6 Attachment(s)
Turned Knobs with Bone inserts
I did these Walnut knobs for a table I'm building this week and the client wanted Bone inserts .
Ive been doing Bone stuff using My own selected and prepared bone since I came across this great website about ten years back when I got into building an acoustic guitar . That whole episode started here with a few questions in the Musical Instrument section and was a fantastic adventure . The fine detail on woodwork and decoration that the Lutherie guys do was amazing to see .
The link to Bone prep.
Cleaning Bone for Use in Lutherie
The bone insert was 12.7mm or 1/2 inch flat 2.5mm disks .
The bone came from that box and was already sanded into two flat 2 or 2.5mm thick sheets for some escutcheons I was doing months ago . I was in a hurry so used them instead of cutting and sanding more stuff from my box down .
I use the bandsaw to break down sizes and have two linisher sanders to work it from there. A Bench mounted unit with 50mm wide belts and a larger horizontal one with 80 grit . It could all be done on the small one or even a disc sander in an angle grinder would do .
I cut out 15 x 15 mm squares and poly glued them onto the ends of that 1/2" dowel . Then I took that to the belt sander and made them roughly close to the 1/2" size , after that I fitted the dowel into a Jacobs type chuck that fits my wood lathe and turned then to 12.7 mm with a slight taper to the front .
Then as each Walnut knob was turned, a recess for the bone was made in its end, as soon as it fitted I glued each bone in and started the on the next .
The final turning down of the bone in the face of the knob was done with a nice sharp cabinet scraper on the tool rest up close . It gave a perfect transition from center to slight curve and some fine paper after that finished it .
The Bone I use is the Femur . I Just looked it up . I started with ones from the butcher when I was in the city but now I get to select from whole Skeletons occasionally. The poor things sometimes die and Ive had to drag them by chain up the far end of the farm . They get eaten up pretty fast , Two weeks and their gone and parts get spread out after that for some time .
The bone prep from the link is very important . Using it without doing that is a waste of time on instruments or furniture.
I do wonder how well prepared the sun bleached old stuff I come across lying around could be though . It seems pretty dry and could be ok for certain things not glued in or polished over . Ive made a tool for the bench from such pieces and thought of doing letters for the key chain .
Bone is lovely stuff to work and polish . Very hard tough stuff dense like a tough plastic and waxy smooth to cut and polish . Unlike plastics it doesn't burn or smoke or melt when worked . Its got a smell like burning hair mixed with a cow smell . Not that nice so a cross breeze and a mask for particles is handy.
Here is some pictures with the knobs dry fitted in the almost complete Walnut Side Table .
Rob.
Some Vinegar in the Boiling Water?
In cooking, a small amount of vinegar is added to the water used in the preparation of beef broth.
It is supposed to help extracting the goodies out of the bones, including fat.
I am wondering if the same "method" could be used when cleaning & preparing bones?
Cheers Yvan
