Bone has excellent decorative properties and is easy to process. Products made from it, made by folk craftsmen, have long been famous. Bone can be used to make openwork combs, carved boxes, handles for knives and forks, and other things.
In modern decorative and applied arts, several types of ornamental bone are used: mammoth tusks, tusks and teeth of a walrus, sperm whale teeth, simple animal bone: cow, horse, camel, walrus. The most widespread use in artistic crafts is now simple bone.
Bone can be easily sawed with a hacksaw and can be processed well with a file. It is drilled with feather drills, and the openwork carving is made with burs using the flexible shaft of a burr machine.
The bone is polished on a cotton wheel using mastic, which is prepared from tooth powder, pork fat and turpentine.
Various jewelry and crafts are also made from bones. For example, you can try to make a ring from it.
To do this, you need to cut a piece 10-15 mm wide from the tubular bone. Then use a round file to expand this piece of bone from the inside according to the size of the finger. Then the surface is processed with a file, giving it the desired shape and rounding the outer parts.
The top area of the ring should remain flat. You can cut out a monogram or some kind of design on it, or make cuts around the circumference with a triangular file.
Bone can be painted in different colors. Before painting, it is degreased with alcohol.
Bone products can be tinted, surface painted, or deep stained. Tinting is done with graphite powder or a saturated solution of watercolor paints, in which the product is placed for 3-5 minutes. After tinting, the carved product is polished on a clean rag wheel. Tinting emphasizes the depth of the carving.
Surface coloring is done with aniline or natural dyes. Natural dyes are the most ancient material for dyeing bone.
To stain, the bone is first degreased and then dipped for some time in a strong infusion of dye. When stained with onion skins, the bone takes on a red-brown hue, while tea gives a yellow-brown color. Bone painted with tea or onion skins hardly fades.
To stain the bone, pour boiling water (3 parts) over tea or onion peel (1 part) and leave for about an hour in a sealed container. In this infusion, the bone must be boiled for 30-40 minutes.
Bone products can also be dyed with aniline dyes for wool fabrics. They provide an even, colorful coating onto which a white design can be engraved. But aniline dyes fade easily in the sun.
The deep staining process is more complex and requires careful degreasing of the bone.
The bone is boiled in an enamel bowl for 5-7 hours in a solution of soda ash (50 g per 2-3 liters of water), then washed with warm water and dried. Stain the bone in a dye solution for 7-12 days in a glass or enamel container.
To obtain a blue dye, dilute 1 part of copper sulfate in 6-9 parts of water and add ammonia until the desired color is obtained.
The bone is stained yellow with a solution of potassium dichromate in water (in the same proportion).
To obtain green dye, mix 2 parts blue and 1 part yellow dye.
The bone is stained purple with a solution of cobalt chloride.
Brown color is obtained by mixing yellow (1 part) and violet (2 parts) dyes.
A wide variety of bone products can be painted: buckles, buttons, pendants, bracelets, combs, hairpins, crochet hooks and boxes, knife handles and miniature sculptures. And even billiard balls! So, to paint the balls black, you need to hold them for several minutes in a hot decoction of blue sandalwood, and then place them in a solution of acetic acid salt.
Ivory products can also be plated with silver. To do this, they are immersed in a weak solution of silver nitrate, and as soon as the solution turns dark yellow, the products are removed and immersed in clean water and exposed to the sun. When, after a few hours, the bone is completely black, it is rubbed with a piece of leather. After this, the polished product acquires a beautiful shiny silver hue.
Bone processing
Gray antler mordant
To paint the horn gray, first boil it for 15-30 minutes in a saturated solution of lead sugar, then rinse it in clean water and put it in a solution of nitrate, mercuric oxide, heated to 60°C for 20-25 minutes. This method is not suitable for combs, since the teeth suffer from cooking.
