Post #455803 by TikiMango on Sat, May 23, 2009 1:39 PM

So for anyone not in FL, it's been raining pretty much this entire week. It's been too wet to carve outside, so I had to bring my carving into the garage. I decided to try my hand at bone. You bone carvers never bothered to mention that it smells like burning hair (and that's with a mask on)! I was lucky enough to get this bone from the local pet store, a perk of finally owning a puppy/dog. So here's my first attempt with bone, a NZ Hook Pendant.

I had to smash the bone into piece-parts with a hammer since I didn't have band saw, luckily I ended up with one good piece. Design roughed-in with a bench grinder and Dremel-like tool. I was wearing safety glasses and a paper mask, highly recommended.

I didn't have anything smaller than an 1/8" bit for my tool, so I couldn't get all the detail that I would have liked, and it forced me to be on the large side (I think). I guess I need to hit the store for some smaller bits. Finished off by hand-sanding with 80 and 140 grit paper, then a small buffing wheel.

For scale, is it too big for a pendant? 4.25" long X 1.75" wide, 1/4" thick at the center.

Looking for advice and pointers about this pendant from all you regular bone carvers. I found this very fun and a nice change of pace from carving palms. Maybe I'm hooked, no pun intended.