[Regia-NA] bone working

[Tate William T Jr TSgt 352 OSS/SCSC]

They used to sell the artificial ones out at West Stow.  Hard to tell the
difference until you break it and can see the plasticky insides.  Dang
things were nearly as expensive as buying the real thing (last one I saw of
any quality was at Leamington Spa last year and was about 60GBP).  

The hardest part for me when doing a comb is the planing of the plates to
make them all the same thickness.  Since I do most of my work sans
electricity, that's a lot of knife work.  Does anyone have a better method?

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Etheridge [mailto:seibhyrt@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 8:58 AM
To: list-regia-na@lig.net
Subject: Re: [Regia-NA] bone working


>From: "Ian Uzzell" <snorri@vikingasaga.freeserve.co.uk>
>
>I am afraid I cannot remember in which museum, but I have seen wooden 
>combs.  Very similar to modern nit combs.  So they were used.  Because of 
>the nature of wood in the ground very few of these would survive, but it is

>my belief that there would be wooden combs in use in our period.
>
>Ian

I have seen combs from the later middle ages made of wood.  IIRC there are 
actually more of these than antler combs - perhaps meaning that fashions 
have changed, or merely that (as Ian has said) antler will survive in the 
archeological record for longer than wood. At dublin, while the wood 
preservation is good, I don't remember any wooden combs, although antler 
combs survived.  Nathan, can you check my memory on this please.

Comb maker's workshops were a common feature of Viking settlements, so it 
may be that the same craftsmen used the same tools on different materials - 
antler being perhaps a higher quality product.  However (he says, putting on

his official hat), ATM the evidence points towards antler being the most 
common material used, so lets keep that as the most common one that we have.

BTW, I have (somewhere) a bone comb that was made from "artificial" bone, 
apparently the stuff that surgeons use.  I take it out rarely, as it is 
somewhat fragile - a good advert for using the right material (and no, I 
didn't make it myself!)

Steve

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