some bone items

[zimmerstutzen]

A few weeks ago, Mrs asked me to trim a chuck roast. There was a fairly large flat bone in the roast which I cut out. I saw that it was flat and about half of it was solid, having no marrow whatever. So I cleaned the membrane off the bone, used a hack saw to cut the part with the marrow away (for which the dog was happy) and then soaked the rest in hydrogen peroxide for a few days. The color substantially brightened with the peroxide treatment. I let the bone dry and then used the hack swa again to slice off a sliver to make a crude bodkin, a lacing needle. I used a sharp knife to scrape the general shape and a drill pin vise to drill a hole for the lace. I used a needle file to enlarge the lace hole. When I got the final shape to be about what I wanted, I sanded it with 280 grit sand paper, then 4-0000 steel wool and finally buffed it on the buffing wheel.

raw material

final needle

there is a few square inches left for making buttons and even a scrimshaw pendant.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Nice work.
Here are a couple of awls we found, both are lower leg bone of deer. The 6” one is very unusual.
3F83DBDA-DB60-4AB1-8D47-B16FC1BF83F2 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr