Another attempt at making bone needle

[Tank]

I haven't made a bone needle in a while so as I sit at home with time my hands I thought I would make some more.

The dogs always bring me bones during our walk so I have a nice stock of what I think is a muntjac leg bone.

Normally I like to work with all stone but today I did use the 60 grit sand paper in place of a stone as I could sit out of the where I wouldn't get in the way of any neighbors (isolating at home)

I busting open a bone with lots of chew marks (not from the dog)

Sanding a few to a uniform shape on the paper.

With out too much time spent in shaping I started with the eye, using flint to do an incised eye.

The process of making the eye is always slow going as I am no flit knapper and I have to use what I can find in my flint pile.

Once the eye was through I found a nice piece of flint with a nice 90 degree edge to do the bulk of the shaping. Always love how nicely flint and bone work well together, far better than trying to use metal on the bone.

Finished (for now, I may come back and work the eye some more)

For now the needle gets added to the rest and wait for me to wonder use them.

Bone, antler & shell book by Hilary Stewart

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[JonathanD]

Brilliant. With all this free time, I may give this a go myself.

 

[FerlasDave]

Really cool job. You are mashing the skills out at the moment aren’t you?!

 

[Toddy]

Those are neat
I admit I usually scribe them out like a triangular wedge from the bone, but your way looks like it works fine

I hate the smell from sanding bone. It smells like hot bonemeal. Strange opinion from an archaeologist I suppose, but i find it quite nauseating. My cat adored it.

The bone needles are good with sinew. They don't fray it up so badly as a metal needle eye can do.

They're also good to sew hair....those beautiful eastern european plaited hairstyles are sewn. They didn't have kirby grips in the past. Once your hair was dressed it was kept tidy until it grew slack and then it was all unravelled, washed/brushed, re-plaited and re-dressed. My hair is too fine now to do it, but when I was younger and my hair was waist length it was done just to see if we could
It was surprisingly sound, and stable.

They're also really good with cordage to weave stuff like coiled baskets. Similar principles really, I suppose.

 

[Tank]

Brilliant. With all this free time, I may give this a go myself.

During the first lockdown I was made redundant, it was the best gift of time ever to work on skills.

I have a two days left of a 10 days isolation... So more time to work crafting.

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[Tank]

Really cool job. You are mashing the skills out at the moment aren’t you?!

I do enjoy mixing things up on a daily basis. Love to keep myself busy with one thing or another.

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[Tank]

Those are neat
I admit I usually scribe them out like a triangular wedge from the bone, but your way looks like it works fine

I hate the smell from sanding bone. It smells like hot bonemeal. Strange opinion from an archaeologist I suppose, but i find it quite nauseating. My cat adored it.

The bone needles are good with sinew. They don't fray it up so badly as a metal needle eye can do.

They're also good to sew hair....those beautiful eastern european plaited hairstyles are sewn. They didn't have kirby grips in the past. Once your hair was dressed it was kept tidy until it grew slack and then it was all unravelled, washed/brushed, re-plaited and re-dressed. My hair is too fine now to do it, but when I was younger and my hair was waist length it was done just to see if we could

They're also really good with cordage to weave stuff like coiled baskets. Similar principals really, I suppose.

I often will scribe the bone before breaking, I did that for the longer needle. I actually ended breaking two bones, if it didnt get any good bits this post would have been about some gauge hooks

I have cheated once and used a Dremel to cut antler, it stunk so much I went back to using stone to avoid that smell. Even when using on stone (or sandpaper) I use a mark so not to breath in any of the fine dust.

My plan is to use them doing some coiled baskets, I have been gathering and processing burdock fibers to make one.

 

[Mesquite]

Very tidy work, nice when you can turn out high quality items like those

 

[Tank]

Very tidy work, nice when you can turn out high quality items like those

Thanks Steve. I surprise myself sometimes

 

[Robson Valley]

Thank you very much for the process pictures. Your observation about working the bone with stone is a very telling remark. There appear to be almost spoke-shave like tools, flints with arcs of stone missing.

 

[Tank]

I used to our drinking on a Friday night, Now...

I will polish it up tomorrow on some sand stone to even it out a bit.

 

[SaraR]

I haven't made a bone needle in a while so as I sit at home with time my hands I thought I would make some more.

The dogs always bring me bones during our walk so I have a nice stock of what I think is a muntjac leg bone.

Normally I like to work with all stone but today I did use the 60 grit sand paper in place of a stone as I could sit out of the where I wouldn't get in the way of any neighbors (isolating at home)

I busting open a bone with lots of chew marks (not from the dog)

Sanding a few to a uniform shape on the paper.

With out too much time spent in shaping I started with the eye, using flint to do an incised eye.

The process of making the eye is always slow going as I am no flit knapper and I have to use what I can find in my flint pile.

Once the eye was through I found a nice piece of flint with a nice 90 degree edge to do the bulk of the shaping. Always love how nicely flint and bone work well together, far better than trying to use metal on the bone.

Finished (for now, I may come back and work the eye some more)

For now the needle gets added to the rest and wait for me to wonder use them.

Bone, antler & shell book by Hilary Stewart

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Nice work! The longest needle would be perfect for nålbindning if the hole was a lot bigger.

I've got horn needles that I use for that, but both bone and antler work really well and is great to work with as it's softer on the hands.

 

[Tank]

Nice work! The longest needle would be perfect for nålbindning if the hole was a lot bigger.

I've got horn needles that I use for that, but both bone and antler work really well and is great to work with as it's softer on the hands.

I am currently making some larger needles for this use.

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[Tank]

A nice photo of the finished needle from last night.

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[CraftJim]

Awesome work, have inspired me to get trying!

 

[Tengu]

What was that book, Tank?

 

[Tank]

What was that book, Tank?

it would have been from Stone, Bone, Antler and Shell: Artefacts of the Northwest Coast Stewart by Hilary Steward

 

[Tengu]

Thank you, might be handy for myosseous library

 

[Robson Valley]

I don't know where you bought your copy but I can't find one over here for less than $230.00. Approx 145BPS. Not this year.

 

[Man of Tanith]

I don't know where you bought your copy but I can't find one over here for less than $230.00. Approx 145BPS. Not this year.

he didnt buy it, he borrowed it off me and held onto it for a year