Bone Carving Learning Curve

I started getting interested in bone carving around mid-November, after reading Te Hei Tiki by Douglas Austin, and being inspired. I learnt that the Hei Tiki I have, which was given to my grandfather around 1920, is a relatively rare Type II (one hand on hip, one hand across stomach), Shape C (straight lines touching neatly at 2 points only along each side, the head typically being worked in from both sides). Or, of course, it may be a 2 shilling knockoff.

Ordered Degreaser (for bones), Cobalt M42 HSS blanks for carving tools, and Maire blanks for handles (which I don’t think will work, because they’re too short).

Bone Carving by Jim Timings was already in my collection, and ordered Bone Carving: A Skillbase of Techniques and Concepts by Stephen Myhre. Purchased Stephan Gilberg’s Bone Carving Foundation and Masterclass Video series. Watched a whole heap of videos, and read and read and read. Side trips included reading Wood Carving books by Chris Pye, (most already in my collection) and purchasing a couple more on carving Wood Spirits and Green Men. Oooh - shiny - and being inspired by those.

I have two desks in my Studio – one for art, the other, which I made, used for horizontal storage (ie, crap. Unfortunately, this table has no overlaps, so you can’t clamp anything onto it.

I realised I needed a decent workbench – I paint and craft standing up, and always get terrible back pain. Back to Google … came across Patrick Sullivan, a retired physician, now a woodworker. Among his plans was one for a mini-workbench. Oh yeah, that’ll do me!

I already had a suitable table top (can’t remember where it came from), and once I’d printed the plan, got help with the messy math (yes, let’s leave out some crucial dimensions), and bought a few extra tools, I was set.

While hubby said it was too complicated, that was like a red flag to a bull: this woman can do anything she sets her mind to! Of course, inevitably, I needed a wee bit of help, as I only have one pair of slightly dodgy hands, and have problems with heavy stuff.

Of course, to make a bench, I also needed tools … electric tools! Bunnings supplied me with an Ozito Drill Press (OMG – so much fun!!!), and an Ozito Band Saw (again, so much fun). Brand choice came down to cost – they do the job at less than a third of other brands.

I also purchased a Flexi Shaft Grinder hand set and motor (like a Dremel, but cheaper), some saw blades, clamps, woodworkers vice, a dust extractor (the sort nail technicians use) and a drip tray (why a drip tray, I hear you ask? Patience, Young Grasshopper).

The Mini Workbench was finally completed 27 December – work (and pay) kept getting in the way.

In the meantime, I’d ordered some canon bones from the Aussie Butcher, which were duly processed – dogs were internally grateful for the marrow and scrapings, and of course the knobby ends. Next time, I will leave the knobby bits with the butcher – they take up far too much room in the freezer.

I followed a combination of Timings and Myhre’s instructions, with a dash of Bill Bass, Forensic Scientist. I extracted the marrow, then the bones were simmered in clean water for an hour, scraped clean, then re-simmered with Sunlight Dishwash and Eco-Clean Degreaser for another hour. Because I hadn’t realised how far the fat can spread thru the bone, it got a bit yucky. I think they then got simmered for another hour in fresh water.

Now I’ve read some new instructions on one of the Facebook groups I belong to – thanks to Энбулатов Эдуард  aka Edward of Bone Carving – so will try his method next time I need some bone.

November and December passed in a flash, and I felt like I hadn’t achieved much. But of course, I had. My bone blanks were prepared, I’d watched some videos, drawn and cut out the basic Matau/fish hook pattern with the bandsaw, finished the workbench, put some metal pegboard up on the wall, got 2 little drill bit stands (whose holes got re-drilled with the drill press), got a sheet of vinyl for under the table, and generally got everything set up and ready to go. 1kg of tumbled Paua also arrived – it has most of the calcium removed from the outside of the shells, so is pretty much ready to go.

Cutting the bone blanks with first a hand saw, and then later the bandsaw in the garage had created a dreadful smell, and an awful lot of (toxic) bone dust. The smell spread thru the whole house, and was not appreciated.

I knew that cutting the bone with the Flexi Shaft Grinder would also create a lot of dust and smell. Many/most people use some sort of dust extraction – a vacuum cleaner, an extraction fan, a Nail Technician’s fan. Pounamu carvers do their carving under running water, as the crystalline structure creates even more toxic dust. More reading, more videos, more questions (yay Facebook groups and YouTube).

