Bone Needles

[HomesteaderWife]

Figured I would also try and give these a post as well. We've started making bone needles in the past year, which did really well for us in making a few deer hide quivers. They're shaped well for possibly using for nalbinding.

The needles are made from the cleaned leg bones of deer- similarly to how we pick up unwanted hides, we also pick up legs to source bone and sinew for personal use. They are responsibly sourced from hunter throwaways.

Other than the hole being drilled in them, they're 100% shaped by hand. After getting the piece split the way I'd like, it's shaped over a few hours on a piece of stone. The last photo shows one of the stones I use for shaping.

Simply for time involved in shaping by hand, and to cover postage, I would like to ask $20 for anyone interested. They'll be handmade to order!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Whew - that's got to be a lot of work!

 

[HomesteaderWife]

@frustratedearthmother - It is, but I enjoy being able to repurpose the bone! One of my next projects is taking the bone from the skull's nasal cavity, and shaping a fishing hook with it. You can also make fleshers for cleaning hides out of the leg bones too.

 

[tortoise]

this is amazing! so cool!

 

[Hinotori]

Very neat! That is a lot of work there

 

[baymule]

You are so talented. I like it!

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Oh, I wasn't expecting such amazing responses to this little project! I am very humbled, thank you kindly.

 

[CrealCritter]

Never thought about bone needles. That's a really cool idea. I do take deer hind leg bones that my hunting dog goes out in the woods and finds and brings back up into the yard to eat and make guitar nuts out of them. They are supper hard and strong so make great sounding guitars.

I "bleach" them hydrogen peroxide for a couple of days and they come out bone white. After about a day in hydrogen peroxide the come out a cream color. I have also used black water dye with hydrogen peroxide to make them black but it takes several days to penetrate all the way through.

Here is an example of a cream colored rear deer leg bone shaped into a guitar nut. It takes a lot of shaping and filing to get it to fit into the nut slot tightly and also filing slots for the strings. But deer bone does make great guitar nuts.

 

[baymule]

We have such talented artists here!

 

[HomesteaderWife]

@CrealCritter - Oh wow that is a GREAT idea! Thank you for sharing, I would've never thought of that!