Red mordant for horn
To dye the horn red, the following method is recommended. The light horn is boiled for 30 minutes in a solution consisting of 20 g of safflower and 10 g of soda in 0.5 liters of water, and then placed in a weak solution of tartaric acid for half an hour. Then they take it out and, after washing, put it again in a safflower solution and then again in a solution of tartaric acid, and so continue until the desired color is formed. This way it is easy to get all shades from the lightest to the darkest red. You just need to remember that the tartar bath should always be the last one.
Black mordant for horn
As is known, horn products, such as combs, buttons, cufflinks, etc., are often painted black to imitate them as more expensive varieties.
There are several ways to do this:
A) Products made from horn are soaked in the following solution, which is prepared in the cold: 8 parts of mercury are dissolved in 8 parts of concentrated nitric acid and 32 parts of soft water. The products are left in this mordant overnight, after which they are removed and washed with water until the wash water is no longer acidic. This treatment turns the combs red, and if a more concentrated solution of mercury is used, they turn brown. After this, the combs are transferred to a weak solution of liver sulfur (1 g per 1 liter of water) for 1-2 hours. The now black-colored combs are washed first with clean water, then acidified with vinegar and finally with clean water. After this they are dried and polished. With the help of such processing, horn products are obtained that, according to experts, are not inferior to products made from buffalo horn. Polishing painted objects must be done carefully, as the mordant does not penetrate deep enough into the horn.
B) Horn products are placed overnight in a cold aqueous solution of lead nitrate (1:4 ratio), after which they are placed for half an hour in a 3% solution of hydrochloric acid and finally washed with water. If the coloring turns out to be uneven, the operation is repeated again. This excellent mordant significantly increases the value of horn products.
Tortoise horn mordant
If you want to give horn products a tortoiseshell color, then use the following method. Horn products are first treated with diluted nitric acid (1 part to 3 parts water) at a temperature of 30-35 ° C and then pickled with a mixture of 2 parts soda, 1 part freshly burnt lime and 1 part lead litharge. The effect of the mordant should last no more than 10-15 minutes for the spots on the horn to turn yellow-brown. After this, having washed off the mordant from the horn, wipe it with a cloth and place it in a cold dye bath consisting of 4 parts of mahogany decoction (at 10° according to Baume) and 1 part of sodium hydroxide solution (at 20 ° according to Baume). Then the horn is removed from the bath, thoroughly washed with water and polished after 12-16 hours. A dye decoction is prepared by boiling 0.5 kg of fernambuco wood in 4-6 liters of water. If you add tin salts to the mordant, you get a bright red hue.
Whitening ivory
To return yellowed ivory to its original whiteness, one of the following methods is practiced. The ivory is covered with a thin layer of turpentine and exposed to the sun for 3 or 4 days. Another way: ivory is immersed in hydrogen peroxide for a while, after which it is wiped dry. To speed up the bleaching process, the bone is exposed to the rays of a blue quartz electric lamp. With both methods, the bone becomes completely white.
Silver polished ivory
Ivory items can be given a very impressive shiny silver polish. Here is a very simple method: after finishing, the ivory product is immersed in a weak solution of silver nitrate and, as soon as it turns dark yellow, it is immersed in clean water and exposed to the sun. After about three hours the bone turns completely black; then it is carefully rubbed with rawhide, after which the bone acquires a beautiful shiny silver polish.
Coloring billiard balls
To dye billiard balls red, they should be immersed in vinegar, in which cochineal has been previously soaked, and boiled in this vinegar for several minutes. Then, to give the color a deeper shade, the balls are transferred for 10-15 seconds to a very weak solution of potash.
After keeping the billiard balls for 6-8 hours in vinegar or alum solution, they can then be easily painted an excellent yellow color, for which it is enough to dip them in an alum saffron decoction for a while. Green coloring is achieved by immersing the balls in vinegar, in which 1 part ammonia to 3 parts verdigris is dissolved. If you then transfer these balls into hot potash lye, they will turn blue. Finally, to paint billiard balls black, they should be kept for several minutes in a hot decoction of logwood (blue sandalwood), and then transferred to a solution of acetic acid.
