websites ect for buying bone?

[Crispvs]

"every time I slaughter a cow, I have plenty of bones....
but only certain ones are good for sword grips. "

For grips only two bones on the entire cow are suitable. These are the cannon bones with the round section. The cannon bones of the front and rear legs differ in section. The bones with the 'D' shaped section (I think these are from the front feet) are not suitable because the internal aperture is too large. Also, the feet need to be quite small - I would say the bone for a grip should come from a calf rather than an adult, based on the experience of dismembering and boiling up numerous cows' feet in order to find a bone with a suitable cross section.

If you are going to do a handle which is entirely bone you will need to use three different bones. To make a handle such as the one in Dorchester (in the last link Tarbicus posted up), you need to make the grip from a calf's rear(?) cannon bone, the 'drums' of the guard and pommel from the femur of a cow (for the correct cross section) and the circular caps in the top and botton of both the pommel and the guard need to be made from the central areas of the flat sides of shank bones, which are the only bones on a cow which are both flat enough and thick enough to make these pieces from. If you plan to make a handle with a straight guard such as the one pictured on one of the gladius reproductions currently on Erik Koenig's site (link below), you need to use an adult cannon bone from the same legs as for the grip.

http://www.replik-online.de/de/index2.html

Erik has told me that he had found it difficult to guarantee the supply of bones from animals which had been reared in the open air through the butchers he normally used for his supplies, so now he imports cow bones from Argentina, where he can be sure that the cows roam free in the countryside and develop strong bones as a result.

I will post up a picture of my bone sword handle in the next day or two.

Crispvs