I built a DIY drip system: a 10l water bucket on a tower stand, a guideline to point the airline, a drip tray and small plastic chopping board to work on, and a 20l catchment bucket, all connected by 6mm aquarium airline with valves. I used Selley’s Waterproof Storm Sealant to join it all together.

As you can see, there's a fair amount of room, handy space under the bench, and lots of fresh air. The blue icecream container has paua shell in it.

Today, Saturday, I finally spent some quality time working on my Hei Matau, using my new gear. And nearly falling over backward from the learning curve:

•         The height of the bench is great – I can both stand at it and sit on a stool to work

·        The water drip system needs work.

o   To fill the water bucket I need to stand on a stool and pour the water in – it’s all a bit wobbly. The airline has a definite curl, usually not going the way I want it to, and having only 1 valve means it’s hard to move the bucket. So, a second valve needs to go in above the guideline, so I can turn that one off, remove the airline, take down the bucket, refill it, and return it to its tower.

o   I needed to find a way to control the curl, and have the water drip where I wanted it – used a lovely candlestick to direct the water flow, the bonus being that I can always stick some candles in to make it even nicer!

o   There’s water spraying everywhere when I drill, which probably means there’s also bone ‘dust’ flying. I need to make some sort of enclosure around the drip tray to catch the spray. Perspex and ply perhaps? Needs to be waterproof, so MDF won’t really work, unless I put some sort of plastic covering on it.

o   The airline from the drip tray to catchment bucket won’t drain voluntarily, I need to suck on it – oh yum. Maybe I need a larger diameter tube (which would be a pain, because the stainless steel was hard to drill thru), to move the outlet point, or … something else.

o   ‘The tower’ is rather unstable – what could possibly go wrong with having a 10l bucket full of water above my head?

·        The vice: overall I’m very pleased with it, the bamboo ‘cheeks’ (the wooden liners) and mousepad liner work really well. However it’s probably too close (or too far) from the corner, and because I’m working on such a small scale, hard to get a fret/coping saw in and cut straight. Not sure what will happen here, time and use will tell.

·       Dust Extraction: until the Nail Technician Dust Extractor arrives (thanks to AliExpress), I’m using the spare vacuum cleaner hose when drilling holes or sawing (if I don’t put the bone piece in the vice, it just goes flying in a very exciting fashion). Trying to clamp a curved hose to a flat surface with the clamps I have, in the space beside the vice, is a right royal pain, especially when the clamp falls off, and everything starts heading for my feet – or a dog’s head. Again, time, use, and the arrival of the extractor will tell what happens next.

·        
     Tools & Safety:

o   The ‘cheap’ second-hand wide/long bowed fret saw I bought has a stuffed thread, and the original bolt has been replaced. Basically it won’t grip an unpinned blade. I’ve already broken one blade trying to fit it, and know why there’s so many in a pack. Good news is I have a proper Jewellers saw coming from … somewhere?

o   The Flexi Shaft Grinder started smoking from the handpiece after a bit of continuous use, and got VERY hot – too hot to hold. Oh oh. Have I got a lemon? It’s made in China, so while it was cheap …. I may need to wrap some fabric duct tape around it for insulation.

o   I can’t see me using most of the burrs, drills etc that come with the grinder – just not useful. I used a couple of ‘normal’ drill bits to do the bigger holes, but chipped a flake of bone out of the back of one piece. Gilberg talks about using a ‘dentist’s drill – 2.5mm – which I may see if I can track some down.

o   Can’t decide whether I need to wear earmuffs and safety glasses, as I already wear glasses, and the tools are not very loud – on the other hand, with all that goop flying around … I definitely wear a face mask tho, when I’m drilling something in the vice.

·        I spent most of my first session to-ing and fro-ing from the studio to garage and back again, getting all the stuff I needed, which had either migrated while making the workbench, or normally lived in the garage.

·        I think my next purchase will be a Scroll Saw – a companion to the band saw, but with different abilities, such as being able to take the blade out, insert it thru the piece being worked, and start cutting again. This decision is as a result of a very interesting conversation with Yuri Terenyi on Bone Carving. Of course, others prefer to work by hand.

I had a great time doing this, and am satisfied with what I have produced so far. The two Matau already have quite different personalities.