Hello all. I am interested in using bone for knife handles and need some advice on how to prepare bone for use.
If I start with raw bone do I need to cook it and then stabalize it before use as handle material on a knife??
Thank

Hello:

I use A LOT of this stuff..what "condition" is the "raw" bone?? Fresh from the critter raw or are you getting them from a rendering/slaughter house??

I get most of mine from a rendering firm down in Texas so it is so called "steam cleaned" but still a bit "greasey" and needs to be
processed further" before I use it. Which isn't that hard to do.

So what kind of bone do you have and what is the "overall condition"???

This is a very nice grip material, just cant figure out why more folks aren't using it...

JPH

I am getting the raw bone from a butcher after he has trimmed off what he uses. Still bits of stuff on the bone and the marrow is still in.

Brian

it´s a great material for knife handles; The raw I use I process it into a boiling water solution of limestone to help to degrease for 3 hors almost, and a misxture of ammonia and water to 10%, then stabilize it.

What about the "found out in the pasture" variety? Do those work? (assuming they're not too far gone)

Brian:

Have any ant hills close by?/ a couple of days on one of those and it should be picked pretty clean..if not then you can boil it clean in some water and TSP thrown in..this will get the gunk off..It will take about two or three hours... After the TSP boil,. soak in clean water for a couple more hours and then let air dry. This is what I do...then you can either finish it up as is or you can dye it like I do..

You may need to coat it in cyanoacrylate to staibilze the surface but that is easy enough to do..

I love bone..I must run through 500 pounds of it a year...

JPH

Thanks for the info and the tip on using TSP. I have been boiling the bone for 6-7 hours in water alone and there is still some collagen on the bone. I will immediatley put some TSP in the water. We have been painting so have TSP on hand. Yes - I was also thinking about letting Mothe Nature do her thing with future bone purchases but with winter coming on I think boiling in water with TSP will be the answer.

Are there any other solutions that you have used to stabalize bone nefore installation on a knife?? I have a beautiful big chunk of maple (2ft high by 2.5 ft in diameter) that will keep me in handle material as well for quite some time. I will be putting some in to stabalize this week.

Brian

I really am not a big fan of bone as a handle, it is nice, REALLY NICE on some things, but on others it is just blasphemous.

Brian:

Have any ant hills close by?/ a couple of days on one of those and it should be picked pretty clean..if not then you can boil it clean in some water and TSP thrown in..this will get the gunk off..It will take about two or three hours... After the TSP boil,. soak in clean water for a couple more hours and then let air dry. This is what I do...then you can either finish it up as is or you can dye it like I do..

You may need to coat it in cyanoacrylate to staibilze the surface but that is easy enough to do..

I love bone..I must run through 500 pounds of it a year...

JPH

Jim, What is TSP? I'm intrigued with this bone idea that I have heard called "Bovine Ivory" Cyanoacrylate: Super Glue?? Need to use vacuum chamber for this procedure or just paint with glue?

TSP - I belive it is short for tri-sodium phosphate (I threw out the carton with the complete name on it) and you can get it at paint stores for one. It is used as a cleaner for surface prep on walls that you are about to paint.
We have used it as such when repainting our house.
I dumped 2 tablespoons in water last night that I was boiling the bones in to clean them. WOW!! After an hour the bones were clean as a whistle. I soaked them, to remove any residual chemical residue, and dried them overnight and I am going to start carving with them tonight.
Actually the first use for the bone is for horns on a Musk Ox soapstione sculpture I am completing.
Next use will be for handles on a series of RR spike knives I am working on.
I will post pics when thwey are done. Please note that I am a slow worker in this area. My wife forbides me to work with sharp stuff if I am tired and after 31 years of wedded bliss she knows of what she talks about. So - I don't work every evening.

Brian

TSP: TriSodium Phosphate Can be found at most any paint store. Used for cleaning walls in preparation for painting. Takes greasing stuff right off. Can take paint off as well but is pretty slow. Can be used as a neutralizer after soaking iron in muriatic to remove scale. Builds a very small phosphatized layer on the steel. Kinda like on the M-16, et al. good stuff.

Hey!!

Yes, TSP is trisodium phoshate..I use it as a cleaner prior to my hot caustic soda bluing. It will take your hode off in stronger concentrations so be careful...

The term "bovine ivory" I started oh some 20+ years ago..it spread rather quickly. I almost got thrown in the slammer for using it around some really inexperienced DF&G guy in California back in 1982..That was rather amusing looking back at it now...

I love using this stuff, in fact I am putting a bone grip on the PW composite blade I did the walk through on..Will be deciding on what kind of grip style to use later today and whether or not to dye it or leave it all natural. might do my "fossilization technique" on it and if I have a piece the right size and thickness maybe a fluted centre section...

Below is a three piece dyed bone with bronze mounts and studs.. This material is just oh so nice...

JPH

Jim, I have always admired your use of bone. I have delved into bone processing only once with mixed success. I bought a bunch of raw big steer leg bones from a country packing house out a side road from Memphis out to about Arlington. 'cost $0.69 per LB. They apologized for the price, but said the Asian restaurants bought all the bones to make soup stock and drove the price up. I boiled the bones in a stong solution of SODA. Washing soda, Soda Ash, Pearl Ash, Salatus, Carbonate of soda; Sodium Carbonate. Much like TSP, it will degrease and clean nicely. Useful stuff to keep around the shop. I didnt end up with much useful bone.

I almost feel embarassed for throwing this in here after the big dogs. I am going venture off the porch just a little though. I like to boil the bone in Lipton tea bags for "antiquing" and I have found that tongue oil is one of the best things in the world for coating bone with. The tongue oil soaks in real well and after several coats it polishes out absolutely wonderful.

I'm sure we'd all love some pictures of the process, maybe starting right after the boiling. Anyone?

JPH said:

Brian:
You may need to coat it in cyanoacrylate to staibilze the surface but that is easy enough to do..

Jim, Is this not the same as super glue? And would you need to vacuum to stabilize or just coat with brush??

 

 

Just saw a very interesting video about traditional bone carvers in India who degrease the bone by boiling in a baking soda solution, carve it to shape, and then bleach it by submerging it in hydrogen peroxide and leaving it in the sun for six hours (or over a lightbulb, if it's raining).

They do some beautiful work; take a look:

 

NO DUST PPE!!!!!  Breathing bone or antler dust can kill you over time!

True.

Ivory and soapstone will get you too. When I moved here native carvers tended to not make it much past 50 for lung diseases.

Frosty The Lucky.

As I understand it, bone, ivory, and antler dust can all cause interstitial fibrosis (scarring of the lung tissue), but aren’t actually carcinogenic. Soapstone, on the other hand, can also contain asbestos, which is a carcinogen. 

A friend of mine who raised Bison would give me a lot of leg bone from them. I cured them like the bone carvers in India do. Other times I would leave then in the sun and the ants would do a great job of cleaning them over time.