Official Luthiers Forum!

No problem, Scott. Very happy to be of help. Yes, I used my bandsaw, and has Hesh has mentioned, it produces a nauseating smell and dust that you really don't want to breathe. Since the bones are certainly an odd shape, you'll want to fashion some sort of makeshift sled to pass the cow bones through, and keep your own ones out of the way......

I can't speak to the dimensions of various manufacturers nuts and saddles. I only made them for my own guitars. I'd rough them out oversized, then "polish" on a sheet of sandpaper on my bandsaw table, until they fit snugly into the nut slot or saddle slot.

One last comment. I found it interesting in the fine print of that article that the author recommends not using bleach to whiten the bone, but rather Hydrogen peroxide, stating that bleach will weaken the bone.

Corky, I think I forgot to thank you for your last post, so thanks so much. Good information. Happy Thanksgiving!

I bought a pound of those and was less than happy. They are not uniform thickness, and the edges are not squared off, so it's quite a bit of work to get them square and uniform enough to use. They are cheap, the pound (about 40 "blanks") was less than 2 blanks from StewMac.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Depends on how much your time is worth I guess. I use them and had no problem with them. It's less work than processing raw bone...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

You're right about that, at least half the work is already done. It's not so much that I don't want to spend the time sanding blanks to uniform thickness, it's more about avoiding the smell that creates.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

If you process raw bone, the smell is the least of your concern. Also it's not that bad.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

+1.
I have a bunch of nuts and saddle blanks like this and use them all the time.
Great to have an inexpensive stock of over sized blanks instead of paying retail and then having to adjust them to fit anyway.
Robo-Sander and home made Luthiers's Friend make quick work of roughing them out, open the door for a few minutes, smell's gone.(no big deal anyway, compared to some woods used for B & S, superglue, nitro, etc, and it's not toxic, just the dust you've got to watch, same as any sanding operation)

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Some of you guys will remember my bench doggie Sony who sadly died a little over a year ago....

When I would sand bone on a belt sander he would get all upset and run in circles slinging drool.... If that was not bad enough he would be unable to relax for hours afterwards so I took him to his vet and the vet gave us little, tiny valium pills for me to "medicate" him before I got out the bone next time....

It didn't work so I would have to lock him in another part of the house but he would smell it anyway and freak out again.

Strange and I'm wondering if anyone else has had anything like this happen with their pets when working bone.

I just hear Bones saying "It's dead, Jim"

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Yep, but not as bad. My French Bulldogs love dried hide glue scrapings and bone dust, but for those items, they are merely licking nuisances. I just chase them away so they won't make themselves sick licking so much stuff off the floor, which is mixed up with sawdust most of the time. This is manageable.

As I mentioned above, my wife's cleaning of some raw cow femurs got the dogs really wound up, like addicts going through withdrawal. After the femurs were cleaned, the dogs would hunt them down in the house, no matter where we hid Bessie's leg parts. Combine that with the overall trouble, smell and mess of dealing with raw bone, and I am glad to never do that again.

Sorry Don I should read more of the posts in a thread before posting and I would have seen that you have already answered my question about our four legged pals and working bone. French Bulldogs are great and I have been fancying getting one. Don't know if you read Kellerman at all but he not only has a female Luthier as a character but the protagonist lives with a French Bulldog. Good reads!

Tai Fu I see you are a Star Trek fan, me too - also very good stuff!

Yesterday I ordered 40 pieces from Christie Song of Crislin Trading. We order bone blanks several times a year to keep up with our demand and have always been happy with what we receive. Like I mentioned we used to process our own but time is money and I'm grateful to have blanks available to me that are already somewhat dimensioned and close to flat. Our need to reorder bandsaw blades has also benefitted from not having to cut through raw femurs eventually dulling the blade making it dangerous and useless. Who needs it...

I'm an old fart and having some issues with my COPD and can really relate to Hans. I'm finding that lots of stuff bothers me now and not in the grumpy old man sense (maybe that too....) but my breathing. Anything that helps me avoid copious amounts of potentially toxic (to me...) dust is a good thing.

