Healthy Bones Finished (Bone Comb)

This is the Daddy in action.  My daughter snapped a few rare photos of me in actin.  Sawing one of the sections of the comb.

Based on the finished pieces I've seen it appears that the cross section which holds the various pieces together was riveted on before the teeth were cut.  I decided against that approach as I was afraid that I'd break some teeth (which I did) and didn't want to have to pop the rivets out to fix it.  

  

I tried sketching the lines which were to be cut, but as it turns out simply eyeballing it worked better.  I ended up not following the lines which I had drawn anyway.

My little two pound anvil from Tandy Leather worked wonderful for this.  I didn't use a vise which I've seen in period paintings.  I simply held the bone in my hand and used the round portion of the anvil foot to saw against.  It provided just enough support behind the bone without cracking it and yet allowed the saw blade to proceed unimpeded.

As I proceeded I started scoring the end with my saw to mark the spacing.  I was trying to make sure that the last tooth ended up about the right size.

 

As I proceeded I broke one of the sections of the comb.  I was also a bit inspired to try some more things.  To get my next project up and running I went out and bought two more bones from the butcher.  This is what the "raw" materials look like before I started.

CRAP!  My nightmare came true.  I broke it.  Trying to file the teeth.  Running the file along the teeth works well.  Running it across the teeth not only makes a high pitched annoying sound, it also cracks teeth off.  Perhaps that is why they shape the whole comb and put it together before cutting the teeth.

Should I throw this section away.  Nope.  I cut it off the end and filed it smooth.  The comb will just be a little shorter now.  I plan on keeping this section for display of my FAIL, but also plan on making it into a needle since it is about the right size to start with anyway.

Almost done and ready for assembly. Before I go any further I need to practice.  This was the scariest part of the whole project for me.  I've peened rivets before, but never against a know-to-be fragile bone background.  I was so afraid that I would peen it, miss hit and crack the comb.  I drilled a hole in two scrap bones and tried a rivet.  WORKED GREAT!  Very slow and tedious work, but I found that about 1/16th of an inch extra protruding from each side worked great to hold the pieces together as if they were born that way.

 

Here is what the first test rivet looked like.  No polishing or sanding after the hammering was done.

 

Testing my spacing.  I have a lot more refinement to do on the teeth, but I planned on waiting until all the assembly was done.  Sketched out a piece of paper about the size I wanted to use. You can see that the overall construction technique is consistent with the extant comb on the right from the 15th century.

 

Here are the two combs, almost done.  I'll probably sit and fiddle with the teeth a bit more while watching TV, but I'm happy saying that this piece is done.  Notice that I took a small hand drill to make some small decorative dimples along the cross section.  I wanted a little embellishment  but was still afraid of weakening the structure.  Maybe more embellishment on my next comb attempt.

 

Healthy Bones Finished

Here are some pics of the piece that I broke the other day.  Ugh!

 

The end is now in sight.  The tweezer detail work has begun.  That piece is the last piece with a significant amount of work left.  I used a power drill to make a series of holes along the piece.

Side project... Went out to eat the other day and had some chicken at Hooters.  Yum.  While digging through the bones I came across about eight bones which sparked a project interest.  I boiled them, scraped them and then cut the ends off.  I scooped out the marrow and will now set these aside until my other pentathlon projects are done.

Detail work progressing.  This part was done with pin files.  I took a round pin file and connected the holes I drilled and then used a flat file to keep opening and evening up the hole along the way.

 

After the piece was satisfactorily balanced and symmetrical I used a small hobby saw to hand saw the slit in the end of the tweezers.  I then used a flat double sided pin file to smooth out the piece.  This pic was a sample of how the pieces would look and feel when mounted.  (Note this was before I cut the tweezers, got a bit ahead of myself on the description.)

Not sure exactly how I would connect the pieces I toyed with a few ideas.  At first I cut out a bone in a shape of a U.  That was a fail.  As I was roughing out the piece I dropped it and it quickly cracked in two.  Bummer.  I had another idea, rather than mount the pieces on a ring of copper or brass as some others have done, I would use a single straight rod and cap each end with a peened cap over a disk of antler or bone.  I fashioned these two disks from a small piece of deer antler.

