Bone Cleaning/Carving

[Shangri-laschild]

Has anyone here done any bone carving or bone cleaning? I'm working on a project with some deer ribs that I got from a hunter friend. I want to make sure that I clean them thoroughly though and I also have never carved bone before so I'm not completely sure what to expect.

[Nyoibo]

Cleaning them, you can either boil the flesh off, which usually works ok, or find an ants nest and leave them there for a few days, those little guys will strip it clean.

As for carving, very sharp tools and go very slowly and carefully, or you can use a dremel or similar with different grinding and engraving attatchment, be warned however if you go the dremel route the smell is something else entirely.

[Shangri-laschild]

the smell is something else entirely.

Well I already boiled a bunch of them in bleach (probably should have included that information) so I don't know that it can smell too much worse than that. As far as my worries with cleaning them, I am nervous about if they are clean enough and the marrow (what the result of it still being there is other than eventual color change). To specify, I'm wanting to try to make hair chopsticks so I want to be sure that I'm not putting something in my hair that hasn't been properly cleaned.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Okay, I'm just gonna leave you with this story and you can do with it as you see fit. I'm not drawing any conclusions, I'm just sayin'.

Guy used to show up at the Publick House on Irish Jam night and he played the bones. He made his own set. Baked them, boiled them, aged them, whatever. For some time after he started playing them, he got sick to his stomach every time he played them. This went on so often people would say "Hey, can I play these?" and he'd say, "Well, personally I don't mind but if I were you I wouldn't." Eventually he quit getting sick. He said.

I haven't seen him in years.

Do with this info what you will.

[Aethian]

Well I already boiled a bunch of them in bleach (probably should have included that information) so I don't know that it can smell too much worse than that.

Burning bone can smell worse then bleach.

[BlaqueKatt]

and you do not want to inhale bone powder-it can make you seriously ill.

though I did find a how to for bone carving/prep

[TheSHAD0W]

I strongly recommend you do NOT make bone chopsticks.

What appear to be ivory chopsticks are actually usually hair pins, although some are manufactured for the tourist crowd. Bone chopsticks would be porous and would harbor bacteria.

Nearly all chopsticks are wood and are single-use, though I have seen some steel/silverware ones.

EDIT: Doh, I misread. Yeah, if they're for hair then bone is okay.

[42_42_42]

curious: is it still called scrimshaw if it's not whalebone/teeth being carved?

[Nyoibo]

I think it is.

As far as my worries with cleaning them, I am nervous about if they are clean enough and the marrow

Again, ants, they'll clean them completely, it just takes a while.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

If you have access to fireants, it doesn't take much time at all. I had some bird bones (I have a nature collection) I wanted cleaned. They got the brain matter out of a very fragile skull for me without damaging the skull. (yes, the bird was dead when I got my hands on it.)

curious: is it still called scrimshaw if it's not whalebone/teeth being carved?

Far as I know, yeah. I used to know a scrimshaw artist that used a lot of antler and bone...pretty sure it's still considered scrimshaw.

[42_42_42]

Cool. Scrimshaw's a neat word (and a neat craft/art, although not for me). I like words more than dead things.