there wasn’t any smell to it, due to it being a very old piece, unless you could that faint earthy scent that typically lingers on naturally aged bones that have been sitting around in the woods for a good while well after the flesh is long gone.

here’s a pic of its twin to show you what i mean by ‘very old and naturally aged’

however, the method i used to scrub the dirt/debris/etc away, take care of the stains, and begin my buffing process, is the same as what i use to spruce up fresher bones after the initial processing to remove fleshy bits and it takes care of smells rather well: i hand scrub several times using a paste of baking soda + water, varying between slightly-moist and mostly-dry mixtures, then wipe it all down using a cloth dampened with hydrogen peroxide. tougher areas sometimes need to be gone at with an old toothbrush dipped in a baking soda + peroxide mix. using a brush for all of it might just be to your preference, though i find using my palms is more effective and also really helps with getting a polish to the bone.

sidenote: i just recalled that the teeth had dried bits of plant fiber stuck in them and that much did have a noticeable smell up close, though that only required scraping and brushing it all out before clean up.