Turning Bone?

[Mikey Green]

I've been a Creek member for a few years, but not actively posting. I've ascribed to the thought that if I waited, I could usually find the questions I had asked by someone else and answered by others. This also has saved me up to this point by following a lesson taught by my parents early on, "It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".

However, I don't believe any has asked this question yet, so I'm forced to admit my stupidity and ask the dumb question. First, here's the situation. I started out turning bowls, lamps, candlestick holders, goblets, etc and have gone backwards, and recently started turning pens. Living in Mississippi, which is full of rednecks and hunters, the bolt action bullet pen which is offered by Penn State Industries and now Craft Supplies is fairly popular in my neck of the woods. I've been using antler racks purchased from these companies for my turning medium. They'll send half a rack, and I can use the brow tines, G2's,G3's, etc (for those of you who hunt, you know what i'm referring to). For those that don't, that means I can use the smaller tines for turning. However, the larger portion of the rack doesn't wind up turning well, since the center portion of the antler material is pithy and, when turned, winds up looking like cement rather than antler.

I've thought about offering to make pens for people whose children have killed their first deer, using some bone material from the deer harvested. More than likely, they wouldn't want to use any portion of the antler from the deer, preferring to have that mounted. However, if I could turn a bone from the deer, and use that as the turning medium, that would give the customer a permanent reminder of their first deer, in addition to any wall hanging.

My question is, "would any particular bone from a deer make a good turning medium for these pens?" I've got a feeling most deer bones are also pithy in the middle, so it would have to be a smaller bone, and would need to be an easily accessible bone. This may be too much sugar for a dime, and not worth the trouble, and if you feel that's the case, feel free to chime in and tell me so.

Now, I've done it-Let me have it-tell me I'm a fool.

[Wally Dickerman]

Bonnie Klein turns bone as a subsitute for ivory. I suggest you visit her website and contact her for advice.

[Fred Belknap]

Mickey: Never turned bone so am no help there. I have made several pens using deer antler with some success. Antler from different deer is different, it you make a two piece pen you need to use two pieces from the same antler. The antler I use is pretty dry so I haven't found any squishy centers but some of them are pretty porous. I finish them with CA which fills the porous material. I do mostly bolt action pens so they have a rather large brass tube which helps with the centers. I have more problems with drilling the center hole than finishing. I have seen several post about he danger of breathing the dust from deer antler sanding. I guess that it can cause lung problem that are pretty much fatal. The lung danger and the smell has put a damper on my making antler pens.

[russell dietrich]

Mikey,
I turn elk and deer antler pens. To turn the softer "pith" I use epoxy glue, smear the hole with the glue to fill gaps. The balnk will tear out if there is too much air space between the tube and antler material. Turn the blank oversize. I then apply thin CA glue to the blank. I have the lathe spinning at 100rpm or turn by hand as i apply the glue. DO NOT use a fast speed or the gue may spin off onto yourself. The antler will absorb this glue like a sponge. After the glue sets you can finish turning to desired diameter. Apply a finish coat of CA glue and sand. The "pithy" part of the antler gives a nice reddish brown color. With the CA finish you can get an almost polished mirror like finish.

[Bruce Pratt]

Depending on the size of the deer, a piece of bone straight enough and with the proper diameter might be obtainable from either the radius, ulna or metatarsal of the front leg, or tibia, fibula or metatarsal of the hind leg. Google bone preparation for carving for methods of cleaning and prepping bone for turning.

[Tom Wilson66]

I haven't done any turning with deer bone, but have worked some with beef leg bones, making lace bobbins. The beef leg bone is used for this as it has about a 1/4" thick wall on the bone to support the weight of the cow, and can be cut lengthwise to make bobbin blanks. The center of the bone is filled with marrow, which is very soft and has to be removed or it will rot. I would have to think the wall of a deer leg bone would be quite thin, since a deer is much lighter than a cow. Since it is a natural material, it will also be quite out of round. By the time it is rounded, there will be very little (if any) solid bone left in the wall to work with. To me it would seem to not be worth the effort to produce a thin walled, hollow cylinder of bone.

