Thread: Bengall W/Buffalo Bone

Totally understandable. I generally wear a respirator with organic filters. The charcoal elements do much for mitigating scents well beyond their “useful” life. The pre-filters take care of particulates and since I’m just sanding and not working with VOC’s so I’m not worried about inhaling fumes.

I don’t enjoy the smell of working with bone but it doesn’t bother me. Same thing with horn. Maybe just start with the wood for your next set on your other thread. In any case I hope you are at least using a dust mask of some sort.

On another note, with horn and bone you can wet sand it. No dust very little smell. I usually get the scales to the shape I want both profile and whatever contour I’m looking for. Most shaping I do with files and card scrapers, profiled scrapers are nice too but I don’t generally use them unless I’m looking for a particular radius at the edges. Once you’ve done the rough shaping take them to a sink or bucket of water and some 220 sand paper. You can remove material exceptionally fast in spite of the fine grit. Using a lubricant like water won’t affect the bone or horn, keeps the paper from clogging so it last longer than dry sanding, plus no dust or smell. I take the scales as far as I want while wet sanding but all final contouring is essentially done at the 220 sand paper point, I only fine tune the scales for symmetry at this point. I don’t start easing the corners until I get to 500 or 600 grit. I like mine sharp visually but smooth to the touch.

If you look at the the SOTD for today I just posted a pic of a razor I just built amd shaved with. Those scales are bone and hand poilished to 3000 grit. It’s shiny but only slightly more than the blade itself, which is 800 grit with some hand buffing to help keep it from rusting too readily considering how satin the finish is. Looks less matte in person than the photo suggests.