Bone Dance

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gerryr

gerryr

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Sep 22, 2005
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Billings, MT, USA.
So, there have been a few posting about making a pen from bone, but the only thing I could find, after several extensive internet searches, were pens made from fossilized Stellar's Sea Cow bone. I do know that Bonnie Klein has turned things from bone, but has not done a pen. Anyway, I got a commission to make a Jr. Statesman FP from bone and while making that decided that it would look really nice on a Sterling Silver Churchill FP. Bone offers a whole new set of challenges when using it for a pen, not the least of which is drilling. The bone is deer leg and unbleached. I'm very pleased with the outcome and regard this as the finest pen I've made.

2006102223159_Churchill-s.jpg



Comments and critiques are welcome and thanks to all who take the time to comment.
 
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Gerry

It looks great good kit for the material. I wish I could turn bone or antler but my doctor advise me strongly against it.

So for now I just look.

Alan
 
The pen is absolutely beautiful, Gerry. Folks, for those who are interested in such things, the pen was Gerry's submission to the Pen Makers Guild. He was accepted today. Congratulations, Gerry!
 
Gerry, congrats on your acceptance into the Guild. This is an exquisite pen. The color of the bone contrasting the fittings makes a nice statement.
The versatility of the Churchill, Ligero and the Elgrande makes it a tremendous pen to alter and experiment with.
 
Gerry,

Beautiful work! Congratulations on your Guild acceptance. After what you went through during the fire season, it is wonderful to see things taking an upturn for you!
 
Congrats on a fine pen and your PMG acceptance. Even though I have never turned deer bone, I have suggested to others that they experiment with it. My suggestion was to use the lower front leg bone, often called the cannon bone. Is this what you used? They can be hard to acquire as many hunters cut them off and discard as there is no meat on them. It's Sunday and I'm reminded it is wrong to be envious. [;)] So, I'll just say, I admire your work and the pen.
 
Thanks everyone. I feel genuinely honored to be accepted into the PMG. This pen will not be for sale, it will be part of my personal collection and one I plan to use quite frequently. There have been a few questions that I'll answer. As to smell, I was tempted last night to say it smelled like a "dead skunk in the middle of the road," but I refrained.[:D] When being worked it smells a bit like antler. Some people may not like the smell of antler, but it doesn't bother me and neither did this. Someone mentioned the finish. Unless you count TSW as a finish, there is none. I used MM to 12000, buffed with White Diamond and followed that with TSW. It polishes quite well. This is the lower leg from Whitetail Deer. I also have some from Pronghorn, which are smaller and opens up the possibility of smaller pens. With the deer bones I've cut, I have not seen any that could make a pen smaller than a Jr. Statesman/Gent. I don't think I could even make a Baron with the deer bones I have. The marrow cavity is actually quite large, sometimes oval and sometimes even tending toward a triangular shape. The Pronghorn should work for Barons. I will also be trying out some turkey leg bones closer to Thanksgiving.
 
A couple of things I forgot to mention. Bone is quite transluscent so I painted the inside of the holes with 2 coats of Testor's flat white enamel and glued the tubes in with Sumo glue because it dries white. I didn't use an CA on it. I have tried CA as a finish on another and it doesn't really seem to add anything.
 
Originally posted by Rifleman1776
<br />My suggestion was to use the lower front leg bone, often called the cannon bone.
Click to expand...

That's the same thing as the 'shin' bone, right? I've got a bunch of hunters around here. Not sure I want to boil a bunch of deer legs to harvest some blanks though [xx(]
 
Nice pen! Deer season starts the first weekend in November, and you can be sure I will save the legs this time. Did you boil the leg? Could I just take all the flesh off and let it dry or is there somthing else I need to do?

I love the smell of antler!
 
Travis,
Since hunting season hadn't started when I began this project, I purchased "professionally cleaned" leg bones. I don't know what "professionally cleaned" actually means. The pronghorn bones I have are from this hunting season. My buddy was nice enough to skin them and clean them a bit. I plan to cut off the ends and then boil them to remove the marrow. Then let them dry. I don't know how long to boil them, but it probably won't be long. I definitely don't want to cook them.
 
Hi Gerry!

This is such a great looking pen! I am glad to see it getting all these nice comments here!

One of Gerry's bone pens got shown around over on the FPN, an internet forum for fountain pen fanatics. It received some very positive comments from some very discriminating fountain pen collectors! Way to go Gerry!

And then there's the PMG acceptance! Not bad!

Gerry did a lot of work to make this pen turn out the way it did. In other words, it was not an easy build. But he kept going, believing that this material had something very nice to offer, and he was right!

Thanks for carrying this work on bone pens forward!

Frank, I do think these are the canon bones you mentioned to me so long ago.

I can hardly wait to see how the pronghorn bone turns out!

Scott.
 
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