Are Bone Nut Blanks Cooked?

[Hydrogeoman]

Ok, I want to make my own bone nut blanks. My question: are the bone blanks you get from a supplier, e.g., Stewmac, cooked (boiled) or is the bone cured by air drying only?

I bought some nice dense beef soup bones from the grocery store today and I am trying to decide if I can make my soup first or do I need to dedicate the bone to guitar building only Anybody tried this?

Cheers

Greg

[Bertbart]

I have used dried cow bones from a pet supplier but never from raw bones. You have raised a good question. I would guess they would need to be cooked so make some soup and set them out to dry. LOL

[Hydrogeoman]

I have used dried cow bones from a pet supplier but never from raw bones. You have raised a good question. I would guess they would need to be cooked so make some soup and set them out to dry. LOL

Hmmm, never thought of looking at the pet shop. So were the pet shop bones as dense (free of voids) as the blanks you can get from luthier supply outlets?

[Southpa]

They don't do much to pet shop bones aside from drying and preservation. I had no success at finding any suitable bones in most of the pet shops I visited. They did have some smoked bones (leg joints) wrapped in plastic, with plenty of meat on them (mmmmmm..). Dogs just love to chew the fat, don't they? I guess the local butcher would be the answer. Fresh bones can be bought, yes, w/ plenty o' meat on them , make soup and then cut up the bones for nuts and acoustic bridge saddles.

More bone talk here: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=28484

Edited February 24, 2007 by Southpa

[Hydrogeoman]

They don't do much to pet shop bones aside from drying and preservation. I had no success at finding any suitable bones in most of the pet shops I visited. They did have some smoked bones (leg joints) wrapped in plastic, with plenty of meat on them (mmmmmm..). Dogs just love to chew the fat, don't they? I guess the local butcher would be the answer. Fresh bones can be bought, yes, w/ plenty o' meat on them , make soup and then cut up the bones for nuts and acoustic bridge saddles.

More bone talk here: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=28484

Thanks Southpa! I think I am on the right track now. The soup bones I picked had a lot of solid bone from the leg below the joint. I should be able to get a number of usable blanks from a $2 package of bones.