Thread: Bone Scales

Hey fellas
Here is a set of bone scales I did for a friend
Mike

I like 'em, very nice

Looks really nice, and true to the period too. Great job!
Care to share the details of the process - tools for carving, grids of polishing etc.? It would be really interesting and educational, and I guess some of the guys here would like to try something like that themselves.

Beautiful work. I would also like to know more about how you made those scales.

These scales are cut from a dog bone from the grocery store
I first split the bone with a handsaw
Then found the flattest portion of the bone that was 6" long and re-sawed using again, a handsaw
With those portions sawed off i was left with something like 3/16" thick x 5/8" wide slab.
I filed out and sanded 1 side fairly flat and stuck it to a piece of melamine board with 2 faced golf grip tape.
I ran that through the table saw to flatten a face, then flipped it over and re-flattened the face that had been stuck to the tape
from there, I just took multiple passes on the table saw to thin it out to about where i wanted it
then, i stuck 2-faced tape to a board and hand sanded from 80 to 120 to 220 to 400 grit and ended with 2 pretty similar slabs
I had drawn out on paper the shape I wanted so I stuck the 2 slabs together with 2-faced tape and cut them out to my pattern with the scroll saw.
Once they were cut out to basic shape, I used triangular and round files to rough out the contours.
From there it was 220-400-800 wet dry and then polishing with the dremel tool and Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish
TaDa .... there ya have it. about 10 hours start to finish + brass wedge and pinning.
The brass wedge is just some hardware that I salvaged, pounded, filed, sanded and shaped to fit.
I hope that helps everyone understand the process, the only thing stopping you from doing it yourself is you.
Dive in and try it. worst case scenario, you wreck a $5 dog bone
Mike

Nice job.
I love working with bone.

That’s some ingenuity there. Keep the dogs away from it

I think a tremendous endeavor. Hat's off to making it happen!

I have several sets carved by Rezdog.
Holding them in-hand and looking at them always amazes me. The work and workmanship is miraculous to someone like myself.

I treasure things like this.
Nothing is finer in the hand than bone, IMO.

Nice Job!

Thank you all for the compliments
I really like them too
I will find more excuses to use it in the future
I am surprised at the polish you can get
Pictures don't really do it justice, I can't get the light right
Mike