Bone Tools

[TexasLady]

5/20/12

The butcher at a specialty grocery store gave me a big beef bone for free. I want to make a 'slicker' out of it. I've read that you shouldn't boil a bone that will be used as a tool, because this is supposed to make it splinter. But how do you sanitize it? And how do you remove all the spongy-looking 'insides' of the bone?... the boney part that's got bone, fat, and marrow mixed together.

I've also been saving some round, ring-shaped, pieces of bone from recent steaks that I've fried. So, these have been cooked, and I've eaten the marrow from them. But now they are all washed and clean. They are air-dryed. I'm keeping them in a plastic container with a net over them, so that they don't mold. Has anyone here made any nice bone tools for leatherwork from this type of bone? Thanks. - TexasLady

[dirtclod]

I'd bury it the ground for a couple of months and let the bugs clean it up. Then cut it on a band saw and scrape the marrow out or maybe cut before i buried it for the bugs. Not sure if would need to be cut to size or if it should dry first. I would think regular ole rubbing alchoil would kill any germs.

[BWL]

5/20/12

The butcher at a specialty grocery store gave me a big beef bone for free. I want to make a 'slicker' out of it. I've read that you shouldn't boil a bone that will be used as a tool, because this is supposed to make it splinter. But how do you sanitize it? And how do you remove all the spongy-looking 'insides' of the bone?... the boney part that's got bone, fat, and marrow mixed together.

I've also been saving some round, ring-shaped, pieces of bone from recent steaks that I've fried. So, these have been cooked, and I've eaten the marrow from them. But now they are all washed and clean. They are air-dryed. I'm keeping them in a plastic container with a net over them, so that they don't mold. Has anyone here made any nice bone tools for leatherwork from this type of bone? Thanks. - TexasLady

If you just set it out side in a protected area and let the ants clean it:Lighten:

[TexasLady]

5/22/12

Thank you both so very much for your suggestions. I don't have a bandsaw, dirtclod,... but I'd like to have one. I got to use one when I took the college sculpture class. Those are lots of fun and make quick work of jobs that are otherwise nearly impossible. Barbed Wire Leather, Texas has some vicious little ants,... quite warlike, even when unprovoked,... who would doubtless take on the challege of cleaning my beef bone. Actually, they've attempted to clean my own bones when I've walked through their territory while out cutting my grass. However, I fear that the cats, rats, and the occasional coyote might do a little re-shaping of any bone I would put outdoors. Oh! I've got an idea! I'd bought a rat trap at a Chinese grocery store a couple of years ago. Never used it. But I might try putting a bone inside the rat trap and staking the rat trap down out in the back yard. The metal grid is about a half inch square, and the wire is substantially heavy. And 'Lighten' with what? - TexasLady

[Sylvia]

5/22/12

And 'Lighten' with what? - TexasLady

LOL somehow his smiley got truncated... he meant to do this.

[TexasLady]

5/22/12

Oh, that's so funny. Thanks, Sylvia. - TexasLady

[chiefjason]

Deer antlers work pretty well too. A small spike or 4 pointer might be best. One of my boning/slicking tools is a spike antler about 6" long. Now I'll be saving ribs from the deer too. lol Oh, I think I know where some might be. Going to have to check.

[lightningad]

i made myself a folder/slicker from Black Walnut - shaped on a belt sander before a final smoothing with sandpaper - works really well, and no ants required!

[TexasLady]

5/23/12

chiefjason,

Good for you for using all parts of the deer. I'd been through south Texas one year when there was a drought and too many deer for the available resources. Still, I love animals and hate that people kill them just for sport. I don't have any antlers on hand, but that slicker sounds like a good use for them. Antlers fall off and grow back, don't they? As for the ribs (indicating the demise of this particular animal), I hope they were good eatin'. Barbequed? But, no, I don't think that the ribs would make a good slicker. (Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.) The ribs would have too much marrow in them and too little thickness of actual 'bone' on their outter rim. They would look ugly. The bone that I got from the specialty grocery store is all white on the outside, with about a quarter inch of nice white bone on the rim, before moving to the marrow in the center. The butcher cut off the ends of the bone for me, so that the cartiledge is gone, and the hole to the marrow is open.

lightningad,

The Black Walnut slicker sounds very nice. Did you stain the wood or is it 'au natural'? I've got some pieces of Walnut wood at home, but it isn't Black Walnut. That's a very hard wood to work with. And, yes, 'no ants required'.

Thanks to both of you for the suggestions. - TexasLady

[lightningad]

no stains used - just rubbed in some beeswax after the sanding. Being a hard wood helps it to work as a slicker (i think!).

