[TommyK]

Originally Posted by AnthemBassMan

-Not trying to make it harder than it should be, I just want to make a saddle from total scratch. The only other thing I could have done was slaughter the cow myself, but that's been years. I just didn't want to buy a premade blank. But cutting excess meat from it, cutting to rough size, then cleaning and processing it is as close to it as I can get. It's just one of those thing where I can look at it and think, "If I didn't use that piece of bone for my guitar, someone would have used it for soupbone." Yeah, I'm a bit odd.

L8R,
Matt D.

Don't be an apologist ABM. There is nothing wrong with being self reliant, not expecting to find all your needs in a big box store.

I find the cleaning shown above and explanation helpful. I'm thankful I now know that cleaning bone sufficient to make a re-enactor's knife handle is not sufficient for cleaning nut and saddle material. To me, gas seemed a bit extreme, but knowing it comes from a museum curator adds credence to using the gas. I suppose unleaded automotive gasoline would also suffice.

We used to have carbon-tet on the farm. It was sold, decades ago in glass globes like large light bulbs. They were called carbon-tet grenades. They were used as fire suppressants. I've seen them in two types of containers. one was an 8 pack arranged in a metal carrier like the old 8 packs of soda. In the event of a fire one would thrown these glass globes into the fire. The other was a bracket mounted on a wall with a firing mechanism. The bracket held the globe and the mechanism released a spring loaded pin, triggered by high temperatures of a fire, which shattered the glass. In a closed room, the carbon-tet quickly binds with oxygen, thus suffocating the fire and any living being who happened to stick around too long. I removed many of these from barns, corn cribs and homes, yes homes near where I grew up.

If you're really into self reliance, I subscribe to "Backwoodsman Magazine" which might be right up your alley. Readers are the writers. Every month you can learn how things used to be done when your 'Wal-Mart' was the woods, streams and prairies. Everything from making fire, keeping food refrigerated to making biodiesel from the soybeans in your grain bin. Here's their website if your interested. http://www.backwoodsmanmag.com/ The ads are few, articles written in plain language, but the info within are priceless.