The bone blanks from inlaidartist is by no means perfect. They often have inclusions and other defects. They are also not dimensioned properly but only dimensioned for looks (polished after having been sanded with 60 grits). However I always assume that every blank regardless of source is not dimensioned properly and always dimension them to fit a particular instrument. So I buy blanks much larger than needed.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Hesh--

I'll have to get into some Kellerman. Thanks for the recommendation.

On Frenchies:

They are a lot of fun, but there are downsides. They are very hard to house train, because they are stubborn. Like many dogs, they chew. Finally, and most notably, there is flatulence, extreme flatulence, and then there are French Bulldogs. Seriously, there are times when it's not funny, and being a normal adult male, I almost always think farts are funny. You will think they ate rotting flesh in your backyard and are turning inside out over that, but no, that's just the way their farts normally smell from eating regular food.

But, despite all that, they are natural clowns, and really create a lot of random amusement in our house. I still love them.

I prefer cats. Lot easier to deal with

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Who knew......

Well this is a first for the OLF and although farts have been a favorite post subject (especially for me....) in the past French Bulldog farts specifically is new territory for the OLF!

Perhaps they have to be natural clowns to make up for driving everyone out of the room again and again?

Don thanks for the laughs you made my day! Maybe your post should be put in the "Toots" section of the forum so that French Bulldog Googlers might find some usefull advice...

HeHeHe, you said toots!

I have a 14 year old pug whom I love, but at his age and being a pug he is really just a stink factory. every part of him (inside and out) smells bad. As an adult male, I also thought nothing could happen to make a fart unfunny. I was wrong.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

You see Bryan yet another reason to get an expolsion proof fan.....

If you guys could teach your pups to fart in a specific note we could employ them as bench tuners..... Of course our clients might be offended when we lift up a pooch and place it near their guitar to tune it....

What was this thread about anyway.........

Old buster has completely lost his Embouchure. he makes no note at all. It is always a complete surprise to everyone. Well, everyone but him; I don't think he ever knows when it happens. He probably thinks we are getting on in years and spontaneously develop the dry heaves. You know dogs, it's like perfume to them.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

uh huh, yea right... the dog did it.

I apologize for introducing bad smell into this discussion.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

He who smelt it dealt it. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Hesh,
Ever have one of those moments when you just know you should keep your mouth shut but you just can't?... I just can't.

Picture in your mind of a customer bringing in a Chinese knock-off that he left in the trunk of his car in Death Valley for a couple years, telling you he got it for a couple grand, and that he's sure it just needs "a little tweeking"

This is the general image French Bulldogs (and any of the brachiocephalic [smashed faced] breeds) create in a veterinarian's mind when they come through the door of their shop.

I know vegetarian guys who make nuts and saddles from corian and like materials. You can order samples for 1$ each and get quite a few from a sample. Sometimes it's nice to have a black nut and saddle. I would say they are about the density and hardness of Ivory maybe a little more dense. Someone suggested mammoth ivory. Problem with that it is banned for sale in New York. So you could not legally sell your instrument into New York or I believe resell it in New York. The logic of the New York ban escapes me but then so do a lot of things.

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Michael F Smith
Goat Rock Ukulele
http://goatrockukulele.com

By the way I found some dog bone at the local supermarket. Turns out they do sell these in the US, just not in Taiwan. I just made it to the US this Tuesday...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Yeah I have that feeling often when posting on this forum....

So now I get it these are pretty stinky little fellas. But hey we dog lovers just can't get enough.

Both of my immediate neighbors have big, mean, barking and growling dogs with one being a huge Pit Bull. Since Sony died (my Yorkie) both of my neighbors have been great about understanding and letting me befriend their dogs. Every day I go see all three of them and take them large size Milk Bone dog biscuits. All three dogs with me are all over me kissing me, laying on their backs wanting their bellies rubbed, etc. They won't even bark at me when I go out at night dressed in all black and they are already outside. Another neighbor has told me that it's a sight to see these fairly unapproachable dogs and some old fart all rolling around in the grass together playing....

Dogs are GREAT!!!

Don't know why I am such a dog lover and maybe it's because when I was younger I spent a lot of time on match.com but who knows...