Bone for mandolin nuts?

[Willie Poole]

I am just curious as to where most of you get the bone that you use to make mandolin/guitar nuts, I know it can be bought from some dealers like Martin but a friend of mine told me he just goes to a butcher shop and gets "soup bones" and lets them lay around until all of the bits of meat dry out and he is able to scrape it off....

What kind of bone seems to work best, I assume chicken bones wouldn`t work as well as others....

Willie

[macjansson]

I'd say any sort of bone should do the trick. They just need to be thick enough. No chicken bone would be big enough to get a solid pice large enough to make a saddle. Any sort of bird bone is probably inferior as bird bones are by nature very light and not dense enough. I believe cow bone is pretty standard.

[Markus]

I am no luthier, but I would advise against a bird bone. Often porous, not homogenous across most bones. [Maybe ostrich?]

My ancient technology research years ago suggests cow or water buffalo would yield large enough pieces with good consistency across them.

Goat/sheep tend to be softer, and given my experience with the actual creatures I wouldn't want something goat-related as part of tuning my mandolin Ornery animal + fussy procedure = never ever in tune, not even once.

[michaelpthompson]

I just get mine from Stewart-MacDonald. Don't know what kind of bone it is, but they work.

[bmac]

some folks have used cow bones sold at pet stores as chew bones... These have been cleaned and a big one may yield some decent nuts.... I would not try to use raw bones or soup bones... Iried it once and the stench from the bone was unbelievable... Had to take it out of the house and even then gave up when I couldn't stand it. I believe there are some previos threads on its use for nuts.

[Mandobart]

I'm with Michael. For ~ $5 its worth not having to saw a blank and square it up out of a cow femur. I've only made a couple of nuts anyway. I guess if you're building a lot of mandos or doing lots of nut work it may end being more economical to start from scratch with a cow bone. I would use femur or pelvis; those are the densest bones.

[buckhorn]

with my current build. i used bone for the points and am very pleased with the outcome....got a few nice big bones from the Tractor Supply store , in the pets dept.....after leting my fav dog chew on them for a while . i boiled them till they were almost white , then carved them up on the band saw , and squared them with a belt sander ....from those two bones , i got enough blanks to last for many , many different projects...even with the sanding , there was minimal smell and dust was not too bad....it's just neet to say " i did that too"................keith

[TijnBerends]

That looks very nice on the point, it suggests that when you put the lights out it will glow:p

[P Josey]

I use moose bone. Boil it till it's clean and almost white and away you go. It's good and hard and easy to work with. The moose bone I have borders on being brittle it's so hard and makes good nuts.

[Rolfe]

I second Paul's choice. Very hard, easy to work, polishes beautifly. But your local butcher---south of where we live---may not have any. And then there's the low, trumpeting overtones that come from moose bone.

[pfox14]

I also buy bone blanks from StewMac. Very good quality - varying thicknesses

[buckhorn]

those two bones cost about six bucks .....that's about the price of two already made blanks , and have dozens of pieces for nuts or points or whatever.....and all in just a few hours........

[frenchquarterfly]

eBay Item No. 110874951285 .
Your quest ends w/less than 3 bucks (delivered) spent for 28mm mandolin pre-string-grooved bone nuts.
(Remember to also check the Seller's store, just in case these are not sized correctly for you, as he may yet have other similar items.)

[Bill Snyder]

You don't want pre-slotted nuts if you want them done correctly for YOUR mandolin.

[frenchquarterfly]

Indeed, I can perfectly understand where yours could sometimes well be a valid issue.

But, since I've actually performed nut installations w/only the repeated frequency of a hobbyist, its been my good fortune w/acquiring & installing those nuts which were pre-grooved, that on only one occasion did I alter the groove spacing --and this was easily facilitated because the original slots happened to be so relatively light to begin with. I've more commonly had to correctly accentuate & precisely deepen the existing grooves of pre-slotted nuts --and-- almost always, my actual primary concern has instead been to carefully pre-study & consider how to properly alter the major dimensions of the pre-formed nut itself for an exact & correct fit, especially w/regard to its height . . . but now we're getting into multiple issues which are further away from the subject of actually addressing Willie's specific original question.

[Schlegel]

Willie, for the small number of nuts I need (I just do my own mandolins) I'm quite pleased with the blanks I got from DePaule Inlay. They're good quality, very uniform in color and hardness, and the price was very reasonable, as well.

[pefjr]

I know it can be bought from some dealers like Martin but a friend of mine told me he just goes to a butcher shop and gets "soup bones" and lets them lay around until all of the bits of meat dry out and he is able to scrape it off....

I would be afraid of at least two thing here; salmonella and also the chance that my dog would eat my mandolin. Spend $3

[Paul Hostetter]

The bone I use has already been used by the dog, who did not die of salmonella, or anything else. Check the archives—this issue has been discussed a thousand times.

[Fretbear]

I like to make things easier on myself, not so much that I will get someone else to make a nut for me, but enough that I don't want to apprentice as a butcher to do so.....
The price, quality, cleanliness and variety of pre-cut bone nut and saddle blanks makes them a joy to use.

