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.