaws soak for 2 days in the Hydrogen Peroxide/ Water solution I removed the jaws to find a very white soft set of jaws.


As you can see from the photo above there was still a good amount of flesh and cartilage on the jaw bones. By soaking them in the solution for 2days it made it easier to remove the remaining flesh. I used a razor blade and tweezers to remove as much soft tissue as I could and then I mounted it on board to dry. The instructions that I found online said to salt the jaws to help with the drying process, so I gave the jaws a nice dusting of table salt while I let it dry out.



There is still small bits of tissue on the jaws but I'm hoping that once everything dries out that I can sand off any of the remaining tissue.

So after three days of drying and a little sanding with some 320 grit sand paper I have these set of jaws.


As you can see they look white and smooth. I put some clear varnish on the jaws to maintain the white color and to make them a little shiny. I'm working on a wooden plaque next.

So here is the wooden plaque I made for the jaws, it's white pine that I will put a dark stain on.


After a couple of coats of stain and clear varnish this is the final outcome of the plaque.

[sasquatch]

Interested to follow along with this.

[xjchad]

Cool, looking forward to seeing your progress Binh!

[Latimeria]

Looking great Binh!

[Pinoyfisher]

Was wondering when you'd start this.

[Sharkinthedark II]

Cool stuff ! Can't wait to see finished

[Jaws]

You can get a much stronger and better Peroxide at one of the beauty supply stores, its what I did when doing the european mounts on my last white tail deer skulls.

[Pinoyfisher]

That looks sweet!!

[xjchad]

Looking great Binh! Nice work!

[vdisney]

Very cool indeed, looking forward to the finished product

[xjchad]

Looks great!
Think you can put something else in the pic for size comparison?

[1morecast]

So here is the final outcome of the jaw mounting project.

[Latimeria]

Looks good Binh!

[xjchad]

Nice work Binh!  Love it!