[michaelpthompson]

some folks have used cow bones sold at pet stores as chew bones... These have been cleaned and a big one may yield some decent nuts.... I would not try to use raw bones or soup bones... Iried it once and the stench from the bone was unbelievable... Had to take it out of the house and even then gave up when I couldn't stand it. I believe there are some previos threads on its use for nuts.

I know people who play (and make) bones as an instrument and this is something you need to deal with. If you boil it thoroughly and let it dry in the sun for a few days, it can usually be avoided, but you need to make sure all the marrow and meat are gone. It goes away after a while.

[Paul Hostetter]

Check the archives—this issue has been discussed a thousand times.

Boil the bone for stock, clean out the marrow and scrape off the tendony stuff, and let them dry. Bone is really easy to work, but it does stink even when washed and cured. It's bone, after all.

Do not use bleach, it softens the bone.

Check the archives—this issue has been discussed a thousand times.

[Robert Mitchell]

Yes..I'm up with Andy @ Depaule Inlay,,Got both bone & pearl from him.
Good price,,great quality......

[Bob DeVellis]

some folks have used cow bones sold at pet stores as chew bones... These have been cleaned and a big one may yield some decent nuts.... I would not try to use raw bones or soup bones... Iried it once and the stench from the bone was unbelievable... Had to take it out of the house and even then gave up when I couldn't stand it. I believe there are some previos threads on its use for nuts.

One of my all-time favorite Cafe' stories was about a member (sorry, I forget who) who went to PetSmart to buy a dog bone for just this purpose. The only ones they had, seemed to be the ones pre-stuffed with flavored filling. The Cafe' member asked a nearby saleswoman if there were any unstuffed bones available. She replied that, no, they only had the pre-filled ones. In despair, the Cafe member, thinking out loud, said, "oh well, I guess mandolin nuts will have to wait." To which the saleswoman replied, after a brief pause, "my, what an unusual name for a dog."

[the padma]

Bone nuts eh.

Ok,ya they work just fine. Once the oil and grease has been completely removed.

This is very important for two reasons.

1. they will stink in time if not.
2. the oils in the bone will eventually seep into the fretboard and sometimes through the finish and into the neck wood were they will stain the woods. This staining is not removable nor is the stench.

It is easiest and cheapest to just buy bone that has been properly cleaned.

However to clean bone on your own, bury it in an ant hill for a few months. The ants will get all the oils out. You can then boil the bone to "bone white."

Yes there are many who just boil them to what appears to be clean and white,but chances are the oils deep in the bone will still leach out and do their damage to the instrument.

Yes there are other methods of cleaning using chemicals, although I don't remember how to, but me hear its a real hassle and most of them that have done so tell me "never again"....So its ants and boiling. Again time and hassle. Easiest to just buy processed bone blanks.


Now me, me uses a zero fret and fashion some Black African wood for a "string holder" ~ looks like a nut...but it ain't. Ya, zero frets arn't popular in NA but our European brothers have embraced them.


Other than peanuts, thats about all me know about nuts...well not really, but we no need to go there.


blessings
duh Padma

[Paul Hostetter]

Bone nuts eh.

Ok,ya they work just fine. Once the oil and grease has been completely removed.

Have been removed, assuming "oil" and "grease" are even two different things. You need your subject and verb to agree, right? In any case, I find that level of sterility is really not necessary, and in fact, lightly cleaned bone can be an asset in terms of function and material stability.

This is very important for two reasons.

1. they will stink in time if not.

I certainly have a lot of experience that points to the contrary.

2. the oils in the bone will eventually seep into the fretboard and sometimes through the finish and into the neck wood were [sic] they will stain the woods. This staining is not removable nor is the stench.

In fifty years at the bench, I have never once seen this. You must live around a lot of really huge nuts made from extraordinarily greasy livestock. I mean: dripping.

It is easiest and cheapest to just buy bone that has been properly cleaned.

However to clean bone on your own, bury it in an ant hill for a few months. The ants will get all the oils out. You can then boil the bone to "bone white."

OK, I realize now this is a humorous put-on. Sorry, I was about to take you seriously! Ha!

Yes there are many who just boil them to what appears to be clean and white, but chances are the oils deep in the bone will still leach out and do their damage to the instrument.

Oh yes. As seen on Late Night TV. (I have taken my chances more times than you can count.)

Yes there are other methods of cleaning using chemicals, although I don't remember how to, but me hear its a real hassle and most of them that have done so tell me "never again"....So its ants and boiling. Again time and hassle. Easiest to just buy processed bone blanks.

Our ants out here are completely overworked. I really couldn't ask them to take on another task like this.

Now me, me uses a zero fret and fashion some Black African wood for a "string holder" ~ looks like a nut...but it ain't. Ya, zero frets arn't popular in NA but our European brothers have embraced them.

And they tune, and tune, and tune...and play "Bone Free!"

Other than peanuts, thats about all me know about nuts...well not really, but we no need to go there.

Then there's soup to nuts. But...another time.

blessings
duh Padma

I feel truly blessed. Thank you.