A bone to pick

Mark Arnold

Mark Arnold

Well-known member
I'm toying with the idea of doing some inlay with bone, but want to make sure I'm not wasting my time. Thanks to my teenage dog, I've got a huge pile of nice clean bones (mostly cow leg) to work with. My questions are as follows-
1. Are cattle bones the best material to work with? They do seem a little porous, especially near the center opening. I remember a clock repairman once told me he prefers pig bone because it is more dense than beef (he used it to fashion replacement parts). Is one better than the other?
2. Once I have selected the livestock, what is the best sawtooth configuration for cutting bone? I'm looking for something with as little kerf as possible to yield pieces about 1/16" thick.
3. Do I need to be concerned with bone dust? I'd hate to contract mad cow disease or something worse.
4. Does bone need to be sanded flush or can it be scraped?
5. I've seen inlaid bone that is etched for details (faces, shading, etc). What is the best tool for doing this and what is rubbed into the etching to highlight it? Can bone be sand-shaded?
Anybody have experience with bone?

Thanks
 
I've sawn a bit of bone. It's not something I look forward to. I once went from a cattle bone (I think it might have been water buffalo) to 3/32" veneers. The stuff is very difficult to saw once its dry. I shouldn't say difficult, more like really really unpleasant. And the smell is nothing to write home about either. I was never bothered by the smell of fresh hide glue, but heating up bone is something entirely different. It's got a kind of primeval rank that makes you feel like a caveman, or at least feel like its killing enough brain cells to make you into one. The mad cow prospect is kind of scary. I never considered that. Nowadays when I use bone I buy it from knife-making supplies (like http://www.trugrit.com/knife-handle-material.htm) and its already fairly thin. Thin enough that you can sand it to thickness with a drum sander (or whatever you have at your disposal). Make sure your dust collection is this side of black-hole suckage though. And I'd wear a respirator and plan to do it at the end of the day or on a day when you can open all the windows wide. The smell lingers. The bone I usually work with is around 1/16" or less by the time I've processed it. I saw it out with a 2/0 jeweler's saw and take it slow. It's really brittle. Best to tack it to some thickish veneer and cut your parts, then remove the backing. I've done double-bevel inlay with bone and rosewood with little trouble. Last time I got a commission to do "bone" inlay though I used a piece of ivory that a friend had given me. What a joy. Going back to bone after that, well, its not going to be easy. I've never done etching or shading. One other thing. If you work the bone too thin (it scrapes well, but you have to use a hard backer if you sand to keep it all level) it will become translucent and telegraph the substrate color through, especially if its dark like walnut.
 
Hi Mark    I haven't used bone in a while so I had to do some digging to find the recipe. I found some other good stuff while digging, so it turned out to be time well spent.    Anyway,here goes, I've used cow, sheep, and horse, but not pig.{I can almost here the animal rights people at the door now.}  Leg or thigh bones work best.     Cut with bandsaw or circular blade.  As far as dust goes, use a mask, it smells bad.        Bone is more brittle than Ivory or horn so if still contains the marrow, boil it in water. Next, {hang with me here, I got this recipe from an old Frenchman I studied under. } you soak it for 10 to 12 days in 1/3 gal. of water, 1/2 oz of lime, and about 4  1/2 oz of sodium carbonate. If you need it whiter, you can boil it in this solution for about 15 min.  Then rinse with water. then dry .    Not done yet.  Next, soak in turpentine for 24hrs After that ,boil in water for about 1hr.   Then you bleach with hydrogen peroxide and  it's ready to use. The reason you do this is to  stabilize it and to remove the stuff in the pores.  It then it can be sanded or I use a file. If it needs to be tinted, use the same procedures as used on wood.           OR, you can go to the desert, find old bones {50yrs + dry} and skip part  of the fun.But, they may come apart when your working them.     This is why Ivory was the first choice.     Oh ya,  when cutting it in veneer stacks,glue news paper to the back to keep it together. If you repair French Marquetry, you will usually find a news paper underneath.     Acids were used in 18 century to shade or etch, if you get this far, we can talk again.    Good luck!!!!!      Randy
 
After a 2nd thought, I think Jameel has the right idea,  Buy the stuff from the knife guys.  But I think you should cut some just to experience it , it's bad!!
 
If you're going to slice your own, get a fish and meat blade for your bandsaw. They have the thinnest kerf available.
 
Jameel, Randy, and Dick,

Thanks for your input and for sharing your experience. In the meantime, I've run across some sources that confirm the suggestions offered here--that the bone needs to be boiled, bleached and dried before it is worked. I guess I never really thought about it, but the organic tissue contained in a bone has to be rendered inert before it can be inlaid. The knife handle supplier is looking better all the time.

Mark
 
Mark - One other thought is celluloid.  You can buy it from luthier suppliers.  It's the preferred substitute for ivory, and has been used as bindings in guitars since at least the 1920s.  It's incredibly stable, closely resembles ivory (unless you're looking at it with a microscope), and yellows naturally much like bone.
 
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