Bone Dices

[hadrianus batavius]

I have tried to cut gambling dices from 2 huge cow hind leg bones, unfortunately I noticed after cutting them that (logically) the knobs are full of blood and underneath a smooth surface quite porous. Does anybody have any experience with this? Obviously I have to use a dense bone which is more or less a dead end, I am thinking of deer antlers. But maybe in the anatomy of pigs and cows there are similar pieces of bone which could be used. Who knows anything about this subject? Many thanks in advance Hadrianus Batavius Leg XXX Vlpia Victrix Rome Italy http://www.legioxxx.com

[Sutoris]

You should use the bone between the two "knobs", that's solid.

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Yes, you need to use the cannon part of the bone (the diafysis). You have to cut the walls of the bone in a longuitudinal sense, in order to get strips or rectangles. Then, you have to file a little the rectangles, to obtain a quadrangular section. Then, cut the strips in cubes, with the same lenght as the thickness of the walls of the bone.

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

As is dificult to me to explain it in english, better a drawing:

[PhilusEstilius]

The tips of Red Deer may well give you the solid pieces that you need, however I would mention that the Romans used both Bronze and Lead to create a dice infact I do have a lead one which I found near Hadrians' Wall.

[Sallustius Metellus]

There is a useful article on making bone dice at this site:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/4668/dice.htm

[hadrianus batavius]

Great !!!!! In less than 8 hours many excellent replies, I do not know If I will dig in the trash can outside to retrieve the huge bones I just threw away or ask new ones. Also the lead dices are a great idea! Thanks a lot guys .... when in Rome visit our camp. Will let you know when I have manufactured something presentable.

[Sutoris]

My friend works with bone, here's his website.

http://www.beinschnitzer.de/

[Sutoris]

I do have a lead one which I found near Hadrians' Wall.

Hi Brian,
could you give me some more details about your Lead dice?

[hadrianus batavius]

I do have a lead one which I found near Hadrians' Wall.

Hi Brian,
could you give me some more details about your Lead dice?

Hi Brian and Filip, I also would be highly interested in the lead dices, a photo would be great or dimensions. Thanks in advance

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Hmmmm, lead die can easily be loaded, due to the softness of lead, must have belonged to a centurion!

[Sutoris]

I would cast them out of pewter, don't like lead.

[Robert]

I have just bought 24 deer antler to turn into handles for seax and other types of knives. I suppose the top portions could be used for making both prehistoric (meseo and neolithic) spear- and arrowheads as well as Roman horn dice. I wonder if one can really tell the difference in originals, I am sure you can, but would it be described? Bone and solid antler horn are often used in the same breath.

[Crispvs]

In my experience of working both bone and antler, antler can be a lot harder to work than bone, although it is more resilient and you could probably make larger dice from the solid ends of the tines than you would be able to make from bone. The tines will vary though and the spongy centre material extends further up some tines than others.

For bone dice I would follow Cesar's suggestion of the cow's cannon bone, but I would use the bone in the upper nock (the end which does not divide into seperate 'fingers'). The bone at this end can be very thick about half an inch to an inch from the very end. Obviously the bigger the bone it comes from the thicker the bone is likely to be.

Crispvs

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Yes, Crispus, good advice. So, you can use the cannon part to made nice gladius handles.