Aniline mordants for bone
Etching bone with aniline dyes is easier than other methods, since it is carried out in a cold bath, which eliminates the possibility of cracking of objects. Etching is carried out as follows: objects are placed in a basin and so much water is poured in that they are completely covered with it. Then 2 teaspoons of vinegar and about 1 g of paint are added to the liquid, and it doesn’t matter whether the latter is soluble in alcohol or water. For the desired shades, select suitable aniline dyes or combine them from several. Bone objects are left in the liquid for 4-8 hours and removed immediately when the desired tone density is achieved. Then they are washed with water, dried and polished with Vienna lime and soap. Alcohol varnishes and polishes should not be used here, as they can dissolve the paint on the surface of the bone.
If you need to paint an ivory billiard ball in two colors in parallel stripes, then, already polished, it is clamped between three thin sticks inserted vertically into a small board, the middle strip is covered with oil varnish and first one segment is painted, immersing the ball together with the board into the appropriate aniline mordant. Having finished painting, let it dry, and clean off the varnish with turpentine and paint this part in the required color, having previously covered the finished part of the ball with oil varnish. Proceed in a similar way if the ball needs to be painted on three or four sides.
In contact with
There is a gateway - a fish tooth is precious
The cutouts are intricately cut.
And only in the cutout - I get goosebumps.Folk riddle
The birth of the craft
Archaeological finds make it possible to assert that man began to process and use animal bones for household, and then for decorative purposes, back in ancient times.
, CC BY-SA 3.0Some finds on the territory of modern Russia date back to the 6th century BC. Of course, technology was not yet developed at that time and the products were far from the finest lace carving that fascinates us so much now.
In those ancient times, bone largely replaced people's lack of iron; many tools were made from it, such as needles and awls.
Guide to Russian Crafts, CC BY-SA 3.0 Gradually, iron firmly came into use, but this did not replace, but rather even strengthened and diversified the bone-carving craft. With the advent of metal tools, more opportunities appeared for processing bone, and products became more diverse.
Products
Artistically processed bone is used as a decorative finish, and entire objects are made from it. The art of bone carving is equal to jewelry.
- caskets
- Jewelry
- decorative ornaments
- constituent elements of household items
and much more.
Carved bone has many advantages. It is strong, durable, resistant to environmental influences. One of the most important advantages is that the processed bone is very beautiful.
Guide to Russian Crafts, CC BY-SA 3.0 A pleasant beige shade always looks elegant and light. Products glow from the inside, this is especially evident in openwork carved products.
Table cutlery, boxes, knife handles, decorations on weapons - bone is a favorite material when it comes to expensive, highly artistic products.
About the material
“Carved bone” is a general concept. In fact, craftsmen use different types of bone in their work, including horns, as well as elephant, mammoth, and walrus tusks. The bones of cattle - tarsus - are also used.
Bones vary in color, shine, and texture. Mammoth ivory has a warm yellowish tone and a texture in the form of a miniature mesh. Walrus ivory is lighter and cooler in color, unlike mammoth ivory, and has a cellular interior, which somewhat narrows the possibility of creating artistic products.
Guide to Russian Crafts, CC BY-SA 3.0 Before carving begins, the bone is degreased, and then, using incisors, various products are cut out. There is no need to degrease the horns.
Bone carving in modern times
The bone carving industry continues to develop. This is due to the undying demand for such products. Carved bone is very beautiful and decorative, but quite expensive.
Guide to Russian Crafts, CC BY-SA 3.0 Enterprises continue to operate in the Russian North and in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Not long ago, fishing was restored in Khotkovo.
The products of past and contemporary bone carvers are kept in major museums in our country and are known abroad.
Photo gallery
In these places they have learned to use the bones of local animals or use imported raw materials.
Kholmogory bone carving craft is the oldest. The rest arose already in Soviet times.
Types of bone carving
There are a lot of carving techniques:
- sculptural
- typesetting
- openwork carving
- turning
- inlay
- burning
All this is done manually using special tools that have undergone quite strong evolutionary changes. For example, a drill with various convenient attachments is now widely used, while a century and a half ago such automation was not even thought of.