[TexasLady]

5/23/12

Thanks, lightningad. Good ol' beeswax. Yes, being a hardword would surely be the reason that it's a good slicker. That you used a belt sander,... does that mean that you made it smooth and flat,... like a letter opener? Would you be able to upload a photo of it? With my little ring-shaped steak bones, I'm thinking of making something with grooves for slicking the edges of my leather. Here's the link to the Tandy version. - TexasLady

http://www.tandyleat...keyword=slicker

Edited May 23, 2012 by TexasLady

[Northmount]

Don't need a bandsaw, any fine toothed saw will work, even a hacksaw. The coarser the teeth, the rougher the cut. Then you'll spend more time sanding the edges.

Can use a coping saw if you want any fancy curves. Low cost if you don't have one already.

CTG

Edited May 23, 2012 by northmount

[TexasLady]

5/23/12

Hi, northmount. Yes, I've been slowly coming to that conclusion myself. Now, keep in mind that the bone is already cut smoothly. It's the insides of it that I've been asking for help on. Shaping the outside will be the 'fun' and relatively easy part of the process. So, not that I don't need advice on that, too, but I hadn't started asking for help on that yet. What I 'have' finally begun to conclude is that I should use a very fine coping saw,... even a jeweler's saw,... to remove the marrow and boney/spongy material from the inside of the bone. I should insert the blade through the hole in the bone. Then, I should attach the blade to the hacksaw. The irregularities of the inside of the bone should keep me well entertained while sawing. - TexasLady

Here's what my beef bones look like:

http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2010/02/17/roasted-marrow-bones/

And as a 'free public service', I also found this link, with the right vocabulary for what I'm saying that I need to remove from my beef bones. Maybe 'too much information' (TMI)?

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/92222/cancellous-bone

"cancellous bone, also called trabecular bone or spongy bone, ... light, porous bone enclosing numerous large spaces that give a honeycombed or spongy appearance. The bone matrix, or framework, is organized into a three-dimensional latticework of bony processes, called trabeculae, arranged along lines of stress. The spaces between are often filled with marrow."

[WinterBear]

You can get rid of a lot of that honeycombed stuff with some eye protection, a small cold chisel, a vise, a pad of old towel or something similar, and a non-metal mallet. You don't want to drive yourself crazy by doing more sawing than you need to. Just pad the bone and clamp it in the vise, pop your eye protection on, and using light taps on the chisel with a wooden mallet (never use metal-to-metal on impact tools--ruins the tools and may splinter metal), and break out the boney core. A half-round file or a round file usually works to smooth the interior juts that remain attached. A jeweler's saw is gennerally not going to work for cutting pieces off the compact or dense bone, unless you like a lot of sawing. You'll make more progress with a coping saw for any long straight cuts, and use the jeweler's saw for small precise cuts and curves.

[TexasLady]

5/23/12

Thanks, WinterBear. Every little bit helps. Eye protection - check. Vise - check. Wooden (or nylon, or rawhide) mallet - check. Padding for the bone - check. I have a skinny wood chisel. But that's not what you mean, is it? You mean like this, don't you? >> http://www.amazon.co.uk/VISA-Tools-Small-Steel-Chisel/dp/B004NC4S3Q Okay. But the half-round or round file,... I would use that after washing out all of the grease that I could get off of the bone, wouldn't I? Otherwise, it wouldn't 'file'. It would just get all gummed up with the grease, right? - TexasLady

[WinterBear]

Yeah, something like that. And yes, file after the bone is degreased and dry. You won't be able to file damp bone either. You can soak the bone in hot (but not boiling) water and borax to degrease.

[TexasLady]

5/23/12

Borax. Good idea. I'd forgotten about Borax. I have a box of it on hand. Thanks. - TexasLady

[TexasLady]

5/30/12

I worked on one of my round steak bones this morning,... with limited successs. Yes, the chisel did remove some of the larger chunks of spongy-bone material, WinterBear, but it was too coarse for finishing the job. I used the largest gouge of my linoleum cutting tool set, and that got me very close to what I was trying to accomplish. Still, I'll need to find a way to file it smooth on the inside surface. The problem is that when a bone has even a touch of pink color to it, it stinks terribly,... like a carcas, of course. I don't think that this will go away any time soon. That bone I worked on is now soaking in water with borax. I hope that the smell will diminish.

The good news is that some of my round steak bones were perfectly white, with no spongy-bone material inside at all. I was able to make a slicker from one of them. Here's are two views of the same bone slicker. I'm sorry that the photos are so large. I tried to reduce them, but wasn't able. Thanks to everyone on this Thread for your help. - Texas Lady

Edited May 30, 2012 by TexasLady

[robertmeco]

Here is a link for bones i use for boning I use one of these bones every day making my holsters these come very smooth and no smell

http://www.basketsofjoy.com/bone-awl.aspx

Edited May 30, 2012 by robertmeco

[WinterBear]

Yeah, it's the grease and blood caught in the pores and decomposing that is causing the smell. If the borax doesn't give you satisfactory results, toss it out in the sun. Secure it from rodents and dogs, and let the UV and the heat take care of things. A week or three shouldn't cause too much degradation, but I don't think it will take that long. If that fails though, you can always try a peroxide soak.

