Deerfoot Oil Experiment:
This project is best done outside because of distinctive odors.
Neat's foot oil is an oil processed from the feet of cows, horses and members of the
deer family. Because the lower leg of these animals have little muscle and limited blood
flow, a fat gland is situated in the foot and produces oil that solidifies at a much lower
temperature than other animal oils. This allows these animals to walk around in the
winter without freezing their lower legs solid.
The oil is generally used in the leather industry to condition leather, but can also be
used as a skin product and a lubricant for delicate machinery.
12 deer feet supplied about 1/3 cup of Deerfoot Oil (neat's foot)
After taking the lower legs off of the deer, I skinned the cannon bone and removed the long leg
sinews on the hind legs. At this time, I found the front leg sinews to be too short for any practical
use, so I left them on. I removed the feet at the base of the cannon bone, leaving the round end of
the cannon bone intact. The rest of the foot was kept whole (Skin, hooves and everything).
I put the feet from 3 deer (12 feet) into a slow cooker and added enough water to cover the feet. I
left it on high all night. It may have been too hot, because it was boiling when I checked it about 12
hours later. A yellow oil could be seen on top of the "hoof soup." I believe this is the deerfoot oil
(essentially neat's foot oil).
I skimmed off the oil along with some of the "soup". I put this in a clear container and set it aside so
it could separate. I left it over night and the oil had separated nicely from the other liquid. Knowing
the oil's freezing point to be around 4 degrees Fahrenheit, I put the container outside in roughly
25 degree weather. After a few hours, the oil remained liquid on top of the other material that had
turned into a gelatinous state. I simply poured off the oil and left the gelatin in the container.
I warmed the oil, and filtered it through a flour sack cloth. It looked good until I tried to squeeze the
excess oil from the cloth. Some particulates got into the oil after I did that. So I heated up the oil
again to near boiling (not sure of the temp). Then filtered it through a coffee filter. The filter
worked well for about 2/3rds of the oil, then it must have clogged or something. Some unfiltered oil
remains in the top part of the filter. Maybe it doesn't need this fine of a filter. OR maybe a series of
finer and finer filters. Also, a lot of the oil absorbed into the filter. I dumped the remaining oil into a
new filter and the slow drip continued once again. I also wrung out the old filter into the new filter to
try to save as much oil as possible. If I was making this in bigger amounts than the small amount of
oil lost in absorption would be trivial.
I left the oil to filter over night and it was successful. For the scope of this project, this oil is
complete. I will store it in the freezer.
Can I salvage more?
The feet chunks still felt considerably greasy as I fished them out of the soup. The feet were so
cooked that I couldn't grab them with tongs; they just fell apart. I pulled each foot in half to
hopefully expose more of the greasy material inside. So I set the soup aside and put the feet back
into the slow cooker with a fresh pot of water. Hopefully the clean water will help the oils separate a
little easier..........................Well after recooking the feet, very little oil was salvaged, not enough to
attempt skimming.
I added the gelatinous soup from earlier to the rest of the soup that I set aside. I filtered all of the
soup I set aside through a flour sack cloth. This may have actually led to more oil loss, because it
looked like the remaining oil got caught in the cloth. But, some oil still remained in the filtered
soup. The surface of it looks like Top-Ramen (oil in very small droplets that don't mix) I'm hoping
that this will eventually separate out. A tall skinny container may help this go quicker. I added the
soup from the second cooking to the old soup to combine the amount of oil, but even then there is
not enough oil to attempt skimming. If I did successfully skim it it would most likely all absorb into
the filter when I go to filter it.
So, after that initial skimming, trying to salvage more oil is generally not worth it.
I took all the bones out of the feet and disposed of the remaining cooked pieces. The hooves, by
this point, were unsalvageable because every little tendon had cooked itself to the inside of the
hoof. I should have removed these from the start by scalding them in boiling water for 10 to 15
minutes when fresh.
The remaining soup is not fit for human consumption (unless in survival situation) because dirt
from the hooves and hide are still in the solution. It may, however, be boiled down and poured
over dog food for "gravy". The broth must have plenty of nutrients in it. I can't imagine there would
be anything wrong with that since dogs chew on deer legs all the time. Don't quote me on that
though.
Bone Oil Experiment:
This project is best done outside because of distinctive odors
Bone Oil is an oil derived from the shin bones of horses, cattle, and members of the
deer family. It is very similar to neat's foot oil, but has a slightly higher point at which it
freezes. Usually these two oils are processed together, but for purposes of these
experiments I am rendering them separately.
