Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey guys,
Where are you getting your cattle bone nut and saddle blanks these days?

Thanks,

Oris


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When I help butcher a beef I take whatever bone I want


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I have unbleached bone blanks that are 30 plus years old, and I buy NOS from stores going out of business, but when I want a fresh bleached blank I buy them 10 at a time from Musicians Friend using their eBay store. They are pricy - but look great, work easily, and sound nice. Proline is their brand.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/363369919798?h ... SwhyNggfV4

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Doug Proper waited about a year or 2 testing the quality of this suppliers goods before letting a bunch of us folks in on the source. I'm currently awaiting my first order but Doug's word is good enough for me!

https://instagram.com/s.finternational8 ... MyMTA2M2Y=

Doc

Thanks Doc, I saw Doug post about these guys. I’ll try them. In the past I’ve bought from a local (AU) supplier that also/mainly sells shell inlay, but the last batch of unbleached nut blanks they sent were still super greasy with a faint whiff of hide glue left to cook too long. Time to try elsewhere!

cryslantrading, for many years.

Christie Song, don't have contact info but we have bought hundreds of blanks from her (China) and they are fine and quality bone free of voids and such. I have the contact info at work if anyone is interested just ask.

We used to process our own from local, free ranging Ann Arbor cows that do yoga and are vegans but these days we are too busy so we buy blanks.

For those not familiar with this source--it sounds like "cryslantrading" but is not spelled that way.

http://www.chrislintrading.com/index.html
General Information/customer support contact: Christie Song

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Thanks Tim.

I second Christie as Hesh mentioned. Do a one time buy and will never have to purchase another

http://www.chrislintrading.com/parts.htm

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https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

Thanks guys. Gonna give chrislintrading a try. Been looking for gold mop strips too



Oris


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I have tried many suppliers over the years and I now buy from Allied Lutherie.. Great material - buffalo bone and great price and service.


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I’ve been happy with blanks from China through Amazon.
I can usually find them on Prime and get them in a day or two.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I will vouch for Christie Song at Crislin Trading. Christie Song <christie@chrislintrading.com> I have used her bone bridge & nut blanks for many years. They are beautifully bleached, glass hard with zero porosity. Christie also ships immediately and is a pleasure to deal with. She loves her nick name " The Bone Lady".

"The Bone Lady"

I had better move on to another thread.....

Has anyone had any contact with Christie lately?

Thanks

I have bought a couple of batches of 200 pieces over the years of camel bone blanks from a store in India. The contact mail I have used is: buyershelp+reply@indiamart.com. These bone blanks are perfectly shaped and often with 10 or more extra blanks, but not always perfectly bleached the whole way through. Sometimes the color is off-white in blotches. I don't mind that. I have bought batches of 200 extra thick saddle bones, 5.2 mm by 12 mm by 89 mm, I use them for making segmented saddle bones. Likewise, I also buy camel bone nut blanks from the same dealer.

I have never had any trouble with the delivery to Sweden.

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New will change the old,
turn to ashes or gold

http://www.gammelgura.se

Years ago I read an article about prepping raw bone for luthier work by Sean Barry.

https://www.bearmeadow.com/build/materials/bone/html/bone-clean.html

It made sense to me to make sure bone, which grows in a fat and grease rich environment, isn't going to leach something into wood on an instrument that is going to decay.

I tried prepping some deer bone but didn't think it was worth the effort in the end. So just pay the price at StuMac or LMII for product I figured I could trust.

I have a luth buddy who sometimes orders quantities from foreign countries for the substantial price advantage and he often sends me some. They look really great and felt dry as a "bone", but wondered about quality of treatment.

I spent some of my working career in a lab, so forgive me for being a test junkie. Outside of chemical fat and grease tests, I figured simply wrapping some samples in craft paper and nuking them for a few seconds might tell the tale.

As a control I did the same to a couple samples bleached and "vintage" from my usual sources.

Results:





Control -



After a month or so some of the greasy ones even developed a rotten smell. I gave them a month long soak in couple changes of naphtha and they seemed de-greased.

It also made me wonder (lab background again) about biological safety. Did that cow die outside Wuhan? Was it healthy? Does the organic material harbor any nasties? I remember hearing about some natural banjo heads contaminated with anthrax or something.

Anyone else carry luthier stuff this far? I can get a little obsessive at times. Just my thoughts.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Brian great demo and thanks for the pics too, makes the point in a big way!

Thanks Hesh and Steve.

Hesh, I'd call it "risk management". (Now, where have I heard that before?)

Had the pics handy so compelled to post.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Hello friends…

I have been getting headaches trying to source 4,5" bone saddle blanks for a ‘62 Guild F-40 that was on my bench. Longest I found was 4,25" and I was really bugged about that as it fell just a wee bit short… and I hated it cause I couldn't blend it perfectly with the bridge.

Do any of you know of a source for those ultra-long saddles? I mean at the very least 4,5"…

Thanks!


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

P.S. I have written to the "Bone lady" and I'm waiting for a reply… boy her website looks like it's been abandoned in 1998.

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Pierre Castonguay

Pierre my friend I'm off today and not in the city but I'll check what we have tomorrow. My guess is our's are 4.25 too but I'll look. We have some raw bone too that might have a slice that long.

When I need an odd saddle, I go to the big box pet store and buy a cleaned, pure white chew bone. A few minutes with the bandsaw and sander, and I have what I need.

I just received a batch of 100 each bone nuts, long saddles and bridge pins from Christie. She generally answers her emails within a day. The saddles and nuts are first rate. The bone pins are great looking but only 62 out of 100 were in tolerance spec for diameter. At a buck per pin, I wasn't too upset. <christie@chrislintrading.com>

Thanks Hesh. My 4,25 long saddles came from Philadelphia Luthiers. They were the only ones stocking those at the moment.
As an aside, Christie replied this morning so I'm sending her the dimensions I need, we'll see.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay