Bone

[Antonio Cotichini]

How do you manage when (if ever) using natural (not prepared) bone for nuts and saddles? I have a friend who owns an industrial butchery. So, from time to time I ask him a couple of cow (better ox) thigh-bones. Obviously he gives me with marrow and small flesh parts attached. Here's the way I treat it: First I cut away the top and bottom parts, that are less dense and cartilage, then on the length with the band saw ant take away the marrow and the rest with a knife. Second I put the pieces in boiling water to loosen the residual fat (NO BUENO for broth!). When dried I cut slices thick enough to become both nuts or saddles and put them in a solution of ammonia and oxygenated water. This way I obtain white and clean blankets, ready to be shaped. I found very good the ostrich thigh-bone, which is almost perfectly cylindrical and lets you save time on finding the best cut. But IMO nothing compares (legal) Ivory. How do you deal? (Not human legs, Tim!).

[Ned Knepp]

I give the bone to my dog and buy prepared blanks.

Actually, my brother once decided that he was going to save a lot and maybe make some side money on turning bones into blanks. He did things pretty much as you did but I think he used bleach instead of ammonia. It took a LOT of time to prep the bone because it took "forever" to boil all the fat out of the pores in the bone and it stunk up our work room something awful. Once he finally had it clean he had to cut out the blanks and there's quit a bit of waste since some is not dense enough to use.

Tracking the time and everything, we figured that it only cost him something like 1 and 1/2 times the cost of purchasing pre-processed bone blanks. For us, it just wasn't worth it but it's an "experience" that everyone should subjec... er try once.

Ned

[Paul Hostetter]

I usually buy unbleached bone blanks for nuts, because it does save time, but still make them from scratch, mostly for instruments that don't have ready-made blanks on the market. I don't worry about getting all the grease cooked out, it's not a big deal. Just cooking the bones as you would make stock is more than adequate. I had a dog years ago who got a bone a day, and I'd gather them up after he was done with them and before they got damaged by the elements. No cooking necessary. Bone bandsaws and sands on a 6x48 sander with great ease. It all works. Except: never use bleach or chemicals - it breaks down the structure of the bone.

I find elephant ivory, legal or not, much too soft and rubbery for decent nut material, at least for steel strings. Fossil ivory is all over the map in terms of hardness and durability. Plain unbleached bone is the best.

[Tim Mace]

I bought one of those big supermarket bones and gave it to dogs who finally gave up on it after a few years..enough material left for several whatevers. Still got some.......and a well gnawed project!