12 deer cannon bones supplied about 1 cup of Bone Oil.
I took the fresh cannon bones (lower leg bone) from the deer and cut the flat end off close to the
joint (upper part of the bone). I then took the remaining bone piece (skin and feet removed) and
cut it in half. If I wasn't going to use the bone pieces, it may have been better to crack the bone
with a hammer and break it up that way. May be able to get more oil this way.
I put the bones in the slow cooker. After about 2 hours I started to see some clear oil gathering on
the surface. After about 12 hours, I skimmed off about a cup of oil. I used a turkey baster to
remove water from under the oil in my collection cup to make room for more. I set the oil/water
aside to separate. The oil is pretty cloudy compared to the deerfoot oil, but it will probably either
settle out or filter out.
The cannon bone soup is a lot more watery and clear than the foot soup, and it doesn't smell
nearly as strong. I still don't have any use for it, so I threw it away.
After giving time for the oil and "water" (which was also jello like again) to separate, I put the
container outside in roughly 20 degrees weather. The oil actually solidified before the water/jelly
froze. So I left it outside for the night, and the temp dropped down to about 5 degrees. The
container was slightly flexible so I pushed on the sides to free up the frozen water and oil combo.
I took a knife and separated the water and oil (really easy).
I took the oil inside and melted it down. I heated it up to the point that any water within it boiled off.
BE CAREFUL not to heat the oil too hot. You don't want to have boiling water spewing hot oil
everywhere, and you don't want to burn the oil. After the oil quits making spitting sounds, all the
water is boiled out. I filtered this through a flour sack cloth, then again through a coffee filter, still
had to switch out the filter half way through to make sure everything would go through.
It was similar in color to deer foot oil, but the properties (especially freezing point) are a bit
different.
I mixed the two oils (bone oil and deer foot oil) into a glass jar, which measures out at
roughly 1 1/3 cups.
This crude mixture can now be used for conditioning leather products or other things.
It is probably best to store your completed oil in the freezer until you need to use it. Because this
is not sufficiently filtered and pasteurized to reduce the chance of going rancid, it is safer to just
freeze it. However, it may be fine to just leave it on the shelf.
Home > Hunting > Taxidermy > Oils
This project is best done outside because of distinctive odors.
Neat's foot oil is an oil processed from the feet of cows, horses and members of the
deer family. Because the lower leg of these animals have little muscle and limited blood
flow, a fat gland is situated in the foot and produces oil that solidifies at a much lower
temperature than other animal oils. This allows these animals to walk around in the
winter without freezing their lower legs solid.
The oil is generally used in the leather industry to condition leather, but can also be
used as a skin product and a lubricant for delicate machinery.
12 deer feet supplied about 1/3 cup of Deerfoot Oil (neat's foot)
After taking the lower legs off of the deer, I skinned the cannon bone and removed the long leg
sinews on the hind legs. At this time, I found the front leg sinews to be too short for any practical
use, so I left them on. I removed the feet at the base of the cannon bone, leaving the round end of
the cannon bone intact. The rest of the foot was kept whole (Skin, hooves and everything).
I put the feet from 3 deer (12 feet) into a slow cooker and added enough water to cover the feet. I
left it on high all night. It may have been too hot, because it was boiling when I checked it about 12
hours later. A yellow oil could be seen on top of the "hoof soup." I believe this is the deerfoot oil
(essentially neat's foot oil).
I skimmed off the oil along with some of the "soup". I put this in a clear container and set it aside so
it could separate. I left it over night and the oil had separated nicely from the other liquid. Knowing
the oil's freezing point to be around 4 degrees Fahrenheit, I put the container outside in roughly
25 degree weather. After a few hours, the oil remained liquid on top of the other material that had
turned into a gelatinous state. I simply poured off the oil and left the gelatin in the container.
I warmed the oil, and filtered it through a flour sack cloth. It looked good until I tried to squeeze the
excess oil from the cloth. Some particulates got into the oil after I did that. So I heated up the oil
again to near boiling (not sure of the temp). Then filtered it through a coffee filter. The filter
worked well for about 2/3rds of the oil, then it must have clogged or something. Some unfiltered oil
remains in the top part of the filter. Maybe it doesn't need this fine of a filter. OR maybe a series of
finer and finer filters. Also, a lot of the oil absorbed into the filter. I dumped the remaining oil into a
new filter and the slow drip continued once again. I also wrung out the old filter into the new filter to
try to save as much oil as possible. If I was making this in bigger amounts than the small amount of
oil lost in absorption would be trivial.