The main raw material for a number of products is the so-called tarsus - the tubular part of the bone of the limbs of cattle. Using the natural cylindrical shape, master bone carvers skillfully fit into it figures of various animals, and sometimes entire scenes based on Russian folk tales and fables.
For anyone who wants to try their hand at bone carving, we recommend tarsus as a material that can be easily processed and is widely available.
Before you begin mechanical processing of the bone, it must be degreased and bleached. The simplest method gives good results: saw the bones, remove the marrow, then boil for several hours, adding a little baking soda to the water. You can also bleach bone in a solution of hydrogen peroxide (hydroperite), which is available in any pharmacy; For two hundred grams of hot water, two or three tablets of hydroperite are quite enough. Usually, after lying in this solution for about a day, the bone acquires a pure white color.
Blanks are made from bleached bone, depending on the intended product. You can saw the bone with a carpenter's bow saw, a hacksaw with medium-sized teeth, or medical files. Clamp the bone in a vice, having previously placed wooden spacers. While sawing, wet the saw from time to time with soapy water or machine oil. If you need to prepare thin plates for openwork or relief carving, saw the bone along the layers. Over time, plates sawn across the layers become covered with a network of cracks and spoil the work.
For three-dimensional sculpture, the blanks are processed with a mower - a large, heavy knife. They make chips parallel to the layers or at a slight angle to them. For a number of products based on rotating bodies, the blanks are turned on a lathe.
Good, convenient tools largely determine success, so first of all you need to purchase or make the necessary tools yourself. For rough processing - a mower, sets of chisels and rasps. To perform the openwork - a jigsaw, needle files, drills, rubs, rivets. You can make a rubbing machine from a steel knitting needle. Anneal it, then use a file to cut large and sharp notches and harden it again. Place the finished rubs on wooden handles. Also make the rivets from a steel knitting needle, flattening it at the end and giving it a different shape. The rivets are sharpened so that the working parts have sharp chamfers. Carving is done using cutters - gravers. Metallographic dies, or dies for woodcuts (wood engravings), can also be successfully used for lanyards, the hardness of which is relatively low. First you need to make cutters of at least three main types. Grabstikhel - a cutter with a triangle, rectangle or rhombus in cross-section, used for engraving thin lines. Boltstihel - a cutter with a cross-section of a circle, oval, semicircle or semi-oval. Flachstichel has a cross-section of rectangles and trapezoids. Boltstichel and flachstichel are used for processing flat and curved surfaces of various configurations. For cutters, carbon steel U-6, U-7 or U-10 is used. Heat the turned workpiece red-hot (800°C), then lower it into machine oil or water. The hardened gravel becomes too brittle, so it should be released. Place the gravel over low heat, carefully observing the tarnish colors.
After bringing the metal to a straw color, cool it in water. In the absence of carbon steel, good cutters can be made from needle files of various sections. Sharpen the cutting part of the gravel at an angle of 45-30°. Sharpen all cutters and straighten them during carving only from the end side. Carve the handles from birch or beech wood. Place a metal ring on the handle. To make it easier to hold the gravel, pin the handle on the side. Place the cutter so that the chip is at the bottom.
A claw is used for engraving on bone. Its shape is shown in the figure.
Bone processing includes various carving techniques: openwork (“on the opening”), relief, volumetric and engraving. The product can be made using one of these techniques, or in combination, for example, with three-dimensional carving with engraving, openwork carving with relief carving, etc.
