Bone Work

[Primvs Pavlvs]

I have been making some bone needles, and buckles inspired by ones I saw at Vindonissa. Just curious how common bone pieces are on other sites. There seem to have been more bone buckles found at Vindonissa than bronze buckles. Here are a few pics I took while there in Oct. The needles I saw were from 1 inch to 12 inches.

[Martin Moser]

Nice picture, Paul!

Actually the one at center left might be the one I made a reconstruction of some 10 years ago, but I don't remember where the original came from (was the very first piece I ever made :-) ) )

[Paul Hammer.]

Great workmanship!
By the way, could you say what material are you using as " bone " and where I might get some?
I would like to redo a gladius handle/hilt.
Cheers,
PTH

[Martin Moser]

Hi Paul,

By the way, could you say what material are you using as " bone " and where I might get some?

Sure. For bone I use ... bone :-) -( ( It reportedly was from south american cattle and very dense, something you don't get from animals that only stand around in a stable as they often do here in Europe ...

Does anybody have good sources for bone material?

[aitor iriarte]

Oh, you can make it out of local cattle bone too. You only need to get a good deal of long leg bones from your butcher, have the tips sawn off and then boild the 'tubes' in water until all the marrow melts, scrap the remaining 'flesh' rests and leave them drying. Select the best suited portions for your concrete needs.
I tried once horse bone, it was a fantastic (if somewhat yellowish in colour) stuff but the stench while boiling it was hardly bearable. I can assure you that cow bones smell like Chanel n. 5, compared to it! :roll:

Aitor

[caiusbeerquitius]

If you put salt into the boiling water, the bones will turn out very white.

As for the type of bone:
In the iron age (also the Romans) mainly used the metapodium (middle-foot-bone), as it is the hardest type of cattle bone.

S. Hanik, PhD-Thesis: Tierknochenfunde in der Germania Libera, Braunschweig, 129.

[Martin Moser]

For a wealth of information on working with bone and other such materials, form Stone Age to Middle Ages see

MacGregor, Arthur. Bone, antler, ivory and horn. 1985.

[jsantell]

May I ask how bone holds up in actual use? My first inpression would be that it would be fragile, especially in the tongue part of the buckle.

[Primvs Pavlvs]

I have made several medieval bone buckles with no problem of them breaking under normal usage. However I am also curious about using a bone buckle on a balteus if it would be strong enough.

[Crispvs]

In my days as an Anglo-Saxon re-enactor, I used a belt with a bone buckle and a pin slightly thinner than the one Martin made for seven years continuously. During all of this time it carried the weight of a knife and an often full pouch, and often it had to put up with the weight of a scramasaex at the front and an axe at the side as well as I also wore it in combat. The buckle recieved a number of direct hits from weapon blows during this seven years but the pin never shattered. I am not sure if any of these blows hit the pin or not but in any case the only damage sustained by the buckle pin in seven years of hard weekly usage 52 weeks per year was a small chip which broke off the end but which did not impair the performance of the pin appreciably. If I had not used the belt this whole time myself I would have assumed that the bone pin would have been replaced several times. However, as the only person to wear this belt I can confirm that the pin never needed replacing during these years as it stood up well to all of the strain it was put under. In fact it never broke at all as it was still in good condition when I gave up Anglo-Saxon re-enactment.
Before I started working bone I would never have believed that beef bone was that good. Experience has taught me that it is remarkably strong and durable. I doubt that a bone buckle or pin would last quite as long as a copper alloy example, but given the fact that a competant carver would be able to produce a basic one in a couple of hours I think the length of potential service versus the time taken to produce it from an inexpensive material would make it an extremely good return on the investment.

Crispvs

[Matthew Amt]

An easier source of bone is a pet supply store--dog chews! Get the nice white ones, not the meaty ones or those filled with yummy stuffing. The smaller types make great gladius grips. Big ones can be cut up for buckles, combs, etc.

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/gladhnts.html#bonegrip

First big hint for working bone: DUST MASK!!! Bone dust is VERY bad for your lungs! Great for the flowers, though.

There is a Yahoo group for bone-working, shoulda thought of that sooner!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Historic-HornAntlerBone/

Enjoy, and Valete,

Matthew

[tlclark]

I have made several medieval bone buckles with no problem of them breaking under normal usage. However I am also curious about using a bone buckle on a balteus if it would be strong enough.

Just making a plug for aesthetics. Durability is not the only consideration.

Bone just may be prettier.

Here's an example of what I mean. I doubt this example was terribly durable.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/barb/hob_1995.54.htm