Thread: Tool to cut horn and other natural materials

What type of tool do you use to cut pieces of horn or bone into the shape you need for scales? I've seen some cool pieces of horn available from different sites that I'd like to make into scales, but I don't want to buy anything fancy just for this project. Can I use a regular old hand-held coping saw for cutting this stuff, and if so, what kind of blade do I want to get? Thanks!

A coping saw will work fine.

In my restoration video series, you can see me using a band saw to cut horn blanks. Horn isn't nearly as hard as stuff like Micarta and G-10. It doesn't destroy your blades very fast.

Excellent!! Thanks, Brad. Just wondering whether I was making a huge mistake before ordering some of these little pieces of horn to work with.

One other thing too -- do you use any special blade for the coping saw, or just the normal blade that comes with the saw? Thanks.

I've just used normal blades, but, thats all I've ever used, so, maybe there are better ones for this out there? I dunno.

You may want to get some with as many and some with as few teeth as possible and toss in some from the middle. I think they can be had prepackaged that way. Just to see which you like best, generally I like as few teeth.... so all you need to do is cut the shape no resawing thicker blanks?

When I tackled some raw antler I used a Sawzall with pretty good success. At first I tried a metal cutting blade but found out real quick that a lower tooth count was better. The antler just gummed up the fine teeth of the metal blade.

I just use my scroll saw. Easy, fast and clean.

Thank you so much for the ideas!! I really appreciate the help. As for cutting down the thickness of a sheet, I'm going to try to avoid that entirely by just buying really thin sheets to start off with.

Ooop, one other question -- do you think a coping saw or scroll saw would work on mother of pearl, or should I just stay away from MOP for now? Thanks!!