# How to prepare shark jaws: From beach extraction to final mounting



## cpn_aaron

After a shark died from the fight on Thursday, I harvested the flesh and extracted the jaws. As I sat watching a movie in my living room and cleaning the jaws, I realized the only place I ever saw directions for cleaning and preserving shark jaws were on an older Australian site dedicated to shark fishing (that has since closed). They did not have a single photo, making it difficult to follow as they discussed the extraction, filleting, and final mounting/aftercare. 

So I’ll attempt this right now—a few disclaimers before we start. You should never keep a shark purely for its jaws, but most on this site feel that way already. Also, if you plan to clean and mount them expect it to take you a little over 2 hrs of cleaning to do it properly. After you’ve done one set, the next set will go much quicker. Lastly, the larger the shark, the easier it is to clean the jaws. I never try to extract and clean the jaws of any shark smaller than 36” FL. You’ll need to keep your fillet knife razor-sharp to clean it properly. Last, the meat will begin to dry while you do this, so keep a bowl of tap water around to dip the jaws in and keep the flesh moist so you can easily peel it away from the jaws. That being said, here we go...


















Above you’ll see the underside view of a spinner that these jaws came from. The dotted line traces along the jaws and this will be where you cut. I’ve attached a side-view picture of a Sharpnose that really shows the jaws in situ. A good way to find where you should cut is to trace with a finger hard along the jaws and feel for the space between the cranium and the jaws. Sharks can project themselves outward, so they are loosely in place. Just feel around until you are comfortable you will only cut flesh, not the jaws which are soft when not yet dried.

After you have extracted the jaws you should have a mass of skin and meat. Now you can bury the head and take this home. I usually wrap them up in two plastic bags and throw them in a cooler so they’ll stay moist and pliable when I want to work on them. I have stored some jaws in a fridge wrapped in the bags like this for 3 days and I could still easily work with them as they were still moist, flexible, and most importantly not putrid.










This next picture has finished jaws with several arrows denoting the steps we’ll take to clean the jaws. Starting from the extremities of the jaws carefully and slowly peel away the cheek muscle until you expose the wide jaw plates below (see blue arrows). The blue arrows on these plates point out that not all areas of the jaws are smooth. In fact, once you remove the exterior meat you’ll have to take very slow and paper-thin shaves of meat and membrane several times over this whole area. After the muscle, there is a membrane sheath that will expose clean cartilage and ligaments. After removing the sheath the cartilage should be creamy and very smooth. As you clean the extremities it is time to work on freeing the jaws from the gums and skin along the middle of the jaws. Always start with the front of the jaws because they are the most difficult and when properly de-fleshed the back of the jaws comes out much easier. The red solid arrows denote where you should slide the point of your knife. Try to carefully work it against the teeth and jaws and then slide it along the jaws towards the back of the teeth stopping just as you reach the end of the teeth. Do not continue to the hinge joint between the two sets of jaws. You will remove this area later. Do this for both sides of each set of jaws. I have only shown the track down one side, but you can do the same for the other two portions of the jaws. Once you have these portions free you can cut the strip of gums and skin away and begin de-fleshing the top and bottom sections of the jaws exposing the rest of the front. The bottom jaws have less flesh and are more difficult to remove due to the jaws being almost directly connected to the tough skin. So carefully cut at these areas trying not to damage the jaws or yourself as you have to really push the knife hard and saw a little.










Now it’s time to clean off the back of the jaws. As with the front part of the jaws starting at the extremities. Here it is much smoother so the only thing you need to be careful of is the blue highlighted area. This is a major ligament the shark used for controlling the jaws. If you cut this it is much more difficult to mount the jaws. So when you begin to flay this portion of the jaw do so slowly until you expose the tendon. It will look like white saltwater taffy, very shiny and opaque. This tendon is not near the surface. You may encounter a few cut tendons that came from your initial jaw extraction. Look at them and ensure they don’t hold the jaws together. If they don’t hold the jaws together begin cutting them away. I had mentioned that the jaws should be creamy white earlier, but this may not always be the case. If you look at the jaws in the above picture you’ll notice that they have a red spot in the lower left corner. This is actually on the cartilage surface and I scoured the jaw a little trying to remove it thinking it was meat or membrane. This is most likely an old trauma the shark sustained. After a major injury animals get a denser web of vascular structure like all these deep jaw capillaries. So don’t feel like your jaws aren’t properly cleaned if they have a few red marks along the cartilage surface, just make sure they’re smooth.










The next step which takes some care involves cleaning away the flesh on the back of the jaws. This flesh is thick but you can carefully remove it as if you were skinning any animal from hunting. Grab the flesh, pull it down towards the teeth (see blue arrows), and begin to gently scrap at the point where the flesh attaches to the cartilage. You should get a nice little flap of skin that will stop when you reach the gum. Now just cut the skin away at the gum line as the dotted arrow denotes. Start at one end of the gum line and move to the other. This should leave you with jaws with the gums still hiding the teeth that grow from the jaws. I left the top gums in because a shark this size is difficult to remove the tough gums around the very long and loosely held upper teeth. I didn’t want to damage any of the teeth and give my jaws a gap-toothed smile.










I tried to remove the bottom gums because the gum line is larger and the teeth are smaller. Smaller teeth are easier to work around. In larger sharks (5-6’ FL) the gums are much larger and easier to remove around teeth without damaging or loosening any of them. In the picture above take a pair of pliers (needle nose works best for small sharks and begin to make short strong tugs at the jaws following the solid red arrows. Work the gums at all sides and they should come loose and hang out where the gum meets the back of the jawbone. Cut along the gum line following the red dotted arrow from one side to the other. 

