Beef Bone For Making Tools

[TexasLady]

6/17/11

I made a tool from a hollowed pork bone, the misplaced it before I could use it. I'm sure it's around here somewhere,... where I carefully put it.

Not being able to find that tool, I set out to make one that's 'even better' this time. A very kind group of people in the butcher shop of a local supermarket saved me a gorgeous, white, perfect 9" long bovine bone in their refridgerated room. Even though I was a day late in going for it, they still had it there waiting for me, all wrapped up in shrink wrap, sitting on a styrofoam plate. I was so very audacious as to ask the butcher for one more favor. I explained that I would be having to clean out the marrow, and that, I'd like for him to please cut the bone, diagonally, from end to end. In seconds he had made the most beautiful straight cut you can imagine, using that huge band cutter that they have. So, that gave me the potential for making two humongeous fantastic BONE tools for leatherworking. The butcher's co-worker asked what I'd 'do' with it, and to explain quickly, I pulled out my little double loop laced scissor-holder from my purse. They were favorably impressed. And it almost chokes me up to tell you that the butcher, and the store, did not charge me for the beautiful beef bone. (I'll try to repay them in the future, either in patronage to their meat counter or with a sample of my work, or both.)

So, now that the bones are cooked, with all meat removed, please give me your suggestions for what tools I can/should make. I'd only started out to make a burnisher, but somehow it seems that this windfall might have more potential. - Texas Lady

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Boning tools are a given.

I would say anything that is used without a hammer; modeling tools, burnishers, etc.

[DJ1935]

Hi Texas Lady

I am always scavaging bones from our local butcher. Bone makes great tools, depending on the bone shape. You can make brillant burnishers and molding tools from ribs and the top end of shoulder blades make good scrapers.

Your only mistake was boiling the bone to get the meat off. This weakens the bone and causes it to splinter - not ideal for leather or your hands! You should bury the bone in the dirt, preferably near an ants nest, or leave it on a roof in the sun to bleach - you may have to tie the bone with a string to stop something "borrowing" it. I have a friend who has an entire horse skeleton on his roof waiting for the bone to bleach - must get some odd looks from passersby!

DJ

Edited June 18, 2011 by DJ1935

[Kevin]

You can make creasers out of smaller leg bones. Shoemaker's tools are referred to as Crispin's bones.

Kevin

[BigRiverLeather]

I have a friend who has an entire horse skeleton on his roof waiting for the bone to bleach - must get some odd looks from passersby!

DJ

HA! Sounds like something straight out of Mad Max! I'll bet that is quite a site.

[TexasLady]

6/18/11

My thanks to everyone on this Thread for your generous replies.

DJ1935,

I can't believe that I've already done something wrong with my beautiful beef bone! Okay, to be perfectly honest, I saw the lucious marrow and boiled the bone so that I could eat the marrow. I've also made two pots of quite delicious soup of the bone stock, using herbs (rosemary, cloves, thyme), hominy, and chicken hearts. I'll add some fresh vegetables the next time I heat it up. Still, if I'd realized that I was weakening the beef bone, I'd have buried it in my backyard. Since I mow my own grass, I can attest to the fact that my backyard ants are carnivours. In fact, if all of the rest of this forum would like to use my backyard for expressly this purpose, I have more than enough ants to 'go around'. When I read about your friend who's put a horse skeleton on his roof, I looked immediately over on your profile to see where you 'are'. My local town's ordinances tend to frown on putting horse skeletons on our roofs here. <chuckles> I wonder exactly what the citation on my door would 'say'.

Yes, we do have occassional wolves and cougars around here, and I doubt that a string, or even a rope, would be enough to secure a good bone from them. Maybe a chain? So, what about the real bone tools that Tandy sells? How do they disinfect the bone if not by boiling? Am I sounding like a tenderfoot by asking this?

If anyone would like to post photos of bone tools you've made, please 'be my guest'. In fact, help me out by posting something.

- Texas Lady

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

You may not have damaged it enough to worry about. We had some Boxers who worked over a couple of bones from the kitchen,and they held up as long as the dogs did. Beef bones are much stronger than pork bones which will splinter, that is why my brother the veterinarian suggests beef bones for dog chews.

My neighbor down the road used to bleach bones, and skulls on her roof.

Since you have the bones, make some tools, and try them out.

The ones Tandy sells may be chemically treated. I would think that once the meat, and marrow was removed that a good sun bleaching, or even a good scrubbing with soap,Clorox, or Lysol would do it if you are worried about cooties.

[WinterBear]

Mammalogists that prepare bone for teaching groups and lab specimens suggest never using bleach, or if you must use bleach, never soak bones in bleach. It weakens the bone and will cause it to crumble over time. Bleach can be used to wipe or to help degrease, but should be followed with a soak in clean water to get it out of the pores.

Better to use a strong peroxide solution which is pretty good for both whitening and getting rid of germs, and won't degrade the bone.

The university still has a pair of antelope skulls I prepped and cleaned with peroxide for use in the mammalogy labs there. The final projects of all of the students became part of the collection to replace the items that were deteriorating due to age and handling. The skulls were cleaned by putting them in water that was below boiling--hot, but not boiling-with a small amount of non-sudsing detergent and keeping them in there for several hours. I brushed as needed with a stiff scrub-brush, but mostly, anything attached fell off on its own. I've done similar prep work with bird legs (turkey mostly) for making cores and stems, and it works great for those fragiler bones too.