Yup, they look dirty, ugly and too big.  The idea looked better in my head than they did on the final piece.  I suppose the ring approach is back in play.  That may be whey that is the only technique I've seen used... because it works.

 

Tweezers cut, pieces smoothed up a bit and almost done.  Probably got another 3~4 hours of polishing and burnishing, but the majority of the work on these pieces are done.

 

Here was my first test at a hoop to hang the tools from.  I knew that I wanted some sort of twisted wire, but wasn't sure how thick I would need it to be.  After this quick test I could tell that I didn't like it and would have to try a thicker wire.



Here is my second attempt.  Rather than just twisting a single color I opted for a two-tone hoop.  I used a twisting pattern and closure that I have seen on earlier period Viking style jewelry.  After a bit of twisting a I hammered the wire and filed it a bit to make it smooth.

 

 And, here is the finished hoop.  I squared it up a bit so that the tools lay flat when not in use.  The curve is slight enough so that the tools can easily be swung around to get out of the way.  All in all I am very happy with this set and there isn't much different I would do if I had to restart again.

 

Oh, and by the way, these are the broken teeth from the comb I messed up.  While at a friend's house for a guild night, I cut the teeth apart and gave her one to work into a needle.  I'll probably make two needles out of the bottom two in the picture.

 

Healthy Bones Continued

All the pieces, now cut out have been roughly sanded to the final shape.  I then sketched the shape of the piece onto the bone as a guide for the next step which involved my Dremel tool.  In the following picture you can see a couple of the pieces roughed out.

Close up of the pieces after the work of with the Dremel had been about completed.  I didn't want to get too close to the finished piece using the Dremel.  It has the ability to take off more material than I like.  Once I got it to this state I finished the remaining portion of the shaping with carving knives and pin files.

 I did the same rough out with the Dremel as you see below.  At this point I'm pretty happy with the progress and the overall look and feel.  Each piece seems to be the right shape and size to make it practical, but I'm still not sure how well they will perform once linked together on a loop like the Mary Rose version.

I'm really digging the cuticle pusher the most.  Doesn't really need to be as wide as you see, but I really like the different shape to add character to the set.  In the below picture you see the results of my most recent FAIL!!  What you don't see is the ear scoop.  I had it almost completed.  I added a nice little decorative ring around the base of the neck and proudly showed my wife.  When she handed it back to me I was looking at it and dropped it.  It broke right at the point of the decorative ring.  Turns out that the decorative addition added a weak spot which allowed it to crack very easily.  Had to start from scratch on the ear scoop.  Somebody recommended that I repair it in a period manner.  Not sure if that will be done in time for the competition, but I think I'll take her up on that challenge.

More refined filing and sanding and the new ear scoop in progress.  Notice the thicker base as it connects to the handle.  That is the fail point last time, so this time around I m made that a smooth transition with not decorative cut in the shoulder.

Now, manicure set well under way it is time to start the other part of the project... the comb.  I took some cow bones which provided the largest sections of flat-ish portions.  Turns out I didn't have any bones large enough to make the comb out of one piece.  Early period combs were done with many sections, but most later period combs were cut from a single piece.  The single piece was either ivory (if you were well off) or boxwood.  I wanted to use bones, since that's what I have, that's what my persona could afford and I wanted to enter it into the competition with the set above.  I guess this will be considered a transition piece.  Later period style shape and style of a nit comb, but pieced together as done in earlier period.

I think I only need three pieces.  Based on the size of the Mary Rose combs this will be too wide.  I plan on using one of the pieces as a proof of concept.  As I have never cut teeth into a comb made of bone before I figured I better have an extra piece to use as practice.

Cleaned up and sanded down these are the three pieces I'll use for finished comb.

I took the remaining piece as my practice proof of concept and as it turns out it is about the right size of some extant combs of a similar style.  Turns out that cutting the teeth into comb was slow going, but came out a lot better than I expected.  My saw needs some improvement, but my 15 year old hobby saw made the cuts you see below.  I think I'll upgrade the blade of the saw before cutting the final comb, but the process worked well.  It took about an hour or so to cut the teeth you see here.   Based on that progress I suppose it will take about 5 hours to cut the "real" comb once the pieces are fixed together.