Bone Inlays

[David R. Pennington]

I ordered a bone from my local butcher. Anyone have any tips on how to prepare it for use as inlay material?

[WKevinD]

David, I've used bone (in lieu of ivory) for a few inlays. The bone I used was at least five years old that our dog had abandoned in favor of more interesting things. Our gentel mouthed Lab cleaned, polished and left them under the couch.
I have a few pcs left if you need some and don't want to wait for yours to completely dry.

Kevin

[Adrie luke]

David,

I did the same.
My butcher told me I had to boil it for at least 3 hours.
After the boiling I cleaned it and I saw small slices.
It is nice to work with bone.

Adrie

[smart dog]

Hi Dave,
It is much much easier to use cow femur bones that are sold clean and white for dog bones.  Often these come in packages with 10 or more bones and they are usually degreased so they can be used right out of the package. Cow femur bones are the bones of choice because they have to support the weight of the cow and are very dense.  With a fresh bone, you have a bit of work to do. Some will tell you to boil the bones to remove fat, cartilage, and muscle tissue.  That works but it tends to make the bone brittle and weak.  A few days in a Dermestid beetle colony will clean it up nicely but few folks have access to a lab with those.  If you are not in a hurry, place the bones outside and let them get cleaned by insects and invertebrates naturally.  You may want to put them in a little cage so mice don't gnaw away at them. You may have to just scrape off the flesh, fat, and cartilage, and clean out the marrow. Soaking in warm water (not boiling) will help but the process stinks.  The next step is to degrease it by soaking it in kerosene for 24 hours and letting air dry. Degreasing is important because any residual fat or grease in the bone will over time leak out into adjacent wood if the bone is used as an inlay and potentially rot the wood. I buy the processed bones so I don't have to spend the time cleaning bones.

dave     

[Adrie luke]

I have a picture for you

[Tim Crosby]

 Old, dry beef leg bone has worked well for me. Cut with a band saw using a fine tooth blade, you may want to make a little cradle to hold it in so it doesn't twist. Flatten it by gluing it to s a stick, bottom Right, work it on a belt sander and cut/file to shape.
 Also while on the stick, if it is thick, it can be thinned by using the fence on the saw, a sharp blade and good set up really help.

  Tim C.

[L. Akers]

You might want to work your bone in the garage or at least when your wife is not home.  It stinks almost as bad as burning feathers.

[n stephenson]

Hi Dave,
It is much much easier to use cow femur bones that are sold clean and white for dog bones.  Often these come in packages with 10 or more bones and they are usually degreased so they can be used right out of the package. Cow femur bones are the bones of choice because they have to support the weight of the cow and are very dense.  With a fresh bone, you have a bit of work to do. Some will tell you to boil the bones to remove fat, cartilage, and muscle tissue.  That works but it tends to make the bone brittle and weak.  A few days in a Dermestid beetle colony will clean it up nicely but few folks have access to a lab with those.  If you are not in a hurry, place the bones outside and let them get cleaned by insects and invertebrates naturally.  You may want to put them in a little cage so mice don't gnaw away at them. You may have to just scrape off the flesh, fat, and cartilage, and clean out the marrow. Soaking in warm water (not boiling) will help but the process stinks.  The next step is to degrease it by soaking it in kerosene for 24 hours and letting air dry. Degreasing is important because any residual fat or grease in the bone will over time leak out into adjacent wood if the bone is used as an inlay and potentially rot the wood. I buy the processed bones so I don't have to spend the time cleaning bones.

dave   

They used to carry these at Walmart, but I get them at a local pet store , thick hard bone , snow white.

[Pukka Bundook]

I use old buffalo bones, as they're still kicking around on the farm here in Alberta.  Tad brittle, but have a nice colour for the sort of work I want them for.
They're degreased for sure as well!  :-)

[Bigmon]

My Son has a beetle  cleaning set up here he does hunters deer heads with.
It works great, clean as clean gets.
I am sure he could do some bones if anyone needed.
Just message me if ya need more info,
We're here in western pa.
Take care and Merry Christmas

[Hungry Horse]

I found a place where a buffalo rancher dumped his bones from his butchering operation. Most had been out in the elements for a couple of years. They were good and dense with very little porosity. Like all bone they will  obsorb color from almost anything that is liquid, and has color. I found that once you cut, and polish, your inlays, you can dip them in melted paraffin for a few minute, and they won’t obsorb many of the things that would normally stain untreated bone.

  Hungry Horse

[thecapgunkid]

I've only made about 10 guns over the last three years of decent to good quality, and, if there's any signature at all, it's bone.

If I learned one lesson with bone, it is to coat it with rubber cement when staining the gun.  Once stain gets into bone, it goes so deep that it won't come out, and you can lose control of your final look very quickly.

I try to get all the bone to look like this...



paste image host

I judge it looks very nice as a thumbpiece, and always try to put one in my guns. 

All I use, though, is the store bought blanks usually sold as knife scales.  That stinks enough when being worked so I can't imagine boiling and cooking the pieces.

Wear a mask, too, because few things  sand so fine as to get into the sinuses as bone...

[David R. Pennington]

Thanks for all the tips. I am looking at RCA 85 for inspiration. It has a bone inlay on the cheek piece and a bone toe plate. I have experimented some with deer bone and found it pretty brittle. I am thinking cow bone might give me some larger sturdier pieces.

[smart dog]

Hi Dave,
Deer bone is brittle and weak compared to cow bones. The strength of any bone is related to how much weight it had to support for the living animal.  Cow femur bones are very dense because they support the weight of a very heavy animal.  However the shoulder bone (scapula) is not very dense in any animal because it does not have to support much mass. Let me mention again that if you boil bones to clean them, they will become brittle.  For simple, solid shaped inlays like the one Capgunkid showed, that brittleness may not be a real problem. A brittle toe plate may not be a good idea, however.  For the fragile and complex inlays shown below, brittleness is a real problem.

dave   

[Robby]

Giraffe is suppose to be the best for this sort of thing, strong and dense.
http://www.atlanticcoralenterprise.com/ProductCart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=697
Robby