Bone carving - cooked or raw?

[Toadflax]

Does it matter if bones to be used for carving have been cooked? I.e. does cooking weaken them in any way or make them more /less suitable for carving?

Thanks


Geoff

 

[Eric_Methven]

Bones are weakened by cooking them. Roasting is the worst, it makes them brittle. Boiling is second worst, they just don't seem as strong - of course it depends on what you are going to use them for. Best way is to bury them in an ant nest and let the ants do the work of cleaning them for you.

Eric

 

[Toadflax]

Thanks, in that case I'll probably just chuck away the bones from the Muntjac hind quarter that we roasted at the weekend.


Geoff

 

[xylaria]

I have made nalbinding needles with roasted, boiled and raw. Cooking can make the bone easyier to work in someways because the bone is less hard, but it is more brittle. It is very dependant of what you want to do with it, making a needle in five minutes that will get lost or snapped isn't the same as spending a week making a knife scale which you wish to last. Bone from mature wild animals is a hell of lot stronger than farmed animals.

 

[ForgeCorvus]

And free-range is denser then....shall we say, less natural living conditions

 

[cruben]

I've read in a newzealand bone carving book to steep cow bone in warm water for a short time to make it easier to scrape off fat etc, if fat is left in the bone it can lead to staining.
Hope this helps

 

[caliban]

I tried to make a Maori pendant out of a roasted cow shin bone once. It was as hard as granite, I'd just about got the basic shape drilled, filed and hacksawed out when it snapped in two. I found it to be so unyealding that I'd rather chew tinfoil that try it again. Still, lots of people seem to work it no problem, good luck!