Bone Carving: Alternative Materials to Beef Bone? - Tiki Carving

P Paipo Member Aotearoa / NZ Joined: Jun 22, 2006 Posts: 1886	P Paipo Posted posted on Sat, Oct 7, 2006 8:03 PM I suspect you're using the wrong bone (anatomically), because beef bone is a near perfect carving medium. It is cheap, readily available, sustainable and easy to work with power or hand tools. It is incredibly strong and has a nice lengthwise grain that is easy to work with. If there was a better alternative the scores of guys here who carve for a living would have discovered it by now. Whale ivory is beautiful, but incredibly expensive and difficult to source. Regular whalebone is highly porous and often stained and crumbly - if you can find it. If you get the right bones and spend a little time preparing them, there's no reason why you won't get good results. Just make sure to get the shanks, I think the lower legs are best from memory. Get them direct from the butcher with the joints cut off and prepare them yourself. Here's a couple of sites that have some prep tips: http://www.aotearoa.co.nz/bones/ http://www.carving.co.nz/howto.html I'm a little rusty on the bone, having not carved it for 7-8 years now, but I'm sure other US based carvers like GMAN and Basement Kahuna who regularly produce top-shelf stuff in beefbone can give you a few more tips. Good luck!

I suspect you're using the wrong bone (anatomically), because beef bone is a near perfect carving medium. It is cheap, readily available, sustainable and easy to work with power or hand tools. It is incredibly strong and has a nice lengthwise grain that is easy to work with. If there was a better alternative the scores of guys here who carve for a living would have discovered it by now. Whale ivory is beautiful, but incredibly expensive and difficult to source. Regular whalebone is highly porous and often stained and crumbly - if you can find it.

If you get the right bones and spend a little time preparing them, there's no reason why you won't get good results. Just make sure to get the shanks, I think the lower legs are best from memory. Get them direct from the butcher with the joints cut off and prepare them yourself. Here's a couple of sites that have some prep tips:

http://www.aotearoa.co.nz/bones/
http://www.carving.co.nz/howto.html

I'm a little rusty on the bone, having not carved it for 7-8 years now, but I'm sure other US based carvers like GMAN and Basement Kahuna who regularly produce top-shelf stuff in beefbone can give you a few more tips. Good luck!

Post #259586 by Paipo on Sat, Oct 7, 2006 8:03 PM