Bone Saddle Questions

[poki]

I have access to cow bones that are raw and frozen and would like to try my hand at making some saddles just to have some fun.  Some questions i have are:

Are the bones used for saddles treated in some way prior to use such as baking, drying or some sort of chemicals treatment?

Are the bones used for saddles from any parpicular bone(s)?...i would think leg bones would be a good choice for saddles since they were load bearing and likely to be very dense, thick and hard.

Anything else that needs to be considered?

Thanks poki B)  

[mjvincent]

Poki found this website that explains the preparation of cow bone for making saddle blanks...  http://zeppmusic.com/banjo/nuts.htm.  Sounds like alot of work though good luck...

[poki]

Thanks for the info mjvincent, the article is facinating and informative...but i think i'm going to put my homemade bone saddle mission on hold for now...hmm i wonder if water buffalo horn would make nice saddles...
poki B)

[stevelawsn]

Poki,
If you want to play around with making saddles, you can buy very nice buffalo horn or white bone blanks for $2 each form Depaul. I bought some to see if I could make one for my parlour and it turned pretty good. A very tiny bit sharp on the E and B treble strings above the 7th fret, but I think I now what is wrong. I did not try to comp the saddle, but I think that you can work the crown on the treble side to add just a teeny bit of compensation. The horn polishes up nice and looks almost black. Different looking. I used a drum sander, medium and fine flat sheet sandpaper, and 600 wet/dry sandpaper to work it with. The website is

http://www.luthiersupply.com/nutsaddlepage.html

..Steve

[poki]

Steve thanks for the link...i had no idea there actually are buffalo horn saddles, i was just wondering since i have a knife handle made of the horn.  At such low prices it's very worth making my own to try including bone or even MOP...i have all the tools needed for the job.
Thanks poki B)