Dem Bones

[reggad]

Hello folks, sorry if this has been covered before, but I'm setting out on making some bone handle scales(ie straight from source), is there anything I should know, ie do I have to treat the bone in any way? I wouldn't have thought so, but I don't want to give someone a knife and have the handles shrink/warp/fall off. I'm just thinking about polishing the bone and giving it a light varnish, would that suffice? Any tips would be greatly appreciated, cheers. :)

[shing]

I boil the bone I use for about an hour. You need to cut off the joints at each end so blood and marrow can escape before you boil it. After boiling and while its still hot, get as much marrow and fat out of the centre of the bone as possible then wash with detergent to get rid off all the fat and dry it for a few days. Cut into the size you want. a couple of thinga about bone. Its easily cracked if you hit it and it has lots of pores that can fill up with dark material if you are sanding it with a dark abrasive giving it a spooty apperance. Best to use a light coloured abrasive such as aluminium oxide and be careful about sanding metal such as brass next to it as the metal particles can be dark and fill up the pores again. One tip is to fill up the pores with superglue before you start sanding. As far as I know, polished plain bones doesn't need a finish except a little lemon oil and looks really nice.

[reggad]

Cheers for the tips, Shing.