White Wolf Fian: Practice Piece #2

I've managed to get a few more pieces for my tool kit. I bartered for a medieval style saw with Lord Edhan. I found a file that has a curved and a flat course and medium tooth on it. And the white wire you see is a heavy duty coat hanger that I plan on turning into my drill and ring and dot tool. One of the reasons I have started a new piece rather than finish the first is because I have not made the ring and dot tool yet.

I decided to go ahead and jump right in on a strap end. I haven't up my mind what decoration I will use but I suspect it will be something very simple. I seem to remember seeing a strap end in my Bone and Antler book that had a series of ring and dots that were coloured. I think that is where I am going with this end.

I'm using beef bone. It is the easiest for me to get my hands on. I can either buy soup bones or I can buy a bone from the pet shop and clean out the crap they stuff in it for the dogs. I've got a few bones already so I plan to start with those.

I found a bone that had a relatively flat section and cut out a piece that was 3/4 inches by 2 inches. Unfortunately, I pretty much suck at hand sawing so I ended up with a piece that was thicker on one end than on the other, and thicker on one side than the other.

I forgot to take a picture of the work but I scraped with the knife to get the sides about the same thickness and I use the saw the straighten out the back and side. I also used the saw, after marking the bone with a pencil, to cut the end in the general shape I wanted it to be. Once done with that I went back to the knife and files to smooth out the end, flatten the top a bit, level out the back, in general cleaning the rough piece of bone into a shape that is recognizable and workable.



I really need my drill and ring and dot tools so I can finish this and the first piece, the bone cloak pin. I want to try using linseed oil or tung oil mixed with soot or powdered pigments to stain the piece in such a way that the decoration really shows up. I have some Red Sandlewood, called Saunders in period cooking, that supposedly colours food red. I wonder if it will work to colour oil as well. Otherwise, I need to get some red ochre for the colour red.

Something I learned with this piece is that a tiny bone shaving in the eye burns. I've had wood shavings in the eye that hurt but they never burned. I'll have to be more careful about my work and try to keep the bits and pieces out of my eyes. I also think I need a different clamp system for bone and antler work. I think part of my control issue with the saw is that I was trying to saw a tiny little piece of bone while it was clamped into my work bench clamp. I was bending over and the frame of the saw kept bumping into the work bench.

From beginning to this point I have spent approximately 4 hrs on this practice piece. Looking at it again I think I still need to flatten the top a little more before I start the decoration.