A few years ago someone in our village caught a 120+ pound wild mackerel in the reservoir, and the processed mackerel stone was about 70 grams.

Things are rare, mackerel stone is not rare (more than 5 pounds of mackerel have mackerel stone in their bodies), but good quality large mackerel stone is really rare. Like more than 30 pounds of mackerel out of the mackerel stone is only 3 to 5 grams (the weight of the shade after drying), mackerel stone size depends on the size of the mackerel, the age of the fish, the living environment.

The mackerel stone is not the mackerel's dental calculus, but the horny growths in the mackerel's throat area, and its main function is to be used as an aid to break the hard shell of the snail so that the mackerel can eat the delicious snail meat.

With the same size of mackerel, the mackerel stone corresponding to wild mackerel is definitely bigger than that corresponding to bred mackerel, and the mackerel stone taken out by wild mackerel is thicker and of better quality. Wild cyprinids mainly eat snails, while reared cyprinids mainly eat carp pellet feed and snails, and the more snails they eat, the bigger the size of the horny growth organisms.

The mackerel stone is much like agate when polished, with a very attractive color, and can be used for jewelry and pendants. Rural rumors that mackerel stone has the role of driving away evil spirits, but also can prevent children from fright, but these are no scientific basis, may be a psychological effect, of course, does not rule out the speculation of the people.

The mackerel stone is not rare, small mackerel stone value is very low, but the large mackerel stone does have a high collection value.

The mackerel stone grows in the throat below the occipital bone of the mackerel's head, and it is relatively easy to remove it. We can use scissors to cut the fins, and then break the big joints, break open and see the bone color is not the same as the "heart-shaped foreign body", this heart-shaped foreign body is the mackerel stone, and then we use a stainless steel spoon to gently pry out the mackerel stone.

First, dry. Just take out the mackerel stone is relatively soft, we can put it in a sheltered place to dry slowly, this process takes about 20 days, mackerel stone cut can not be directly boiled or placed in the sun, or mackerel stone in the rapid dehydration process broken easily produce cracks.

After drying, the hardness of mackerel stone is about 3, and it is difficult to scratch with fingernail, when the mackerel stone is dry, it can be further processed.

Second, polishing. Polishing has two main purposes: one is to improve the texture of mackerel stone, mackerel stone in the process of crushing snail shells will have abrasion, its surface is not smooth, we can use gauze for grinding and polishing, polished mackerel stone color is very pink;

The second is to remove the fishy smell, mackerel stone surface has a very heavy fishy smell, through the sanding can be removed fishy smell. The polishing is done sequentially with gauze of different thicknesses.

Third, soak it in mineral oil or olive oil. Polished mackerel stone can be put in olive oil soaking for 10 days, soaked mackerel stone is not easy to crack, and not easy to breed mold, in addition to soaked mackerel stone is not easy to occur aging.

After soaking the mackerel stone is best to dry for another 10 days, otherwise the outside world temperature, humidity drastic changes, mackerel stone is still easy to crack, mackerel stone should pay attention to waterproof, in the bath time must be taken off the mackerel stone, otherwise easy to crack.

In short, the mackerel as the "four big fish" first, in addition to the delicious flavor, it also contains a mackerel stone can do jewelry. We encountered a big mackerel can pay attention to, which may contain a large piece of mackerel stone, with it to do the pendant is more symbolic.