I left the oil to filter over night and it was successful. For the scope of this project, this oil is
complete. I will store it in the freezer.
Can I salvage more?
The feet chunks still felt considerably greasy as I fished them out of the soup. The feet were so
cooked that I couldn't grab them with tongs; they just fell apart. I pulled each foot in half to
hopefully expose more of the greasy material inside. So I set the soup aside and put the feet back
into the slow cooker with a fresh pot of water. Hopefully the clean water will help the oils separate a
little easier..........................Well after recooking the feet, very little oil was salvaged, not enough to
attempt skimming.
I added the gelatinous soup from earlier to the rest of the soup that I set aside. I filtered all of the
soup I set aside through a flour sack cloth. This may have actually led to more oil loss, because it
looked like the remaining oil got caught in the cloth. But, some oil still remained in the filtered
soup. The surface of it looks like Top-Ramen (oil in very small droplets that don't mix) I'm hoping
that this will eventually separate out. A tall skinny container may help this go quicker. I added the
soup from the second cooking to the old soup to combine the amount of oil, but even then there is
not enough oil to attempt skimming. If I did successfully skim it it would most likely all absorb into
the filter when I go to filter it.
So, after that initial skimming, trying to salvage more oil is generally not worth it.
I took all the bones out of the feet and disposed of the remaining cooked pieces. The hooves, by
this point, were unsalvageable because every little tendon had cooked itself to the inside of the
hoof. I should have removed these from the start by scalding them in boiling water for 10 to 15
minutes when fresh.
The remaining soup is not fit for human consumption (unless in survival situation) because dirt
from the hooves and hide are still in the solution. It may, however, be boiled down and poured
over dog food for "gravy". The broth must have plenty of nutrients in it. I can't imagine there would
be anything wrong with that since dogs chew on deer legs all the time. Don't quote me on that
though.
Bone Oil Experiment:
This project is best done outside because of distinctive odors
Bone Oil is an oil derived from the shin bones of horses, cattle, and members of the
deer family. It is very similar to neat's foot oil, but has a slightly higher point at which it
freezes. Usually these two oils are processed together, but for purposes of these
experiments I am rendering them separately.
12 deer cannon bones supplied about 1 cup of Bone Oil.
I took the fresh cannon bones (lower leg bone) from the deer and cut the flat end off close to the
joint (upper part of the bone). I then took the remaining bone piece (skin and feet removed) and
cut it in half. If I wasn't going to use the bone pieces, it may have been better to crack the bone
with a hammer and break it up that way. May be able to get more oil this way.
I put the bones in the slow cooker. After about 2 hours I started to see some clear oil gathering on
the surface. After about 12 hours, I skimmed off about a cup of oil. I used a turkey baster to
remove water from under the oil in my collection cup to make room for more. I set the oil/water
aside to separate. The oil is pretty cloudy compared to the deerfoot oil, but it will probably either
settle out or filter out.
The cannon bone soup is a lot more watery and clear than the foot soup, and it doesn't smell
nearly as strong. I still don't have any use for it, so I threw it away.
After giving time for the oil and "water" (which was also jello like again) to separate, I put the
container outside in roughly 20 degrees weather. The oil actually solidified before the water/jelly
froze. So I left it outside for the night, and the temp dropped down to about 5 degrees. The
container was slightly flexible so I pushed on the sides to free up the frozen water and oil combo.
I took a knife and separated the water and oil (really easy).
I took the oil inside and melted it down. I heated it up to the point that any water within it boiled off.
BE CAREFUL not to heat the oil too hot. You don't want to have boiling water spewing hot oil
everywhere, and you don't want to burn the oil. After the oil quits making spitting sounds, all the
water is boiled out. I filtered this through a flour sack cloth, then again through a coffee filter, still
had to switch out the filter half way through to make sure everything would go through.
It was similar in color to deer foot oil, but the properties (especially freezing point) are a bit
different.
I mixed the two oils (bone oil and deer foot oil) into a glass jar, which measures out at
roughly 1 1/3 cups.
This crude mixture can now be used for conditioning leather products or other things.
It is probably best to store your completed oil in the freezer until you need to use it. Because this
is not sufficiently filtered and pasteurized to reduce the chance of going rancid, it is safer to just
freeze it. However, it may be fine to just leave it on the shelf.
Home > Hunting > Taxidermy > Oils
| Deerfoot Oil (neat's foot oil) and Bone Oil |
