mj_gant Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 Blemishes and pours in bone nut blank. No matter how much I sand, buff, clean there is discoloration and lots of inconsistencies in this particular blank. Normal or bad bone? M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAI6 Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 What is "normal"? It is a natural material, after all, and there are no guarantees that they will all look alike... Besides, I think it would add character. If people ask "what up with that color", you just tell them "hey, it's real bone". The "oooh" and "aaah" factor goes up............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddler68 Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 I just cut my bone nut last weekend. (Man, that sounds vulgar) I did notice some color variance but no pores. But I agree with RAI6, it would add character - as long as it doesn't also add weakness. I think a couple of pits or pores makes it look more natural. And when you're telling your friends that it is a genuine bone nut, you might also add that it is cut from one of Jimi Hendrix' ribs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj_gant Posted October 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 The discoloration does add character. However, these little pours or scratches appear and as soon as I sand them out...new ones appear. Not surface scratches, but what appears to be pours within the bone itself. Just thought I'd check to see if anyone else has encountered this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDust_Junkie Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 We were discussing the preparation of natural bone as a nut material in another thread over the past couple of days. I recently obatined some deer bones from helping a friend skin out a deer and was wondering how to properly prepare them. This link is to that thread: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=11856 The last post in the thread has a paragraph from a banjo building site I found with some information on preparing the raw bone. The last step may be useful to you as far as getting the bone to be white if that is what you want. The site said to soak it in peroxide for about 15 minutes to "bleach" it. As far the pores go, I would have to agree with RAI6. Bone is a natural material and each piece will have its own unique charateristics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank falbo Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 Pores in a bone blank never caused me not to use it. But I did always feel kind of funny about it. Like inside the nut slots, were there gaps under the strings? Bone is hard enough to sustain string wear even if it's got some pores in it. I always buff my bone nuts to a mirror shine, so they were more visible after I was done. So is the splotchy color, which I personally love. A few times I was so neurotic about it that I gave it a superglue bath before cutting the slots to final depth and giving it the final sanding before buffing. You could do that if it's making you nervous. I've been using more tusq lately so it's not an issue, but you've made me think back fondly on some of the bone nuts of my past.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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