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I have a project that requires some bleached or unbleached bone dowels 3/16" or 1/4" diameter should work.. I can't find a source anywhere..
Much appreciated!

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Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

I've always just made such things as needed. You can plane bone with a hand plane; the best I've found for the purpose is a low-end Stanley low angle block plane sharpened to a very short (high angle) bevel. Harder irons tend to chip on the bone, and actually get dull quicker, in my experience.

To make a rod you start with a piece with a square cross section and remove the corners. A block of wood with a 90 degree grove in it, and a stop block at one end, holds the square bone at the right angle to plane off the corner. You start my main it octagonal, and keep removing corners until you run out.

A scratch beader can be used to refine the rounding over. File a semicircular bite with the right radius out of the edge of a scraper. The burr from filing acts as a cutting edge.

If you need it to be really round you can chuck the rod in a drill, and use sandpaper to remove material while it's spinning.

I make small bone rods this way all the time to use for fret marker dots.

Quite easy if you have access to a lathe and some canoe bones.

I see dental tools to core drill and harvest bone. These are probably very expensive. However, there are inexpensive coring devices to make your own wooden dowels that should work.

Bone knitting needles on ebay.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Curious what your project is???

How long do you need them to be and how many?

I am building a couple experimental guitars with bridges that have individual bone pedestals under the strings instead of the traditional saddle.

_________________
Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

The length really doesn't matter, as I am cutting them to less than 1/2" long. I need as few as what adds up to 12" to 16".

_________________
Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

Thanks, Alan. This is seemingly the way I will end up doing this. The stuff I have found isn't precise enough for my use. I need the dowels to be precise enough to fit tightly in a drilled hole.

_________________
Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

I may end up having to use brass rods, I'd just rather use bone if possible.

_________________
Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

This might be what you need: https://balsambanjoworks.com/product/5th-string-pip/ or https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-a ... tring-nut/

I would think a high-quality plug cutter (Veritas or similar) would give you what you want. The plugs are tapered at one end but I wouldn’t think that would be a problem.


Steve

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

+1

I saw a classical guitar about 40 years ago with individual brass pins as you describe. The builder was actually a dentist by profession.

I have also seen a classical guitar (played by Segovia's wife) where the regular bridge saddle was simply cut into six individual tabs. Thus, there was no change whatsoever in the bridge design.

PM sent

I've made bone banjo fifth string nuts in the past (pips) by chucking up a square piece of bone with the corners knocked off in a drill press chuck and cutting with a sharp file. After I got a small lathe, I started doing this operation in a lathe chuck with a small indexed carbide cutter. In every case, cutting the bone stinks like crazy!

Dave

While you're at it, cut threads on the bone posts, and tap the holes in the bridge. This would make it easy to adjust the action height. Or you could just start with brass machine screws. If the top of the post is rounded over, and you use threads with .5mm pitch, you can adjust the height in .25mm increments with ahalf turn of the screw, for a .125mm action adjustment at the 12th fret.

For these projects, I use a Taig hobby lathe.
Banjo pips are normally around 1/8" and IMHO are too small for guitar post saddles.

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John

I would do the same John as I have a Taig as well. I've used the metal working accessories for making bone bridge pins. Bone dowels would be pretty easy using the cross slide I would think.

I have a Sherline lathe that I use for those types of things as well but assumed the OP would not ask the question if they already had a lathe.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"