Making a bone nut... from start to finish?

[Boolywho]

Does anyone know of a post showing the whole process of making a bone nut from start to finish? Or if not, could you post the process here?

What I'm particularly interested in are the early steps-- going from raw bone (e.g. from a pet store) to a crude blank. What part of the bone do you use. Do you use cross sectional pieces or longitudinal pieces? Do you want to use bone that's close to the surface or deeper inside? Does anyone have pictures to help answer any of these questions?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Nick JD]

It's pretty cool to make a nut from scratch, but IMHO, the $5 you pay for a squared off blank ready to be shaped and slotted is five bucks well spent. Specially when you smell it.

If you are doing it for the fun of it then disregard this, but beware the Dentist Chair flashbacks!

 

[Northerntele]

I was sitting in the dentist chair just this morning wondering if tooth would make a good nut. Not my tooth obviously

 

[Picton]

I did one. Nick is right, as usual; it was mostly out of curiosity, and it did stink. The process starts at Post #51.

More trouble than it's worth? Maybe, maybe not; it sounds fine, and I've got raw material for about 30 more. But I'm in no hurry to repeat the process.

 

[guitarbuilder]

I was in Petsmart and went through the bleached bones for one with the thickest side. I cut it on my bandsaw into rough blanks...use a pushstick. Then I sanded one side flat on the belt sander. I glued it to a piece of wood and ran it between a fence and drum sander on my COSS ( crapsman occ. spindle sander) to make the opposite side parallel. Then I squared the bottom back on the beltsander and made a rough curve on the top edge on the belt sander as well. The hard part is working with such a small part on a power tool. Bone sands nicely and polishes up too. The smell is bad and the dust is pretty much everywhere too. This could be one of those things that is more economical to buy prepared already. You do get quite a few nuts and many saddles for acoustics though out of one 4 dollar bone.

 

[Jack Wells]

I'm with Nick on this one. StewMac sells blanks for $3.30. If you buy a dozen they're $2.80 a piece. Buy the blanks and get on with your life.

 

[motor_city_tele]

I have some pictures and the steps I took to make them from a bone in my x12 esquires builds thread

post #76 to slice them up
post #99 to cut the blanks and shape the nuts.

My methods are usually half baked but the results seem to work out in the end. As far as the costs? I would have to agree with Jack. 2.80 per blank seems like a good price considering how long it took me to make 14. I think it was about 2-3 hours.

 

[guitar2005]

A bone but is nice. They work well even with trem equipped guitars if cut right. The only thing is that its time consuming. Sometimes, a precut cut can save some time but you still have to do some shaping and adjust the string slots.

What I do with a bone nut blank is trace the contour on it, cut on the scroll saw, sand down to the traced line, angle the top (rough), cut the starter slots (rough), then I install it. The final shaping, nut slots and polishing is done on the guitar.

 

[telekazamm]

I've made two out of the pet store bone. Not as easy as the stewmac blank, but not that hard to do. Let us not forget, that the easiest part of process is making the blank. Takes a lot to get it just right ( I still haven't !) " Just buy the blank" Why not just buy a guitar?
Just try it, its not that bad, don't glue it in until your sure its right. At the very least you can say yeah!, I made the nut and everything!

 

[David Collins]

1) Go to a counter/cabinetry shop and get some Corian sink cutouts.

2) Rip the Corian in to approximate widths and lengths on a band saw or table saw.

3) Replace the band saw or table saw blade you just destroyed.

4) Grab an old junker guitar, and make a few dozen nuts with no intention of keeping any of them - just for practice.

5) When you start to get the hang of it, then worry about getting some bone to make a real nut.

This is partially in jest of course, but also part serious. It's pretty much what I do when teaching how to make bone nuts, and in generally I don't even bother looking too closely at the first half dozen or so. I keep meaning to mount a box on the wall so the student can go push a button, and it will say "looks like Sh*t, do it again". Really though, the first few I don't usually even look closely at the final result, I just drill them on procedures and watch how they handle their tools. Once they start to get this part of it down, then it's time to begin looking at the details.

In all honestly though, making a proper nut is one of the hardest parts of a decent setup - I'd say much harder to learn than a fret dress or even refret. If you want to get in to making nuts, I honestly do think it's a good idea to get a good bit of scrap to practice your first ones on, because you will screw plenty of them up.

 

[Bolide]

Many good answers, and a hearty for David Collins!

He's right, (although I would do the rough cuts with a hacksaw instead of a bandsaw: the blades are cheaper and easier to replace).

But he's dead right: practice on Corian scrap first. Get a reference flat, (Ron Kirn's suggestion of granite countertop cut-offs has serious winage, or the cast iron bed of a good table saw or drill press, or a pane of glass, just something good and flat,) and practice making the Corian bits into rectangular blocks the size and shape of a nut blank, getting each face as close to parralel/right angle as you can; then practice fitting these to a nut-slot sized dado in a wood blank, so that they slip in with just finger pressure, but do not fall out when the dado is held upside down: then slotting, crowning, working in the back taper, polishing....

