Nuts

[leathermarshmallow]

I am trying to build a IV kit. The nut they sent is a piece of plastic and I think I can do a little better. I took a piece of mammoth ivory and spent the last hour making a nut out of it. I am not quite ready to string it up yet, but I am hoping it will be good! I am having a heck of a time with the binding. I wish I could see someone do it so that I could copy it!

Now I am trying to make a bridge out of a piece of birdseye maple. I just have the rough cut so far...Hope it works too!

What do you make a nut from?

[Gail Hester]

Fossilized ivory, bone and mother of pearl are probably the three most common. I typically use bone for A-styles and MOP for F-styles. Part of that choice has to do with matching the look of the tuner buttons. All three materials make excellant nuts.

Some luthiers use different hardwoods for nuts but I don't have any experience with those. I'm sure there are lots of other hard materials that would work as well such as Corian but again, I have no experience with alternate nut materials.

[buddyellis]

Femur cow 'soup' bone from the local supermarket. I bought one femur bone about 3 years ago, boiled it till everything fell off/out of it, then boiled it in a strong dishwashing liquid/water bath (degrease). 'Boil' means simmer lightly. You don't wanna pressure cook it or anything. I have enough nut blanks to last me a good long while.

Or just buy a blank. They're $3 or something from international violin. Get some of the ivoroid binding too, and toss the white #### that comes with the kits http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif Oh and some decent tuners. And a bridge. Those two things are essential when building an IV kit: tuners and bridge (The bridges on the F5 kits have typically been quite usable, however)

[Jim Garber]

Femur cow 'soup' bone from the local supermarket. I bought one femur bone about 3 years ago, boiled it till everything fell off/out of it, then boiled it in a strong dishwashing liquid/water bath (degrease). 'Boil' means simmer lightly. You don't wanna pressure cook it or anything. I have enough nut blanks to last me a good long while.
I saw a couple of bones in the pet store that look like big cow bones with lots of straight area. Is that the same. Prob more expensive but saves all the cooking time. Unless you like some good beef stock to go with it.

[TomTyrrell]

The dogs haven't figured out where I get my nut and saddle blanks yet. I told them my wife throws their old dried up bones away.

[whistler]

I've used ebony and rosewood for nuts and they work fine. The chances are you'd have enough waste from a single fingerboard or bridge blank to make several. It just depends whether you want the nut to blend or contrast with the fingerboard.

I've also tried using plum, but that was on an instrument with a zero fret, so I can't vouch for its acoustic impact.

[buddyellis]

The 'dog bones' are the same, with one problem: oil in the bone. You want to cook the meat off the bone as quick as possible before fat leaches into the bones. You can use them, you just have to soak them in alcohol/acetone or something for a while for more de-greasing. Would probably work fine. Small pieces of soup bone (you want the middle part of the femur, not the ends) are easier to handle.

[Steve Ostrander]

First you make the soup, then you make the nut!

[buddyellis]

Wouldn't wanna eat my detergent soup. It's probably not that tasty.

[Steve Davis]

Bone Cleaning (http://www.bearmeadow.com/build/materials/html/bone-clean.html)

[TomTyrrell]

After a couple of years outside there isn't any oil left in those bones. The good ole sun does a good job bleaching bones.

[Gail Hester]

I've always hesitated to use any bone other than from a reputable source due to expert comments such as, "Greasy bone will leach fat slowly but forever."

Check out this article on proper cleaning a degreasing of bone.

http://www.bearmeadow.com/build/materials/html/bone-clean.html

[TomTyrrell]

I'm thinking I would rather use a nice piece of plastic than toxic bone.

[cbarry]

Wouldn't grease in the bone just help lubricate the strings--and perhaps attract flies?
Yes, I'm just messing around trying to avoid work...

[buddyellis]

Gail: yea, you have to degrease it, but the best solution for that is fresh bone, cooked as soon as you can, before the grease leaches into the bone in the first place (most of the fat is in the marrow). Stay away from the knuckles and the parts with 'webby looking bone' near the knuckles (or cut it all off) as that tends to harbor fat. If you boil them for 2 hours or so in a detergent solution, scraping and cleaning the bone (INSIDE TOO!, as this is where the real fat is at) trim up the bone into decent sized chunks for later blanking, and then soak that in either naptha, or alcohol (acetone will work too) you won't have a problem. It's quite easy to see the grease, once you know what you're looking at. Clean bone is quite dry and white. Greasy bone looks like an 'aged' nut, and you do not want that when it's new. You want aged, stain it.

Tom:

I'm not certain plastic dust is anymore healthy than bone dust. There's nothing that 'toxic' about properly prepared bone blanks. Don't snort the powder, however.

[Gail Hester]

Thanks Buddy. Your post should be the answer in a FAQs section.

[mandolinplucker]

Mine comes from Roses dept store pet supplies. $1 for a 6" piece that is bleached, dried, demarrowed, and degreased. No smell. No flies. They are so cleaned that my dogs won't have anything to do with them. Word of warning. They smell like warmed over do-do when you saw or sand them.