A characteristic feature of openwork carving is a through background, which makes the carving look like the finest lace. Level the plate prepared for openwork carving with a file and sand it with fine sandpaper, achieving a smooth surface. Transfer the drawing from the sketch developed in advance onto the plate using gunpowder. It's done like this. Pierce all the lines of the sketch with an awl, the distance between the punctures is 3-4 millimeters. Make a tampon from a double layer of gauze and fill it with dark, dry paint. Place the sketch on the plate and apply paint to it with light strokes of the swab. Penetrating through holes. the paint forms a dotted pattern on the bone, which can be outlined with a pencil for clarity. To prevent the pencil drawing from being erased during work, fix it with quick-drying varnish. In the areas that are intended for sawing, drill holes for the jigsaw file. Having completely cut out all the sections of the through background with a jigsaw, work on them with needle files and rub-ins. Using chisels and gravers, give the openwork plate the required relief. Do the fine final modeling of the parts using rivets.
Colored foil, paper or fabric is sometimes placed under the finished openwork carving. The openwork bone looks very beautiful against the background of wood. You can glue the bone to the base using BF-2 glue.
In volumetric carving, the design largely depends on the natural shapes of the tarsus. Its walls are relatively thin and do not make it possible to make the figures sufficiently voluminous. Therefore, sculptural miniatures made from lanterns most often represent a high relief with a through background made on a cylindrical surface.
Transfer the main outline from the sketch to the side surface of the cylinder. Perform rough processing with a chisel, then work out the details with files and gravers, achieving plastic expressiveness. Remember that volumetric carving is the most complex; it requires certain skills that are acquired through painstaking work. Before you start making three-dimensional carvings, it is useful to look for the final solution by making sketches from white plasticine.
The technique of processing relief carvings has much in common with openwork. Transfer the design onto the bone plate with gunpowder and fix it with varnish. Select the background to the desired depth using chisels and burrs. Give the protruding parts of the relief rounded shapes. Finally, work out the small details.
If desired, the finished work can be painted. The most common dye is strong tea, which gives the bones a golden hue. The bone turns yellow-straw in a saffron infusion, and red-brown in a decoction of sorrel leaves. You can also try other plant dyes, decoctions of which give the following colors: black elderberry bark - olive green, St. John's wort flowers - red, nettle leaves - green, buckthorn bark - yellow-green, oak bark - brown, onion peel - golden yellow.
The engraving gives the bone a unique decorative effect. Scratch the surface according to the pattern with a claw. You can also engrave with a grabstichel, which produces a fine line. Then rub over the engraving with colored pencils. Instead of pencils, you can use oil paints. Wipe the paint off the smooth surface so that it remains only in the scratched recesses, clearly revealing the design. Most often, red, brown and black paints are used to tint engravings.
The surface of the bone intended for engraving must be perfectly polished. Any small, unnoticeable scratches when rubbed with dyes will immediately appear and spoil the engraving. Therefore, carefully clean the plate with sandpaper, then polish it with pumice or tooth powder.
Carved bone is often used as decorative inserts and overlays for products made from other materials. Carved openwork bone in combination with valuable wood species acquires extraordinary sonority.
Raw materials for making products from bone and horn
is a waste product from the meat industry and can often be purchased at almost no cost. At the same time, it is possible to produce many products: boxes, combs, buttons, key rings, glasses, paper cutters, buckles, smoking pipes, mouthpieces, snuff boxes, figurines, jewelry, etc.
The material for artistic processing must be selected very carefully, since all types of bone and horn are subject to destruction and deformation - cracking, delamination, warping. Humidity and temperature greatly affect the safety and quality.
Preparation of material
:
Bones and horns of various animals must be pre-processed. If you come across a horn with a closed channel, the base is cut off and the non-horned part is removed by lightly tapping it on a piece of wood. A simple animal bone must be degreased. To do this, after removing the remaining meat, cartilage, and bone fat, the bone is boiled in a boiler for 2-3 hours in a solution of soda ash (7-12 g per 1 liter of water). The boiled bone is washed with warm and cold water and then dried on wire racks. The bone should dry gradually, without sudden changes in temperature, and without exposure to cold or hot air jets. Optimal storage conditions: air temperature - +15-20°C, relative humidity - 50-60%.
Then the material undergoes pre-processing, which includes sawing, sanding, bleaching, gluing, polishing and some other types of work. 
Preliminary processing .
