Make Your Own Bone Nuts & Saddles
Source: Tools & Materials
Making Your Own Bone Nuts and Saddles:
Years back, when by father started making and repairing guitars, he was too thrifty (i.e. cheap) to pay the high price of quality bleached bone nuts and saddles. After all, he bought all his own lumber to resaw for tops, backs and sides, he found flitches of aged spruce and hand split his own braces. So why not make the bone nuts and saddles as well?
When he first approached me with his latest idea, I said you wanna do what??? Are you sure you want to do this? That borders on the slightly gross category I thought. But, as he typically did, he pursued it and he produced beautiful results. After I thought about it, it was not worse than mom cleaning the chicken or turkey for dinner.
Obtaining the Stock:
Usually the best source for the bone will be a local butcher shop or a meat department in a grocery store. Just get chummy with the butcher and they will give you all you want. Look for the large bones where you can get the most milage from the stock. As you work with the bone you will know which ones will work best for your purposes.
Finally, set the bone aside to thouroghtly dry if needed and you will have a great stockpile of nice white, dense bone nuts and save a bunch of money in the process.
Cleaning the Bone:
I alway clean the bone of any left-over meat that I can. My mother would call this soup bone material 
Then I wash them off and set them in the sun for several days to dry really well. After that I just store them in the garage until I have a nut and saddle cutting day.
Cutting the Bone:
You will definately need a Band Saw to cut the bone. I usually cut the bone into strips about 1/16″ or so wider than the nuts or saddles I’m making. Be sure to set your saw up with a metal cutting blade or a fine tooth wood saw blade. I have a small 12″ craftsman bandsaw that I picked up at a garage sale dirt cheap just for this purpose. First cut so you can get one flat surface and work it so you can use your fence to cut the strips to a consistent width.
Shaping the Bone:
Cut all the strips to the correct width height and length that you wish your bone stock to be. The final shaping will take place after the bleaching process and drying.
Bleaching the Bone:
I use Hydrogyn Peroxide to bleach the bone. This stuff will give the tan and brown bone a bright white, uniform color – almost irridencent. Mix up a batch of about 10% Peroxide and 90% water. Place in a plastic or ceramic bowl so the liquid fully covers the bone pieces. Note that you can use a weaker solution of about 3% to 4%, it will just take a bit longer.
Caution: Hydrogen Peroxide is a bleach and even at a 10% dilution, you will burn your skin and can have major eye problems if you rub your eyes with contaminated hands or gloves. I would recommend that you use eye protection and rubber gloves to handle the bone.
Check the bone every now and then to see how the bleaching is coming along. When it reaches a bright white color, it’s time to remove the bone and let it dry thoroughly. When dry, it is time to thickness sand, and size the bone.
Thickness Sanding the Bone:
I made a special jig to hold the bone pieces while I run them through the drum sander. I just took a piece of hardwood about 6″ x 12″ x 3/4″ thick and routed a 1/16″ depression that is big enough for about 4 saddles laid flat. I sent them through the conveyor and just take a whisker off with each pass. Flip the pieces and do the some on the other side.
If the bone is relatively level, it will remain in place during the pass through the sander. Continue to do this until your optimum thickness is achieved. Do the same with a jig for the bone nuts.
Next take the bone to the Belt sander and square them up on a course belt. Then switch over to a fine belt and touch them up and final size them. It really works well yo use the Belt Sanding Fence for this operation. If you find that the final shaping gets you into some discoloration again, feel free to dump these pieces back in the bleach solution and whiten them up.
Tags: guitar bone, guitar saddles, how to make guitar saddles, how to make your own guitar saddle, making bone nuts and saddles