I've done some beef-bone work, and I personally like the mellowed look of unbleached bone. I've given away most of the tools I made (silly of me, I know), but I think I still have a small unbleached beef bone pendant around here somewhere. I'll scrounge it up and post a picture tomorrow. The material from the pendant came from a great source--pre-cleaned and sterile white dog bones from the pet store!

Just make sure you wear good safety equipment when you work your beef bone--bone dust is nasty and can really tear up your lungs and eyes. It also smells pretty funky, so best to do it outside so the family doesn't disown ya.

[TexasLady]

6/24/11

You were right! Parts of the edges of the bone, I have sadly dried out by the boiling. But there are still large areas that have plenty of grease in them. I slicked the edges of some small items a little while ago, and the bone is working fine,... quite luxurious actually, to be able to hang onto that huge beef bone with my whole hand, rather than having to clamp down on some small tool with my fingers. Anyone who's had a brush with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome will appreciate the wisdom of using a tool that's comfortable and ergonomic, rather than one that's small and causes the hand to cramp. Regarding your Boxer dogs and the kitchen bones,... I hope that they weren't trying to access the bone marrow with their tongues. My previous little wire haired terrier told me that there's nothing more frustrating than not being able to 'get at' the bone marrow.

I found that first tool, the pork bone. I'd stored it with the project I'd been working on,... which was a palm pusher. So, when I picked up the parts for the palm pusher, there was the pork bone with them. It looks tiny by comparison with the beef bone. Your neighbor who bleached the skulls on her roof was in the USA? - Vintage

You may not have damaged it enough to worry about. We had some Boxers who worked over a couple of bones from the kitchen,and they held up as long as the dogs did. Beef bones are much stronger than pork bones which will splinter, that is why my brother the veterinarian suggests beef bones for dog chews.

My neighbor down the road used to bleach bones, and skulls on her roof.

Since you have the bones, make some tools, and try them out.

The ones Tandy sells may be chemically treated. I would think that once the meat, and marrow was removed that a good sun bleaching, or even a good scrubbing with soap,Clorox, or Lysol would do it if you are worried about cooties.

Edited June 24, 2011 by TexasLady

[TexasLady]

6/24/11

Hi WinterBear,

How glad I am that I bought two big bottles of peroxide at my local drug store when it was on sale last year. They are 'food grade', and I'd intended to use them, diluted, to brush my teeth with. I'll use them next time in preparing my beef bones for toolmaking. Your description of the antelope skulls brings back to me my General Biology I class that I took in 2009. Baby pigs, but ours were in formaldehyde for dissection. The displays around the room had some giant frogs, mounted between plexiglass panes. No antelope skulls, though. I like the 'water that's below boiling' idea. Actually, I was boiling the bone using only a 'hot plate', so I had trouble getting that really big pot of water to boil. That may have been the salvation of those beef bones. <smiley face> What 'non-sudsing deterrgent' were you using? What about using Borax? I didn't know that the bone dust would be bad for my lungs and eyes. I haven't cut the bones that I've got now, but I might be wanting to cut some in the future.

Okay, I'm getting off the subject of 'bone tools' now, but when you mentioned turkey leg bones, that reminded me of something. At my local supermarket, they sell 'Smoked Turkey Legs'. They still need to be cooked, but they have been smoked. They have the skin on them, all smokey-looking. I remember reading that if (I think it was) buckskin has been smoked, it won't shrink. So, I stood there and looked at those packaged 'smoked' turkey legs for a long time, wanting to buy them, just so that I could experiment with the already-smoked skin. But, not having time to do the research on how to tan them or how to use the smoked skin, I didn't buy them. If you, or anybody, knows about this, I'm still curious.

You used the turkey leg bones for making 'cores and stems'. What's that?

Thanks for that peroxide idea. - TexasLady

Mammalogists that prepare bone for teaching groups and lab specimens suggest never using bleach, or if you must use bleach, never soak bones in bleach. It weakens the bone and will cause it to crumble over time. Bleach can be used to wipe or to help degrease, but should be followed with a soak in clean water to get it out of the pores.

Better to use a strong peroxide solution which is pretty good for both whitening and getting rid of germs, and won't degrade the bone.

The university still has a pair of antelope skulls I prepped and cleaned with peroxide for use in the mammalogy labs there. The final projects of all of the students became part of the collection to replace the items that were deteriorating due to age and handling. The skulls were cleaned by putting them in water that was below boiling--hot, but not boiling-with a small amount of non-sudsing detergent and keeping them in there for several hours. I brushed as needed with a stiff scrub-brush, but mostly, anything attached fell off on its own.I've done similar prep work with bird legs (turkey mostly) for making cores and stems, and it works great for those fragiler bones too.

I've done some beef-bone work, and I personally like the mellowed look of unbleached bone. I've given away most of the tools I made (silly of me, I know), but I think I still have a small unbleached beef bone pendant around here somewhere. I'll scrounge it up and post a picture tomorrow. The material from the pendant came from a great source--pre-cleaned and sterile white dog bones from the pet store!

Just make sure you wear good safety equipment when you work your beef bone--bone dust is nasty and can really tear up your lungs and eyes. It also smells pretty funky, so best to do it outside so the family doesn't disown ya.

Edited June 24, 2011 by TexasLady