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Permalink Reply by Korrigan on December 26, 2017 at 12:05pm

I've not used bone for for any of my builds (yet) but I'd say go for it. Deer bone might not be as dense as cow bone but it's got to be at least as dense as the wood a lot of people use for bridges so seems to me it would work fine.

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Permalink Reply by Hans on December 26, 2017 at 12:33pm

Thanks, Korrigan. I've always used bone nuts so far because the big guitar parts online store here in Germany sells bone nut blanks for two bucks a piece. So I'm really wondering whether it's worth the considerable effort to turn these greasy bones into guitar parts with the hand tools I have... On the other hand it would be pretty cool to have a guitar with nut and bridge made from Christmas dinner leftovers... What I'm really afraid of is that the stuff splinters after many precious hours of trying to make it usable...

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Permalink Reply by Korrigan on December 26, 2017 at 1:08pm

Well, if you can get blanks for $2, that's probably the way to go but I think using the deer bone would be worth it just for the coolness of being able to tell people...

"I made the nut and bridge from a deer bone. Hey, speaking of deer... A man kills a deer and takes it home to cook for dinner. Now because his children are very picky eaters and don't like venison, both he and his wife decide that they won't tell the kids what kind of meat it is. The kids, eager to know what the meat on their plates is, beg their dad for a clue. 'Well," he says, 'it's what mommy calls me sometimes'. The little girl screams to her brother,  'Don't eat it, it's an asshole!"

:D

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 26, 2017 at 12:52pm

I bought a bone nut for one of my 6 string guitars a few years ago and was instantly hooked. All my 6 string guitars now have bone nuts or about to have bone nuts. They are the best for good tone in my opinion.

I've seen videos of people making them from dog bones bought at Petco and other stores. Do a search on Youtube for it.

My CBG's usually get a steel or brass bolt these days, they work well. You don't have cut any grooves in them, they last forever and they offer their own tonal properties as well.

Many will tell you it doesn't make a difference and to them it may not. Trying it once was enough for me.

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Permalink Reply by SweetwaterMike on December 26, 2017 at 1:09pm

Find an ant bed and let them clean the bones. Cheap labor. Used to do this when I made Indian style jewelry.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 26, 2017 at 8:48pm

That's working easy. LOL Smart idea.

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Permalink Reply by Hans on December 26, 2017 at 1:31pm

Thanks so much for the great advice (and the joke, of course!). The idea with the ants sounds great, but that would be quite complicated here in the big city. And all the more so in the middle of winter - I don't think any ant would show their face before April or May here. But I achieved some pretty good initial cleaning results with first cooking the bones for a few hours (kill two birds with one stone: now I also have venison broth...) and then putting them in the dishwasher...

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on December 26, 2017 at 2:57pm

You may want to do some googling on how bone is prepared for use as nuts and bridges. From what I've read, it's a fairly lengthy process to removed the moisture deep in the bone so that it performs well.

Do some checking and decide if you want to attack the prep.

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Permalink Reply by Hans on December 27, 2017 at 12:04am

I really started to like the idea of using those bones - all the more so because I'm building a wine box guitar and I could claim that I served the wine from the box with the venison (even though this is not really true...) - but then I read your reply, Tom,started googling and - oh well, I think I'll stick with the cheap bone blanks...

Here's what I found: http://www.bearmeadow.com/build/materials/bone/html/bone-clean.html (It was the sentence"talk to your local fire marshal about legal methods for white gas storage and disposal" that ultimately dissuaded me...)

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 27, 2017 at 8:10am

Stewmac.com is where I've bought most of mine for my 6 stringers. You can get them slotted or in blank form.

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