* The calculations use average data for Russia
10,000 ₽
Minimum starting capital
From 15,000 ₽
Revenue per month
500 ₽
Min cost 1 unit. goods
A business associated with the production of various handmade products and their subsequent sale attracts the attention, first of all, of those people who like to do handmade things, have a lot of time, but do not have the opportunity to immediately invest a lot of money in the development of their business. Often, such a creative business is viewed more as a side hustle, rather than as a source of stable and high income.
However, as experience shows, over 80% of novice entrepreneurs soon give up the idea of making money by selling handmade products, without even having time to recoup their albeit small, but still certain initial expenses for purchasing materials, creating their own website, advertising and etc. In most cases, the reason for these failures lies in a frivolous approach to organizing such activities. If you want not just to engage in your favorite hobby, but to make a profit, then initially consider this direction as a business, and not an ordinary hobby. Before ordering materials and starting to manufacture products, study the demand and supply for handmade products of the type you are interested in on the Russian market.
It will be quite difficult to conduct a comprehensive analysis in all areas. This industry is relatively new to our country. Until recently, it developed spontaneously, and most manufacturers of such goods worked illegally, selling their products via the Internet without registering as an individual entrepreneur and paying taxes. Now the situation is gradually changing: more and more craftsmen are opening their own online stores, selling their products to regular stores and retail chains, and accepting orders from corporate clients. When analyzing supply and demand, pay attention, first of all, to the range of just such design studios.
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The success of your future business largely depends on what exactly you produce. As mentioned above, the level of competition in the market for handmade products is very high, but several prevailing trends can be identified in it. These include textile toys, products made of felt, baked plastic, flowers and floral arrangements made of various materials, souvenir and gift products using the decoupage or scrapbooking technique. But among manufacturers of products made from natural wood or other similar materials, there is practically no competition. This is explained by the fact that most novice entrepreneurs (and this business is most popular among women) give preference to such types of creativity that do not require a lot of time, special skill, or significant expenses for the purchase of materials and training.
The bone craft business has its advantages and disadvantages. Some disadvantages were mentioned above: the high cost of raw materials, labor-intensive and painstaking work. But there are other difficulties that you may encounter in the process. If you have enough free time and perseverance, you can learn many types of manual work on your own - with the help of educational literature or specialized websites on the Internet. There is very little detailed educational material in the public domain on bone carving (although you can find good publications on this topic in libraries). And self-training can end up being much more expensive due to the high cost of raw materials, on which you will have to practice your skills through trial and error.
On the other hand, finding a master bone carver to learn from his experience will also be difficult. Currently, folk craftsmen of this type of craft are found mainly in the regions of the Far North and Far East. Another difficulty is related to the search for the material for work. Beginners, as a rule, use either substitutes for natural material (for example, billiard balls, which are similar in density and weight to mammoth tusk, cut well and do not melt, unlike other types of artificial bone), or cheap types of bone (for example, elk antlers) requiring pre-treatment. There will be no problems finding these materials: billiard balls can be purchased at a specialized store that sells everything for billiards, and elk antlers are often sold at flea markets or on online bulletin boards.
However, it is worth taking into account the peculiarities of working with horns: this material is more “viscous” than other, more expensive types of bones, and is difficult to polish. If desired, you can find other cheap types of bone - for example, cattle tibia, which can be purchased in meat pavilions or in butcher shops where animal carcasses are cut. First, such a bone is boiled to remove meat and veins from it, then it is boiled in soda, thoroughly washed, bleached, washed again and dried.
Where to buy raw materials intended for the manufacture of decorative bone products
Products intended for sale are made from higher quality raw materials - mammoth ivory, walrus tusks, whale bones, etc. Some types of products can be additionally decorated with elements made of natural wood, precious metal, various stones (amber is most often used), inlay from mother of pearl The cost of materials depends on the type of bone, its condition, the presence of defects (microcracks, chips, warping, delamination). One of the most expensive types of material is mammoth ivory, and it is very difficult to find it on sale. A small piece weighing 170 grams (about 17 cm in height and about 4.5-5 cm in diameter) will cost 1,000 rubles; for a bone weighing 1.5 kg you will have to pay about 7,000 rubles. Walrus tusk is also an expensive raw material as a result of a sharp reduction in the number of these animals in the second half of the twentieth century. It can be purchased at a price of 4500-5000 rubles per 1 kg. At these prices, bone can be purchased directly from the places where it was mined - in the northern regions. Such raw materials can also be purchased in Moscow, but prices may be significantly higher.
