working with bone

losthelm · Post by **losthelm** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 4:23 pm

have been making bone needles and pins and such.
fallowed the instructions on the midlaural page but for some reason the bones start to smell after day or two sitting in water to sofen.

what can I do to cut down on the smell?

I have boiled the bones for about an hour in water and bicarbonate of soda.

InsaneIrish · Post by **InsaneIrish** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 5:22 pm

you might try soaking them in bleach or hydrogyn peoroxide for awhile. It sounds like you still have some residue of flesh/meat on the bones.

ULTRAGOTHA · Post by **ULTRAGOTHA** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 6:16 pm

InsaneIrish wrote:you might try soaking them in bleach or hydrogyn peoroxide for awhile. It sounds like you still have some residue of flesh/meat on the bones.

Don't use bleach! You'll dry them out.

Bones will start to smell. Try not soaking them so long. A friend has several small projects going at once. He works on one while the others soak. When he runs out of soft bits, he puts that piece back in the water and picks up the next one.

seyc · Post by **seyc** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 7:11 pm

Is antler much diffrent?

Mrs. W · Post by **Mrs. W** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 10:39 pm

Is antler much diffrent?

Happily, yes! Antler is clean, free of old flesh and its attendant smell. Antler is also harder and less likely to splinter than bone. You do have to avoid antler's spongy, brittle core, but that is no more of a problem than working around the marrow cavities of bones.

-Woolery

:oops:

(Had to add the blushing face because my sick 3-year-old asked me to.)