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As promised some more pics of the asp viper skull and its preparation. Not visible is that one of the lower jaw halfs disintegrated in to its 2 components that had to be glued together again. Both sides of the upper jaw contained 3 fangs. Cheers, Tom PS @JonathanD: thanks for...

Thank's for the kind words Jonathan! Both sides of the skull had multiple fangs, some were hidden in the gum/cartilage and were only revealed in the late stages of the preparation process. I'll add some close ups later this week. @jonathan: could you tell by the initial pictures if this was a...

After some 3D-puzzling with all the loose bony fragments, this is the finalised asp viper skull: Cheers, Tom

A short holiday in the Auvergne region, France, delivered an unexpected present...a freshly killed asp viper (Vipera aspis)! It was presumably the victim of a cat because of the location (on top of stone wall) and the mortal wound (crushed neck). I cut off the head and took it with me back to...

After rotting, cleaning & bleaching here's how the barn owl skull turned out: There's small bones connecting the lower jaw to the skull missing in the pictures (too much hassle to keep them in place for the pics). The beak is much longer than you would expect from seeing a live bird! The...

As promised, some pics. End result will take some time... Cheers, Tom

Upcoming project: a beautiful dead barn owl. No external damage, only some blood on the beak. It turned out to be a female (judged by the broad black bands on the primaries). It was underweight (222 grams, it should be around 300) and very skinny. I collected the head and skinned it to preserve...

Please share your pics! I have found three stoat roadkills; all had a crushed skull as well... Badger, porpoise, raven, any bird of prey, crossbill & avocet are high on my wishlist... Cheers, Tom

New addition, a razorbill, without and with its keratin bill sheaths: Cheers, Tom

I found the brass parts in my fathers shed, I am wondering too what they are normally used for (my father doesn 't know either...) Cheers, Tom

Common murre: The insertions above the eye are for specialized glands that secrete excess salt (it is a seabird). and great crested grebe: Cheers, Tom

New additions: Woodcock, a window victim View from above Great cormorant, from a freshly beached specimen. The bony spike on the back of the head ('os nuchalis'), flexibly attached by a bit of cartilage, is a unique feature of cormorants & darters. It gives extra attachment for the beak...

After buying the antique fire piston I wanted to try and make a bone fire piston myself and found a piece of cow metacarpal bone in the pet shop. The bone wall was not thick enough to make a piston out of but I made a bone rod to match a small brass piston. It took a lot of splitting, carving...

The blue tit's skull: A common grasshopper warbler (Locustella naevia) I found dead last month (it must have flown some 4000 miles from its winter quarters in West-Africa just to die on a Dutch dune...life is hard): Compared to a black crow's skull: Failed project: A partial skeleton of a...

Here are some animal skulls I collected over the past two years. Blackheaded gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus): Black crow (Corvus corone), herring gull (Larus argentatus) & jackdaw (Corvus monedula): Grey heron (Ardea cinereus): Long-tongued bat (Glossophaga elongatus, a South American...

Long time since i used Photobucket, I did not realise it could cause trouble viewing for some! Hope this helps: Cheers, Tom

Last year I visited an Amsterdam antique shop that specializes in anthropological items. The owner had a collection of antique South East Asian fire pistons for sale. Anthropological Fire pistons collection: She had acquired the fire pistons from an English collector, sadly wihout any...

[/URL][/IMG] I found this stone in the rubble of my company's garden. This gravel there consists mainly of quartzite and abraded flint. The darker section contains small metal nodules and there is a lighter sandstone-like covering. The stone is heavier than you might expect of its size and is...

Hi Blundstoned love, it was Bushcraftuk members that rediscovered this remarkable firstarting method and brought it back to life. We wrote an article for the PrimitiveWays website about the bamboo strike-a-light with references to the original thread on bushcraftuk...

I think it's common broomrape, Orobanche minor, parasitizing on the clover plants surrounding it. Here in Holland this parasite is called 'klavervreter', which can be translated as 'clover-eater'. Cheers, Tom