The tusks of a walrus and a mammoth, the teeth of a walrus and a sperm whale have a similar bone structure. It consists of three main layers. The top layer is called enamel, the middle layer is called dentin, and the inner layer is called pulp. Since enamel easily peels off when processing bone and is difficult to grind, it is cut off when cutting. Thus, the most valuable material for creating artistic products is dentin. Even bone of the same type can differ in density, which depends on the calcium layers it contains. The more calcium salts, the denser the layers of dentin and the more pliable this material is. However, there are also objective limitations in working with it. Single- and multi-figure compositions are usually made from animal bone. The most difficult thing is to give them volume, since such a material has a porous structure and thin fragile walls.
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Experts recommend purchasing raw materials “live” so that you can assess their condition. There are a large number of nuances. For example, to store raw materials you need a specially equipped room with a given temperature and a certain level of humidity. The fact is that if storage conditions are not met, all types of bone and horn begin to collapse and become deformed. However, fresh bones are also not suitable for work. For example, a walrus bone and a sperm whale tooth must be dry enough to be processed. Drying is carried out gradually, naturally, without exposure to cold and hot air jets, so the entire drying process takes up to two years.
The skeletal bone of marine animals is cheaper than animal bone, since it does not have the same good structure and beautiful color. For carving, it is recommended to use whale ribs and jaws, which are a fairly hard material.
Tools and equipment for making bone products
There are a large number of different bone processing techniques, which include three-dimensional carving (creating sculptures), deep engraving, and relief carving. Depending on the type of material and the processing technique used, various tools and special equipment will be required. Engraving on a walrus tusk, for example, is done using hand tools. It is unlikely that you will be able to find a special tool for carving bone and antler on sale. In most cases, tools for working on wood and metal are used for these purposes. The most necessary of them are knives with wide blades, chisels, and files. You will also need wire cutters, pliers, scissors, round-nose pliers, marking compasses, thicknesser, carpenter's and regular hammer, etc.
But if you are going to do carving professionally, you should order specific tools for such work or make them yourself.
To create an engraving on whale ribs, the quality of which does not allow for fine carving, you will need a medical drill, cutters and cutters. A hacksaw is used to cut bone. Rough surface treatment is performed with a hog file. For more accurate and delicate work, needle files will be required. Feather drills are suitable for drilling bone, and rubbing tools and a mechanical machine are suitable for making openwork carvings. Polish the bone on a cotton or felt wheel using a special mastic. To prepare the latter, parts of tooth powder, pork fat and turpentine are mixed. However, you can also use ready-made polishing pastes if you don’t want to waste time making your own mastic. In addition, for large production volumes, it is worth purchasing a circular saw with various cutting discs, a roughing machine for performing rough processing of bone blanks, drilling, grinding, polishing, turning, milling and copying machines. Special equipment is needed to work with horn (at a minimum, a muffle furnace and a press).
The process of making products from bone and horn
The process of making bone products consists of several stages, the content of which may vary somewhat, depending on the material used. First, the bones and antlers must undergo pre-treatment. Excess parts (for example, the base of a horn with a closed channel) are cut off. When using ordinary animal bones, they are first boiled to remove residual meat, cartilage, and bone fat for 2-3 hours in a solution of soda ash at the rate of 7-12 grams of soda per liter of water. Then the boiled bone is washed in warm and then cold water and dried on a wire rack. As mentioned above, drying should be carried out without exposure to cold or hot air jets. The optimal air temperature for drying is 18-20 degrees, and the relative humidity is no more than 60%.
