ostrich bone nut

makepeace

just finished cutting a nut out of an ostrich femur i had lying around (old dog's toy, paid R20 for it i think). there was only one piece that was big enough and consistent enough, so i could only make one nut. it sounds pretty good! temporarily sorted out my fret-buzz prob on my squier too. no pics unfortunately :-\

is this a done thing? using ostrich bone for nuts? any south african luthiers doing it? i've noticed the guitar is a tiny little bit darker than when it had the crappy moulded plastic job, so maybe its not completely ideal.

thoughts?!

nicovlogg

Hey, just wondering what you used to cut the slots? Did you buy stewmac files or get something else?

makepeace

i used the old flattened-blunt-hacksaw trick. works really well if you have some patience and a little skill.

nicovlogg

Doesn't that make the slots too big, for example at the two smallest strings? Cutting the bass side slots is easy enough but finding a small enough tool to do the E and B is quite difficult.

makepeace

yeah i guess they are a little too big.. very slightly though. thing is it doesn't really matter, except from an aesthetic point of view. you don't want your nut to hug your strings.. just as long as they don't move sideways, when you bend etc. those stewmac files are expensive..

edit: you could always buy one file, the .010 gauge one and use it for the e and B.

singemonkey

That worked? Bird bones are hollow ??? Is it really dense enough for the job?

nick

singemonkey wrote: That worked? Bird bones are hollow ??? Is it really dense enough for the job?

Birds that can fly yes, are Ostrich bones hollow? ?

makepeace

firstly, all big bones of vertebrates (apart from fish) are hollow. bird bones have mostly air in them, as opposed to mammals which have mostly white marrow. as i say, there was just enough consistent bone for one nut, out of a whole femur. i'm not sure if it is dense enough, thats why thought i'd ask about it ? it sounds good to me though.

edit: it looks and smells exactly like a blank i bought from stewmac. sort of a creamy yellow.

singemonkey

Just checked wikipedia. Not all bird bones are hollow (air-filled). The soaring birds have the most hollow bones. But they still mention that the skeleton only comprises a small fraction of the bird's weight. I'm sure that ostrich bones are not nearly as dense as mammal bones. Still, I guess they're solid enough for this purpose.

makepeace

yeah i meant hollow as in when they are dried and cleaned hollow ?. hopefully someone who knows about bone will chip in wrt density.

edit: just found this http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100322112103.htm

seems bird bone is denser than mammal bone.

Ray

Maybe you should skort a bit hey. Bone used for saddles and nuts and stuff is prepared quite meticulously. Thing is,as you say all bone is hollow and it contains marrow and marrow contains lots of fat so there is a lot of fat in the bone itself. So unless you're getting bone that was prepared specifically for the job which has been subjected to mutltiple chemical soakings and boilings or whatever method the guy doing it employs, you may have a fatty bit of ostrich bone stuck on your guitar. At some stage it might start leeching or oozing into the wood. So I dont know if the pet shop is the best place to go and get your stock unless you're going to cure it.

makepeace

hmmm, i don't know if that will be the problem. they come kiln dried. completely dry and hard. as i said bird bone has got air in the cavity instead of white marrow, so the leeching and oozing is pretty unlikely ? the main thing is the density/consistency

tumad

I use it. No issue. Its bone.