<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><META name="Author" content="Novell GroupWise WebAccess"></head><body style='font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; '><div>Dear all - this is a rather interesting line of discussion that perhaps could profitably be added to webpage under the experimentation section managed by Eva David. What do you think Christian. I suspect these techniques were variable across time and space and the more we collect of ourown experiences with bone working the better!</div><br><div>Alice<br><br><br/><div style='clear: both;'><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; FONT-FAMILY: 'Open Sans Extrabold','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">ALICE M. CHOYKE</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Georgia','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic">Associate Professor</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; FONT-FAMILY: 'Open Sans Light','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans Extrabold'">--------------------------------------------------------</span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes"><img height="57" src="cid:cf3bbbc62734d884c849f42dbd7a462dbae48b60/14f2b9e366ca.mpf" width="112" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_3"></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; COLOR: #009acd; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'">Central European University</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'">Medieval Studies Department</span></div></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'">Nador u. 9, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'">1051 </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'">Budapest, Hungary</span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: OpenSans-Bold">Office</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'">:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"> + 36.1.327-3801</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; FONT-FAMILY: 'OpenSans-Bold','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: OpenSans-Bold"> </span></b><a href="mailto:choyke@ceu.hu" moz-do-not-send="true"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"><font color="#0000ff">choyke@ceu.hu</font></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"> <span style="COLOR: #009acd">|</span> </span><a href="http://www.ceu.hu/" moz-do-not-send="true"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"><font color="#0000ff">www.ceu.hu</font></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"> <span style="COLOR: #009acd">|</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"><span style="COLOR: #009acd"><a href="http://www.wbrg.net">www.wbrg.net</a> <span style="COLOR: #009acd">| <font color="#009933"><a href="http://www.imareal.sbg.ac.at/mad/">www.imareal.sbg.ac.at/mad/</a> <span style="COLOR: #009acd">| <a href="http://www.medievalstudies.ceu.hu">www.medievalstudies.ceu.hu</a></span></font></span></span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: OpenSans-Bold">See CEU story</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'">: </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/ceuhungary" moz-do-not-send="true"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"><font color="#0000ff">www.youtube.com/ceuhungary</font></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Open Sans'"> </span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><br/>>>> "Dave Constantine" <dkconstantine@btinternet.com> 08/04/15 2:30 PM >>><br>Hi Lena,<br><br>Bone can be worked dry but is less forgiving and has a tendency to fracture <br>more easily than when fresh or soaked.<br><br>Depending on the type of working, my personal preferences for softening are <br>soaking or boiling in water. Soaking is used for general working - when <br>making small objects such as needles and pins I keep the blanks in a pot of <br>water all the time so that they are always soaked when I come to work them. <br>Boiling is used when I am carving (particularly antler) as I find it <br>penetrates further and more rapidly than soaking alone and the effect can be <br>renewed quickly and easily, making it particularly suitable for the removal <br>of large amounts of material when carving a design. Generally I boil the <br>material for 10-15 minutes (depending on size) then have about the same in <br>working time before it dries out too much.<br><br>When it is thoroughly soaked in water bone tends to "shave" rather than <br>"flake" when worked with a blade, which allows for quicker and neater <br>shaping of the basic form of the object. However, for any work involving <br>files and rasps I would recommend dry bone to prevent clogging. Boiling <br>gives a similar effect but it can be achieved more rapidly. Due to the <br>nature of bone though, boiling can cause hairline longitudinal cracks to <br>appear that are not always immediately noticeable, and so care must be taken <br>to keeping checking the state of the bone.<br><br>Fresh bone can be very easily worked, and for a roughing out stage it is a <br>good idea to do at least some basic preparation when the bone is fresh. If <br>working with longbones, I would normally remove the epiphyses and split the <br>bone lengthways while fresh. This also has the added advantage of removing <br>much of the material that would leak excess grease/fat into the workable <br>sections if the bone were processed whole. Anything involving shock to the <br>bone; e.g. using an axe, is best done when the bone is fresh as it is far <br>less likely to shatter than dry or even softened bone.<br><br>There would probably be some difference in saw marks left on fresh bone <br>rather than dry/soaked bone, but I haven't tried it in earnest yet and <br>compared the two. I did a quick test a couple of years ago with an axe, <br>drawknife and rasp (dry bone) and axe and drawknife (fresh bone) and there <br>certainly seemed to be some difference in the marks. In particular, the last <br>point of contact between the waste shaving and the main bone was notable; <br>more of break on the dry bone and more of a cut on the fresh bone. I am sure <br>that once checked under a microscope it would be clearer.<br><br>Sorry for the brief reply, but feel free to ask any specific questions and <br>if I can answer them I will.<br><br>Regards,<br><br>David Constantine<br><br><br><br>-----Original Message----- <br>From: Lena Strid<br>Sent: Monday, August 03, 2015 11:42 AM<br>To: Mailing list for archaeologists of the research group for the study of<br>object and waste of bone, antler. ivory and horn.<br>Subject: [Bonetools] bones as raw material - fresh or stored?<br><br>Dear all,<br><br>Are there any information on whether bones used for bone working (Iron Age -<br>early Post-medieval) had to be relatively fresh, or could they be stored for<br>months (years?)? MacGregor mentions soaking antler to make it easy to cut,<br>but would this also work with dry bone?<br><br>I have difficulty finding information on this, as most things I can find<br>concern modern bone working with dremels etc, which I assume would be less<br>sensitive to freshness/dryness of bone than using hand tools.<br><br>With thanks,<br>Lena<br>Files attached to this email may be in ISO 26300 format (OASIS Open Document<br>Format). 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