The material prepared in this way is subsequently sawn, sanded, bleached, glued if necessary and polished. To prevent cracks and other defects from appearing on the raw material when sawing, the bone is clamped in a vice, a mark is made at the cut site with a triangular file, and then carefully sawed with a triangular file. In the case of large-scale production, manual labor is replaced as much as possible by automated or semi-automated labor. Sawing at such enterprises is carried out using circular saws. In one eight-hour shift, about 70-75 kg of bone can be sawed in this way.
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To achieve a smooth surface and remove small scratches and defects from it, the workpiece, and then the finished product, are sanded - manually and using a special grinding machine.
Since the bone initially has a number of color defects - a yellowish tint, specks, stains, etc., a bleaching procedure is performed to eliminate such defects. Only products made from horn are not bleached, since this material initially has a dark shade. To bleach products made from animal bone, use a 2-3% aqueous solution of caustic soda or a 30% solution of hydrogen peroxide in which the product is placed, after which the solution is brought to a boil and kept for half an hour at a temperature of no more than 80 degrees or until 20 minutes in a cooling peroxide solution. Lime can also be used to whiten bones. To do this, the products are placed in a container, sprinkled with layers of lime several centimeters thick, where they are kept for 24 hours. After bleaching, the product is washed with water and dried at room temperature.
If necessary, parts of a bone product can be glued together with fish glue or PVA and/or painted, polished, tinted with natural materials and paints and undergo other types of processing.
How to choose a room for making bone products
Work on the manufacture of bone products is carried out in a non-residential premises equipped with a ventilation and heating system (for the cold season). Exhaust ventilation will be needed to remove dust and crumbs that are inevitable when cutting, grinding and carving the material. In addition, it is needed to remove odors. Some types of raw materials (for example, raw horn) must be boiled before processing. In this case, the horn is placed in a container, filled with water and placed on fire. The boiling process takes several hours with periodic changes of water in the container, and during cooking an extremely unpleasant odor appears. It is quite difficult to be in such a room, let alone work, without a good exhaust hood.
During the first time of work, you can do without a warehouse. Raw materials can also be stored on shelves in the same room where you work. The main thing is that they are not located in drafts, near windows or a radiator, otherwise sudden changes in temperature will lead to damage to the bone. In the future, as your business develops and production volumes increase, you should take care of equipping a warehouse for storing materials and finished products.
The following types of bone products are in greatest demand: knife handles, jewelry, combs and other accessories, figurines and various figurines, keychains, elements and entire sets of board games (for example, chess), as well as other souvenir and gift products. The cost of the product depends on many factors: size, complexity, material, the presence of additional finishing, etc. A small product of a simple shape (like a pendant) made from ordinary animal bone costs about 300-500 rubles, and the same product from mammoth ivory will cost several times more expensive. Complex sculptural miniatures cost from 1000-1500 rubles. Large sets, which consist of several items and are especially valued among collectors, cost several tens and even hundreds of thousands of rubles. But making such a set also takes a lot of effort and time, not counting the costs of purchasing the necessary materials.
If you do not have much experience in this craft, you should not immediately purchase a complete set of equipment and a batch of raw materials. Try your hand at the simplest small-sized products and use ordinary animal bones and antlers for your work.
The most difficult thing is to establish stable sales of such products, especially if we are talking about exclusive expensive products. Small souvenirs can be sold through souvenir shops and retail outlets in markets. For large production volumes, it is beneficial to cooperate with wholesale and retail companies and retail chains. It’s also worth making your own online store or at least groups on social networks where you can display photos of your work.
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To purchase the required minimum for the first time of work, you will need up to ten thousand rubles (raw materials, tools, minimal equipment, educational literature). True, you shouldn’t count on big profits either. The revenue of a small workshop will be from 15 thousand rubles per month. In the future, as regular customers and partners appear, production volumes increase, and your skills improve, you will be able to purchase additional special equipment and hire 2-3 carvers (who, most likely, will first have to be trained in all the intricacies of such a craft).
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