Then the junker guitar neck. lather, rinse, repeat.

Get good at Corian, do the same with TUSQ. Try that on the guitar you want to use. Then, if the TUSQ doesn't do it for you, try bone.

Bone nuts have acqured a cult-like status that is ironic as it was an ersatz substitute for ivory until ivory got banned. Still, it is classier than the factory nuts that guitars are shipped with.

 

[dilbone]

I'm not sure why people are making this nut making into a session of rocket science. I can't imagine having to make a dozen before I got an acceptable one. Maybe if you don't really understand the instrument or what a proper nut should do, then you'd have an awful lot of trial an error trying to figure it out. BUT, if you understand what makes a good nut then you're well over half way to making a good nut. IMHO

I got a petco bone and made my first nut this summer...it's still on that guitar...doing a splendid job.

Go for it!!!!

 

[4string]

If you want to slice Corian into nut blanks easily, I would suggest using a miter saw with a carbide blade. Just keep in mind that Corian is resistive to being cut, so let the blade cut at it's pace and not force it. Contrary to popular belief, Corian does not necessarily dull carbide blades or router bits any faster than wood does. Just need to be patient with the rate of cut speed.

I have fabricated Corian for over ten years. Blades and bits last a long time when used correctly.


edit: Just wanted to clarify what should be obvious. 1st rip to a useable width that will fit in a miter saw. I like 4" as that will make 2 nuts later. Then set a stop on the miter saw to just over the width desired for the nut. I think 3/16" is a better nut width for Corian. A (Gibson) Tobias bass I used to have had a 1/4" Corian nut.

 

[Bluej58]

I get a lot of satisfaction out of making my nuts from scratch.

Not that big a deal if you have a good bone , you need to find a section that is taken from the middle ( compact bone ) of a Femur from a big animal , the ends of a Femur are no good because they contain ( cancellous bone ) or spongy bone, which is too soft.

My supplier has always been my buddy's Mom , 2 or 3 times a year she makes Beef stock for soup.

Note; she does not roast the bone first like some folks do, I think that would possibly fracture the bone and would be a bad thing when making nuts.

Instead she just boils them for a few hours to extract the marrow and fat.

Then they sit on a window sill and bleach for a few months.

I have tried a scroll saw and a band saw , I found that the scroll saw worked better for me and is a lot safer, IMHO.

Oigun made one for the 2010 Challenge and used a hack saw successfully , although I think he blew it a little by feeding the broth to his cats.

The first cut I make is right down in middle so I had 2 equal halves then I cut those in half , next I set up a fence to a desired thickness and start ripping.

You need to map out the vein channels that run trough the bone and try to cut around them.

I like the fact that no matter what size nut someone needs I don't have to waste money on gas or shipping, plus I know what I'm getting.

It's also a kick to tell people that the beautifully polished nut they're looking at is home made from a Minestrone soup bone.

P.S. the bone on the your right shows the end of the Lower Extremity (spongy part)
Also I kind of wonder if the Petco bones have been boiled down or not ?

 

[Mojotron]

I kind of did the "make a bunch of nuts for practice" thing this last year. The way I now make nuts is fairly simple - assuming that the frets have been leveled and crowned, I use similar techniques for making the blank and then do some steps that have worked well for me, but I have not seen others doing this way - I'm not sure if this would work for others, but it's what I do:

1) I put on a respirator-mask then I cut up a thick bone on a bandsaw to get fairly even 1/8" sections - but I leave them about 6" long and as tall as possible.

2) sand them on a belt sander so that they are an even 1/8"- but with the tall and long pieces they are much easier - safer - to work with on the sander, and you only need to get the middle of the bigger blank even in thickness - which is easier IMO. I use double sided tape to hold the blank and I wear really thick leather gloves (saves on the band-aids and splints )

3) then, I cut them to the size I need with a bandsaw- generally that is 9/64"x3/8"x2"

4) then, when I have a neck that I need to use the blank on, I'll put some double sided tape on one side and sand off the last 1/64" to 1/50" to the thickness I need - wearing leather gloves - using some 80gt paper on a sanding block. I don't use a belt sander for this part since I want it to be perfectly even and can make more adjustments using a sanding block sanding by hand.

5) then, I put the nut in and I do the 1/2 pencil line to mark the outline of the final nut shape.

6) then, I use an oscillating or belt sander - or an oscillating belt sander - to very slowly shape the top of the nut to about 1/64" above the 1/2 pencil line. I do this very slowly because as the bone blank gets smaller/thinner it will break more easily due to heat or if you loose your grip on it and it takes off.

7) then, I do a final fitting - I want the nut to fit so tightly at this point that no glue is really needed to just keep the nut in place - but still pop out of the slot if I push up on one side with a tiny screw driver. At this point it may take a tiny drop (smaller then the tip of a pen) of glue in the middle of the head side of the nut to keep it in place.

8) then - what I do is use my aluminum sanding block that I used for the fret work to sand the top of the nut to the same height on each side and even up everything. With only 1/64" to play with I can't sand on the fret side of the bridge - so what I do is I sand the nut with the aluminum sanding block using the same angle I will use when filing the nut slots - so the only material I take off with the nut attached to the guitar using the aluminum sanding block is just on the head side of the nut to get about the same angle as the strings will follow to the tuners.

