Nut Blank Supplier??

[ChitownGuitarGuy]

I have been using Allparts for years to get the bone blanks for my repair shop. We switched from using white bone to the "vintage" bone because it was unbleached, did not smell absolutely atrocious when working with it, and even seems to lend a slightly smoother tone than the regular white. I am absolutely fed up with Allparts being constantly out of stock of the bone I want and would like to find a supplier that specializes in blanks of all sorts that you can buy in bulk and is not Stewmac.

I remember hearing of some place in Indiana a few years back, but my initial search has turned up nada. Anyone out there got some sweet reference?

[Paul Hostetter]

I managed to get a bison femur, the thickest, biggest bone in the beast's body, and it was too small for making a guitar nut. I sent the guy (a bison rancher in BC) a chunk of a cow bone as a sample of what I was after, and he said he'd never seen bison generate a bone that big. The bone itself was nothing special in terms of density and so on, but was adequate for banjo and mandolin nuts.

I agree that unbleached bone is far superior to bleached, and that semi-cooked even uncooked if it's had a few months to dry out) is fine - the little bit of residual grease is not a problem at all.

Tea is a common coloring agent for bone - instant age. But coffee is completely ineffectual.

I'd be interested to try camel bone, I wonder if the guy's still there.

[Tommy Kay]

I like Allparts for price and the selection is fairly good once you get used to the catalog labyrinth. I would order far more stuff IF they made it easier!!! I talked them at the NAMM show a few years ago. They said it was printing cost issue, and they would be updating their website to solve the problem. The update didn't change it much? It's stagnant, many the product pictures are missing and description are vague/cryptic at best. Seems to me they are losing more money by not making it easier to shop/order? Those dual catalogs are just ridiculous!