The Bone Yard

[muskrat man]

Went out digging in an old carcass dump and scavenged about 150 pounds of raw cow leg bone. It's bundled and waiting on me to return in a few days when it's dry enough to drive back and pick it up. I'll update this thread with the cutting and grinding process once I go pick it up.

Lots of good knife handles here, it will eventually get categorized after cutting and sanding to determine what will be left natural, what will be jigged and dyed, what will be smooth white bone and what will be primitive bone. Lots of the bones had absorbed mineral deposits and have some nice aged dark brown coloration to them. We'll see what I have once it's all cut up.

[Iron Hoarder]

Cool! How are you going to jig it?

[muskrat man]

Rotary tool most likely

[Iron Hoarder]

I've got a cutler up in Sheffield keeping an eye out for any old jigging machines and pressing dies for horn. I'm hoping to start a cottage industry if I can. I hate to see old tools go to waste.

[muskrat man]

Sounds like a good idea! I've also been wanting to try the old school jigging with from what I understand are nothing more than chisels made for the purpose. Soaking the bone to soften it seems to make sense and a very sharp chisel should work

[muskrat man]

Managed to get them hauled out this morning. It doesn't look like it but there is about 125 lb of bone in this pile.


Starting to get it sliced up


pile is dwindling

band saw blade broke halfway through, to be continued.........................

[orvet]

Keep us posted on what you find out Robert.
I would love to see a jigging machine and see if I could make one.

[TripleF]

Neat thread

[whitebuffalo58]

If it were me doin' it...i'd turn 125 lbs. of raw bone, into just one and a half pounds of usable slabs. MM, could you show pics of the actual cuts on one or two? And maybe a couple of close-ups of what you feel are the average pieces? Thanks.
Dale, I have an old copy of Mechanics Illustrated somewhere, that has plans for building a pantograph. I had thought in the past that it could be used to build a jigging machine. Stylus on one end and Dremmel or small router on the other end.
WB

[orvet]

Dale, I have an old copy of Mechanics Illustrated somewhere, that has plans for building a pantograph. I had thought in the past that it could be used to build a jigging machine. Stylus on one end and Dremmel or small router on the other end.
WB

Let me know if you find the article.

[muskrat man]

I'd like to see the article too if you can find it.

I'll take some more pics when I start cutting again. The size and quality of the slab you get will be greatly determined by which bone it is cut from.

[whitebuffalo58]

Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtm4u583YOQ

Or here.


http://books.google.com/books?id=QwEAAA ... er&f=false Page 104

WB

[muskrat man]

22 sets and some odds 'n' ends so far. have another 20 some sets that still need grinding and still whole pile of bones to cut yet.


Experimenting with some jigging, one finished one with freshly dried dye. The color is off a couple shades in the pic.


Still trying to perfect the schrade peach seed jigging, getting closer I think. Color could be a bit darker though.

[whitebuffalo58]

Outstanding!!! MM, you never cease to amaze me! I love your version of the Schrade jigging!!

WB

[FRJ]

MM,
I'm really impressed. This a great thread.

[RandyFew]

Your jigging looks great! What are you jigging with? Are you doing it freehand? On second thought, it might be a trade secret.

[orvet]

Nice peach seed jigging!

[Iron Hoarder]

Nice work!

[Ramrod]

Very interesting!
Lookin forward to more pics.
Mark

[IMBand]

Kaleb - YOU ARE THE MAN!!! Very impressive work .


IM

[muskrat man]

freehand with a dremel. no secret other than knowing how to jig randomly even.
Thanks for the comments men

[Gunsmoke47]

Looks really good Kaleb.

[muskrat man]

Another set of peachseed handles I did today, made the jigging a bit bigger on these, looks closer to the schade handle I was using and a guide. They will darken up some once polished and oiled.

[whitebuffalo58]

Which ones, which?

WB

[muskrat man]

I jigged both of those, didn't have the example handle handy for the pic