9) then I mark the slots with a utility knife and file each slot to the very very top of the 1/2 pencil line with the skinniest nut file I have

10) then, I go back and widen the nut slots form the e to low-e string with the 2nd to skinniest nut file, then widen the g through the low-e slots with the 3rd to skinniest nut file.... until I get to the point where I've widened the low-e slot with the thickest nut file. During all of this nut file work I never get any deeper on any of the slots - just wider - it's very important that you not go any deeper on the slots while widening them. Also, make sure that you are filing parallel to the line the string will take to the tuner - there is no real precise way to do that so I cheat a little so that I file at an angle that is a hair more than the line the string will take to the tuner. The objective is to have a lot of support for the string's contact with the nut to terminate at the very end of the fret side of the nut without making a really sharp point that the string will rest on. Ideally the string would be resting with the same pressure all the way through the nut slot - but it's the end termination that is most important for buzz-free playing and good intonation.

11) once the initial slots are filed, I go back and put a couple more tiny drops of glue - if needed - and clean up the ends of the nut with a needle file set so that there is no nut material sticking out on the sides of the neck.

12) then, (and this is the way I do the final nut filing since I play with a very light feel and .009-.042 stings - ymmv... - but I shoot for the lowest possible action so this is what I do to get the nut slots as low as possible) once the glue is dried - if I used any - I string up the neck tune it, get the intonation close and set the action to about .02" to .025" on the high-e side and about .01" higher on the low-e side of the neck (using a capo on the first fret), then I set the relief to about .006" at the 8th fret using the G-string. Next I hit each string very hard - harder than I would if I was playing normally. If the string does not start to buzz slightly, I file a single stroke with the nut file for that string until it will just start to buzz if I strike that string harder than I would if I was normally playing. If I have to take more then 3-4 strokes of the file at this point I'll go back and make sure that the saddle height and the relief are not too high - although I don't have good measurements for all strings for action/relief - I just make sure that the strings are in the same arc as the curve of the last fret. Then I fix the intonation to be right on and then polish the nut - which takes all of the sharp edges off.

A couple of notes:
- The last step of that I came to after following several different methods for nut filing - which was always too high to get me to the lowest possible action. I figured instead of doing that I would just go straight to the method and it seems to work well for me.
- Once I get the neck set up for super low action, I will raise the action up on all of the strings until I get to about .024" on the high-e side and about .01" higher on the low-e side.
- There's always a trade-off between playing style and now low you can get the nut slots/relief and action. If someone plays hard a lot, wants to make nuts for others that may not play lightly or wants higher action - perhaps this is not the best method.

 

[David Collins]

I'm not sure why people are making this nut making into a session of rocket science. I can't imagine having to make a dozen before I got an acceptable one.

Rocket science is easy.

Honestly I don't know if I've ever seen anyone make what I would call a perfect nut in their first dozen-ish (perhaps with exceptions of a savant or two), and often times no more than a few there that I would call borderline acceptable. I've certainly seen plenty that they thought were fine, but not many that I've agreed with. Then again, I find a very small fraction of nuts I've seen professionally made from established shops that I would call acceptable.

The nut is one area of setup where a thousandth of an inch difference in height, or a degree or two change in angle, can often make a truly noticeable change.

Much depends on your tolerances and criteria for ideal, and at the risk of sounding a bit pious, mine are quite high. After learning what a good nut really is (took me quite a while), I have a hard time playing a so-so pretty good one.

 

[DesmoDog]

Rocket science is easy.

Having spent many of my formative years getting a degree in rocket science, you're scaring me if you're saying making a decent nut is harder!

Seriously though, I'm pretty new to the game and the one thing that I feel I really have no handle on is making a nut. I've only tried two or three times, but even with what I thought were the correct tools I realize I've got no idea what I'm doing.

I also notice you're in Ann Arbor - I'm in Dexter. Who are these students that you speak of? What class is it that teaches such things? Enquiring minds want to know!

 

[rcboals]

Here is link that shows the first bone nut I made for a Gretsch Pics are step by step how I did it. You can do it with the right tools just take your time.
(link removed)

 

[David Collins]

Having spent many of my formative years getting a degree in rocket science, you're scaring me if you're saying making a decent nut is harder!

Oh come on, rocket science isn't brain surgery or anything.

Making a nut is a fine art - a craft of precise execution if you want perfect. The rules seem simple once you understand them, but consistently achieving ideal goals (or even recognizing flaws) can simply take some experience.

The classes I speak of are few and far between these days. I taught a lot of students over several years and Galloup Guitars lutherie school, but since starting my own shop have been a bit too busy to think much about classes. I still do an occasional seminar or group presentation, and have taken a few apprentices through my shop, but no formal or regularly scheduled classes these days. That may change in the future, but orchestrating the details of running classes just hasn't been a priority lately.

 

[macaroonie]

My wee guy will make you one

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