Use for Bone?

[bezoar]

What good books/websites exist on making bone objects such as boxes, needles, combs, and the like? I can find great period and reproduction items online, but almost nothing on how to make them?

Can someone tell me the secret of glueing bone to bone to make a box?

 

[Norskie]

Don't know of any. I just picked up some bone and started shaping it. What have I learned? Well...
You can cut it like really hard wood, with a fine toothed saw. Hacksaw blades seem to work.
It's easy to file into shape, but fine files clog easily.
Wear a dust mask.
If you're drilling, go slow and clear the chips/dust frequently, to keep cracks from forming.
Glue. I suppose you won't use epoxy because of pc considerations. It does work, though. Hide glue, perhaps?
As I said, all I've done is experiment. Get thee hence and do likewise. The material's cheap enough.
Reminds me. I promised the missus a bone needle for sewing knitware.
I believe I'll go rob the dog's stash of polished cowbones.
Moose

 

[Patrick Hand]

Does anyone know what part of a cow's bones are the thickest?

I saw a really cool early period pocket knife with a bone handle, and would like to make something similar, but I'd need a slab of bone about 1/2" thick...

 

[Norskie]

Try leg bones. They get the most weight on them, and that should make them the thickest. Half inch may wind up being too thick, though. Most of my knife scales wind up being three eighths or less.
Two scales at 3/8ths" plus an average tang, let's call it 1/8th"; your handle is 7/8ths" thick.
Moose

 

As it happens I was just doing a web search on bone carving the other day and bookmarked a few sites. I want to make a custom bone nosecap for my stock. However, this maks me sick, we changed IP the other day and although I had several months to save my historic files and bokmarks I did not. And so, I lost the web sites for the bone carving. But - just Gogle it and you will be fine. Hide glue, Gorila glue, 2 part epoxy for china works well as does JB Weld. You have got to watch for run over on the bone with all of these glues. Especialy JB. Test them first to find the best one for your purpose! :grin:

 

[bezoar]

i was thinking on using epoxy for gluing everything together with or without a bone dowel. From what I have been able to find on bone thickness, the best thickness is from an animal that has been worked to death, like an ox or a 10 year old draft horse "think the horses that pull the beer wagon all".

Not much is really available on actually working bone online. Everything just refers you to buying books on moari bone carving, if your lucky youll find a saxon based website that shows an exploded view of how to make a bone comb, other wise all i can find is how to make lace bobbins from wood.

How do you guys degrease bone? So far the best method is to boil the cow bone up for soup stock and then clean it in hot soap water for a few hour soaks, and then clean for a day.

heres a laugh for you guys, ive found articles from museum curators sayign the best way to degrease a bone is to soak it in carbon tetrachloride (highly toxic liver killing manure) or to soak it in naptha/white gas until the bone stops changing the color of the gas...

 

One of the best ways to get all the soft tissue of bone is to build what I have heard called a "bug box" and have adopted the phrase myself. It is a wooden box large enough to easily hold the peice of bone/s that you wish to work on. Then populate the box with leaf litter some soil and worms. Place the box in an area that insects will easily find and cover the top (do not seal it) so rain / snow / dogs do not get inside. Hardware cloth works well for this. Then just leave it alone for a week before checking the progress of out buggy friends. This is somewhat time consuming but the bugs do most, if not all, of the work. Then, when you think it is ready, soak the piece of boan in pure bleach and scrub as required. Word of caution - do not put the bug box close to people or the homes of valued neighbors. I have not used this proces for a long time but when I did - it worked fine. Watch the placement of earth / soil as it will stain the bone if left for a long time in contact.

 

[Vanderpool]

If you got an anthill close by that works good too. The bug box keeps other critters away, or draggin it off