[Marvin Hasenak]

Clean the bone, remove the marrow/core let it thoroughly dry and then cut a little over sized blanks. Then cast in resin, I would use resin that I have dyed black for the contrast. I would make the finished casting, both longer and bigger in diameter than what I need. When drilled and turned all of the voids would be filled with resin, and parts of the bone would be exposed.

[Mikey Green]

Based on what I'm getting so far, if I were to try this, I'd need to try a leg bone, which I'd suspected, plan on the wall of the bone being pretty thin and marrow-filled, and then removing the marrow and filling with resin. I'd read somewhere about doing something in a vacuum press, but the only vacuum's I have here at the house are the one I use for the floors and the one otherwise known as my stomach......

Doesn't sound like anyone other than Bonnie Klein has tried turning bone yet-I checked out her website, but her gallery is under construction, so no photos available. I did a quick web search for turned bone and found a few images, but they appear to be very small items, not even as large as that which would wind up being the turned portion of the bolt-action pen (I don't think). Even if so, no indication that it's deer bone, and my purpose in asking this was to give the customer a permanent reminder of that particular hunt.

The only other way to do that would be to go in a completely different direction and take the spent cartridge and try to do something with that. Mr./Mrs. Moderator, can I ask that question on this thread, or do I need to start another thread and ask if anyone has tried taking a spent cartridge and making their own pen (not necessarily bolt-action pen;maybe a twist mechanism or some other type would be fine) to give a customer a permanent reminder of their particular successful hunt?

[Bruce Pratt]

You may not need to resin infiltrate, depending on the diameters of the bone segment you choose. Ideally, you would like to have the pen turning consisting only, or substantially, of compact bone (the hard bone on the surface of long bones). Therefore, you want to find a straight bone segment with an outer diameter is slightly larger than you need, and a marrow/medullary cavity smaller in diameter than your brass tube/drill bit. For a PSI bolt action kit, you will need to bone outer diameter to be at least 0.466" and the marrow cavity to be less than 0.375" (3/8") so you only need the compact bone to be ~ 1/8" in wall thickness. If you get a bit of the spongy bone showing on the outside of the turned bone, just infiltrate with thin CA.

Just make sure you drill slowly so as not to overheat, and if you are using a drill press, make sure your quill/drill bit is perpendicular to the table.

[Marvin Hasenak]

Based on what I'm getting so far, if I were to try this, I'd need to try a leg bone, which I'd suspected, plan on the wall of the bone being pretty thin and marrow-filled, and then removing the marrow and filling with resin. I'd read somewhere about doing something in a vacuum press, but the only vacuum's I have here at the house are the one I use for the floors and the one otherwise known as my stomach......

Doesn't sound like anyone other than Bonnie Klein has tried turning bone yet-I checked out her website, but her gallery is under construction, so no photos available. I did a quick web search for turned bone and found a few images, but they appear to be very small items, not even as large as that which would wind up being the turned portion of the bolt-action pen (I don't think). Even if so, no indication that it's deer bone, and my purpose in asking this was to give the customer a permanent reminder of that particular hunt.

The only other way to do that would be to go in a completely different direction and take the spent cartridge and try to do something with that. Mr./Mrs. Moderator, can I ask that question on this thread, or do I need to start another thread and ask if anyone has tried taking a spent cartridge and making their own pen (not necessarily bolt-action pen;maybe a twist mechanism or some other type would be fine) to give a customer a permanent reminder of their particular successful hunt?

She is not the only one that turns bone, it turns fine, just make sure you take your time, and have sharp chisels. There are several sources for bone for carvers, and a few that do the resin casting with bone for turners. One that I have seen lately casts alligator jaws and sells blanks big enough for making game calls, at least 1.5" square. If someone wanted to try it, stop at Petco or Pet Smart, both sell cleaned bone for dog chew toys, also check the knife making sources, look for "bone scales", I buy the 1/8" thick for inlays on game calls as a substitute for ivory.

[John Lifer]

Google can be your friend http://www.bobbinmaker.com/bone.html
I think that you can boil the bones to remove the marrow. Was an article in the British wood turning Mag a decade ago