Now all you should have left is a patch of skin at the hinge that is easily cut away because we removed all the gum and inner jaw tissue that would have made it difficult to remove is gone. Just start at either the back or front and skin it off towards the opposite side of the jaw. With this done you should have completely cleaned jaws. Wash them off in some water and feel them all over to ensure you removed all the flesh and membrane. If any meat remains in the puts along the surface of the jaw just gently scrape it free with the point of your fillet knife.










We’ve reached the final stage, mounting. I use a piece of 2X4 for small jaws or a large board for bigger jaws. I gently tap nails on two points near the upper jaw's ginge that hold it in place. Now when you set the board at a vertical or horizontal position the jaws will stay open at maximum gap making them look the biggest they can. Place the jaws on a sunny shelf and leave them for 3 days to fully dry and cure. Now you can mount them however you want or if you’re like me put a thin coat of crystal enamel on them to give them a shine and ensure any latent smell will no longer be a problem.

Oof, there we go. With a good set of jaws and some patience, you can get a nice set of jaws from your catch to forever remember it. I also like to do this since it’s a neat skill and being a hobbyist carpenter I like working with my hands.
Tight lines and screaming drag fellas.


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## Catfish713

Hey Flea, this sounds like one for the bible.

I have a question though, I had a guide one time tell me that the best way to clean the jaws is to boil them (add some bleach if you want them white). is this a nono or just not the way you do it? 

(I know this is how my grandfather and I clean deer heads after a trip to the lease)


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## sand flea

I've done boils and/or bleach and it certainly gets them clean and white. Problem is, it often causes the hinge to dislocate.


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## Railroader

I wonder if you could give a set of shark jaws to a bed of fire ants for a few days??? I've done this with skulls of different sorts and had them come back COMPLETELY clean.

With the jaws being cartilage, I wonder if they'd eat them too... 

If not, seems to me you could mount your jaws on a board, give it to the ants, and come back in a few days to a finished mount....

VERY nice tutorial, Aaron! 

Put this in the Bible!


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## Ryan Y

*Nice Job.*

Ive doen some in fire ant mounds but the Jaws would discolor before the ants were through.

I boiled a set last year but boiled the teeth right out as well...


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## barty b

Ants will eat holes in the Jaws Themselves, And if you over boil,Like FS said the teeth will dislodge. A 24 hour soak in 50/50 bleach water after cleaning will brighten them up. But beware, When they come out they will be SOFT. I stretch them out with string at each corner and secure to a board and sun dry them the rest of the way.

Awesome Post Aaron!! Thanks for taking the time to put it together so fast! Definteately Bible worthy.


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## uncdub13

Firespyder7 said:


> I boiled a set last year but boiled the teeth right out as well...


i cried myself to sleep for the next four nights....

haha j/k, redemption this year perhaps..


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## cpn_aaron

yeah you can't boil them. I stick to meticulous cleaning of all surfaces and then a quick bleach dip if neccessary. Ants won't eat through the tougher gum skin either along with eating holes in the softer cartilage. Carrion beatles, if you have them, will eat everything quick. The aquaculture department at my university has them and they use them. Just remove the skin and the beatles chow down a large fish carcass or jaws in a matter of days.
So far the best way I know is simply taking the ~1.5-2 hrs to do it by hand. They come out better. It's all this time it takes to prep them that makes jaws purchased from a store so expensive. It can cost $150-200 for jaws from a 100# shark (species dependent).


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## barty b

*Thanks for the inspiration Aaron!*

I dug my Lemon jaws outta the freezer from last summer, Here they are,Stretched and drying.


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## barty b

I cleaned them about 90% before freezing in a ziploc bag. I did the detail cleaning with an Xacto knife this afternoon. The jaws had been in the freezer since last July.


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## Finger_Mullet

*Shark jaws*

A local taxidermist recomended Sal Soda (Soda ash). Anyone ever tried this? 

I have used it on deer heads but never shark jaws. 

Darin


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## TreednNC

Be careful with that stuff. I remember reading an article in Bowhunter about a guy that used to burry his skulls. Well he dug one out and was just finishing cleaning some scraps of meat off and a slip of the hand, cut his finger on some bone and wound up getting flesh eating bacteria in his system. Over the course of it, they wound up amputating all the way up to his shoulder.


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## barty b

Sea2aeS said:


> Barty, you have gotta be the craziest FHB ive ever seen on here. Jaws in the freezer since last summer.... Dood, you crack me up. opcorn:


My wife doesn't see the humor in my "freezer stash" I Got Sheepshead jaws,Stone Crab claws,Shark jaws,Grouper and Snapper skulls...Not to mention all the already preserved skulls and bone things. I got a thing for skulls and bones. I got all kind of stuff like that.


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## Finger_Mullet

*Sal Soda*

You add Sal Soda to boiling water and dip the skull in it. It turns the meat to jelly without messing up the cartildge. He said he has never preserved a set of jaws but it works on everything else he has tried. He said if you leave it in to long the teeth will fall out. He said to just dip it in for a few seconds.

You dip it for a few seconds and then scrape the jelly off. You repeat the process until it is clean. 

He also suggested whitening it with peroxide instead of bleach.

Darin


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## SaltSlinger

Guys - the sal soda mentioned above is what you should use. This is sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda, soda ash, or sal soda).

This is what taxidermists use. It softens and removes tissue very easily. I've used it on antlers / skulls from deer season and it works fantastic. Much more effective and less destructive to what you are working on than boiling or bleaching. 

You can buy it at the grocery store, Arm & Hammer Washing Soda:









Here is a link for more technical information on sodium carbonate from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_carbonate

!!! Note that sodium carbonate (what you want) is NOT sodium BIcarbonate, which is also known as baking soda (what you don't want) !!!


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