The Uses of Bone and Antler

As I’ve begun to research more seriously into the various items and crafts common to the Scandinavian people between 800CE to 1000CE, I’ve found myself drawn to nearly every craft I’ve come across, from lamp working to weaving: I want to try my hand at them all. The one which seem the most interesting, cheap and rewarding right now though, is bone carving. I already have the tools at home as part of my DIY toolkit, so all I’ve had to do to get started is ask my butcher friend for a rear beef shank.
            So, with (hopefully prophetic) visions of fantastic bone combs, of a quality to rival the greatest Scandinavian craftsman, I’ve started to research into the ways in which bone was used day to day, and the things I found surprised me. 

Probably as a product of my own modern world being nearly devoid of bone products, I imagined that bone would be the material used only for select tasks, and perhaps even the material of the poor, but it was soon apparent that this wasn’t so. Clearly, bone played a huge part in the manufacture of every day objects, including the items below:

• 
Combs
• Sword mounts
• Bracelets, pendants and beads
• Pottery stamps
• Cloak Pins
• Needles and needle cases
• Toggles
• Dice and gaming pieces
• Spoons
• Whistles and musical pipes
• Knife handles
• Buckles and strap ends 
• Molds for casting

Clearly my original impression that bone was used mainly for combs, needles and budget clothes fastenings needed to change.

Antler and Ivory

Another one of the first things which I realized as I began to read was that a lot of the ‘bone’ items I was seeing were actually made from antler. These were predominantly taken from the Eurasian Elk, but could also be taken from red deer, and reindeer to the north. These antlers would also most likely be found shed in the spring, as the antlers cut from hunted deer will still bleed and contain non-bone matter in the core.*
            Antler was a pretty common and attainable source of material for most of the Scandinavians, but the main reason why it was preferred over bone for a lot of tasks is that it is much harder and less brittle than bone, making it perfect for items which would be used repeatedly such as comb teeth and needles.
            There were other, rare materials which could be used for tasks like these though - whale teeth scavenged from beaches, and ivory from walruses and elephants that were sometimes available to the Scandinavians through trade routes have also been used for items such as combs, but thanks to their rarity and the higher quality material, these items would certainly have been luxuries.

Bone

The bone was used at the time usually came from agricultural animals such as horses, cattle, sheep and pigs, and unlike antlers or ivory, bone needs to be thoroughly cleaned, both inside and out. To do this, the bones would be buried or left for insects like ants to clean out the marrow and fat left on the surface after the flesh was stripped.


    
After learning about the differences between antler, I began to look into the items which could be made from my cattle shank. Clearly my hopes for a cow-bone needle or comb were dashed, but this brought up a whole new unknown - what should I make for my first project? 

For the moment I am back to the drawing-board. But, with my new, deeper understanding of the plethora of items made from bone, and the difference between the properties of antler and bone, no doubt I’ll soon find a item which I can lovingly carve.



* At this news I rejoiced, being a vegetarian I was feeling a little hypocritical over getting my saw-blade into a hunk of ex-living thing to make money selling my replicas.