For the ones that are still too rough inside, a round file should take care of that. Or, if you have no file, wrap emery cloth or sandpaper around a dowel to smooth things down. Even cheap manicure sticks with the abrasive surfaces can work, and can be split lengthwise to get into narrower spots.

[RandyScott]

Here is a link to google to search for 'how to degrease bones': https://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&gs_mss=how%20to%20degrease%20bo&tok=mFMYrWuI9p8ieIo0iWQrag&cp=20&gs_id=1x&xhr=t&q=how+to+degrease+bones&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=how+to+degrease+bone&aq=0&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=d6f68e5c56c9b3bd&biw=1130&bih=639

I have made boning tools from hardwoods, both exotic/foreign and domestic... it is quicker, cheaper and easier. Bone has a propensity to leach fat for years if it has not been degreased properly.

One Christmas season Rockler's, a retail woodworking chain, had a box of 'exotic hardwood' cutoffs. I paid about 50 cents each and made fids, creasers, burnishers, boners, etc.. Some of that wood was really hard to work with hand tools. It will hold well against leather.

[TexasLady]

6/3/12

Hi robertmeco,

Thanks for that suggestion and link. Yes, the bone awl looks very nice. I would like to make something like that myself. The baskets on that link are beautiful, too. I'm really glad to have this link, as I hadn't known that there was any 'one spot' on the internet where I would be able to find so much information on 'basket-making'. I took a 'required' 3-D Design class a couple of years ago at a community college. When I got there, it turned out to be a 'combined' class. Half of the students were taking 3-D Design and the other half were taking 'Fibers'. Fibers was mostly 'basket weaving'. I soon realized that the teacher's heart was in the Fibers half of her class, not in the 3-D half. She was really good at basket-weaving. I watched as much of it as I was able, while still keeping up with what I was there to accomplish.

However, help me with something. There's no way to find out the prices of anything without registering on that site, right? But, again, thanks for the link. I'll probably go back to it when I get ready to learn basket making. – Texas Lady

6/3/12

Hi again, WinterBear. Peroxide. Okay. Yes, I have some right by the sink. Food grade. I brush my teeth with it. I'll try that if the sun doesn't work. Right now, my round steak bones (the ones with any pinkness to them) have found their way into that new, shiny, and as yet unused rat trap that I bought at a Chinese grocery store a few years ago. I don't want to put it out in the yard until I've purchased either some strong wire or else a small chain to tie it down with. The whole thing doesn't weigh very much, and a determined dog could easily walk off with the whole kit 'n kaboodle if it isn't tied down. My back yard isn't dog proof,… nor people proof for that matter. I'll wrap the chain around a railroad tie or a tree to secure the rat trap and leave those bones out in the hot Texas sun for a few days. I'm reluctant to tie it to a tree near the house, as I don't want to encourage the ants to come any closer to my habitat than necessary. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Oh, no,… I've got lots of files, rasps, and sandpaper. But you're right. Even the little emery boards for manicures can be very useful. A friend who used to have a 'framing' store used those emery boards with a foam center for her touch up work. – Texas Lady

6/3/12

Hi Randy Scott,

Those were such good links on that Google search that you sent me. I looked into the first five of them and have learned a lot already. Also, your idea of going to Rockler for some exotic wood was a great idea. I have a Rockler within my 'stomping ground' limits, too. I went there day before yesterday and bought several beautiful pieces of mahogany (about 18" x 2" x 8") for a dollar apiece. I have the illusion of making leatherworking tools out of it as you have done. Thanks for those helpful ideas. – Texas Lady

Edited June 4, 2012 by TexasLady

[Annonymouse]

I've never even heard of burying bone to "sanitize" it. I would probably just scrub it, and bleach it. You don't want bugs growing on your bone, and you don't want it to smell like a dead thing.

If you need to shape it, you could wear a dust mask and use a Dremel on it. You can also chip it with rocks to shape it well, like you were making an arrowhead.

[TexasLady]

6/22/12

Hi Annonymouse,

I'm glad that people who see my Thread are still sending me help. On sanitizing the bone, I think the idea is that ants will clean up any tiny bits of flesh and that UV rays will bleach out the bone,... you know, like the old cow skeletons that sometimes appear in Western Movies? Maggots have sometimes been used by doctors to clean up rotten flesh from live humans with infections in tricky, dangerous spots. They will only eat 'dead' flesh, not 'live' flesh, while even the best doctor's scaple can't differenciate at that microscopic level. So, I do see the logic in letting insects clean up the bones. For now though, I've just concentrated on carving the bones that were already 'pure bone', not the ones with pink, stinky, spots on them. I'm in two Summer classes, and pretty much overwhelmed for now with that. It's been heart-warming to hear back from folks when I felt lonely with my urge to make bone tools. - TexasLady