Post #208998 by kaha kii on Fri, Jan 20, 2006 9:35 AM

Aloha again Cuz!
Just sent you a PM brah...What can I say, youre bone carvings are Pono and thats all there is to say about da kine! Im so stoked at how proficient youve become with da bone brah! To answer Teakey question, the walrus bone I sent you comes from the skull of the walrus. Theres a big bony plate in between the tusks thats around 3" thick. So my bruddah who travels to Alaska & russia all the time, slabs it up for me at around 1/4" thickness. Great stuff to carve, eh brah?

You have to be careful of the bone you get from pet stores though...Usually they boil or sterilize the bone which permanently sets the oils from the marrow into the bone making it too soft and it wont carve well or hold detail nicely. Best beef bone to carve is fresh bone you clean & prepare for yourself. Boiling the bone actually weakens the material so what most bone carvers do is prepare fresh bone themselves for their work.
Its a messy, stinky job but the finished product is free from oils and wont be waxy or chalky. You need to find the shank bones from the local meat market or supermarket. You soak da kine in a solution of hot water with a little bleach and hydrogen peroxide for about a day. Then you need to remove the marrow from the bone (which is a mess and can be pilau!). I use a metal brush and scrub and scrape the inside of the bone until it completely free of marrow. Then you return the bone to a bucket with hot water and hydrogen peroxide for about another day at which point you remove the bone and place upright for drying. If there are any oils left in the bone, they will drain down and the pieces of oil filled bone can then be easily removed. Then I leave da kine bone outside to dry or "cure" for a day or two and then you just have to slab them up and keep them in nice, cool dry place until youre ready to carve!

Just a little lesson in preparing your own bone for your work!

Hana Hou brah, cant wait to see more!

Malama Pono!