[Regia-NA] Q re: bone working

[rmhowe]

J Hill wrote:
> Magnus mentioned that he has bone blanks for needles - thanks so much, 
> Magnus!

S'alright!  These would be for sewing needles, not naalbinding.
They are made from turkey leg bone, which has the curious ability
like yew of two textures - the outer part is fibrous, and the
inner part is hard. So tough, and holds a good point. The equivalent
European bird is the peacock. They both have splines in the leg
muscles for scratching.

> I was wondering where people go to get bone strong enough & large enough 
> to make carved combs?  Or do you buy them?

Antler would be preferable to bone as large bones don't have 'grain'
so much for strength as they are more like concrete - only much
tougher in the natural state. Some of my -getting rather extensive-
collection of books and articles about bone, antler, ivory and horn
seem to intermix bone and antler interchangably when talking about
combs. The majority of the combs to my reading seems to be antler
where they could get it, and bone likely where they could not.

For example, by the time of the conquest large areas of Britain
were already denuded of trees and forests. For one thing it took
a whole lot of trees to smelt metals. For another there was heating
in the winter. And there weren't replanting programs most likely.
I have read of villagers having to walk for more than a day to
find wood. Then there was the law of hook and crook meaning they
were only allowed to harvest dead wood and lower branches they
could reach. So maybe not so many deer...

I buy cattle metacarsals and metacarpals - the cannon bones from
the front and back legs - generally already sanitized and jet-washed
out inside from local pet suppliers. If you are going to make a
spoon you would want to look carefully at the flat side with the
small hole in it. The spoon or spectacles half begins just short
of that hole, which goes in at an angle. The bone is thin at
the hole/spoon bowl end and thick towards the other end.

The huge upper leg bone with the hip joint is not what you want
unless you are going to make a spindle whorl out of the ball
part. It is too thin for almost any other use.

A good and cheap reference for making combs would be Dan Carlsson's
Comb making CD at http://www.arkeodok.com/  $10 each.
Email: dan@arkeodok.com www.arkeodok.com

> Also, where do people go for larger pieces of leather? 

Tandy Leather is not out of business. It's owned by the
http://www.leatherfactory.com/ former employees of theirs.
It has already reopened at least 23 stores and is searching
for dealerships. http://www.tandyleather.com/

I would also recommend http//www.zackwhite.com/

Magnus

  Now that Tandy
> is out of business, I don't know where to go.  The saddle shop has 
> leftovers which are great for shoes & small bags, but the only larger 
> pieces are very thick & un-yielding.
> Yrs,
> Jennifer Hill
> Ælfgifu
> Wes ðu hal.