This will be a time consuming and ongoing project, but its going to be a great on! @Se7eN gifted me two large moose jawbones recently. Junglas (the real one, not the neutered one ) for scale after getting a feel for the weight and balance of each one, and deciding what style of war club (something like this, but more Bone Tomahawk style) I wanted to go with, its time for a bath.........gotta remove all the embedded dirt from the teeth and elsewhere, as I will be "cementing" the teeth (they are slightly loose) in with a slow curing , slow seeping, gap filling 2 stage epoxy. Also need to whiten the bones and teeth. using my toothbrush (yes i bought a new one) I wet the jawbone and started scrubbing. there is a LOT of embedded dirt in both jaws. I used a BBQ match stick to poke and prod the packed dirt in the hole in the jawbone. poke , brush and rinse and repeat. time for a soak in bleach water...(yes i know you supposed to use hi strength Hydrogen Peroxide to whiten the bones/teeth, but i don't have any. Besides, the deer skull I recently found, looks great after a bleach soak - pure white) Once these two (I added the other one after) soak for a bit, they will be rinsed and left to dry near a fan for a week. Then comes the teeth setting in the seeping epoxy, an epoxy soaked handle wrap , shaping of the club end, filling of voids and hollow spots in the bone, staining, sealing. Gonna take awhile. more as time goes by... in the meantime, if you want to permanently scar your children, have a family movie night and watch BONE TOMAHAWK. Its a child friendly, family movie. Highly Rated.
First of all, Bone Tomahawk kicked ass! Next, love the project! But from first hand experience, too much bleach, or too long in it will mess up bone bad. I'm speaking from personal experience. I know you said you've done it before but I didn't know how much experience you had. Just figured I'd try to save from making my mistakes! This is definitely a thread I'm gonna watch.
It is possible that Bushman's deer skull did not need to survive impact. If he is calling this a "War Club" you just know he is going to beat the snot out of something with at least one these. It would be a shame to put all the time and effort into the project and then have it crumble after the first couple of blows.
think epoxy saturated bone............solid state..........West or Devcon epoxies. before I even decorate , paint or wrap a handle, I'm going to soak both of these in vacuum bags and epoxy for several days, let it fully permeate the bone structure. Should add a few oz to the club and stabilize the heck out of it.
Sisal Cordage handle wrap/HOT STUFF Cyanoacrylate soak/5 Min epoxy coat Started the cord wrap today, using sisal cordage. stray fibers singed with propane torch time for soaking in HOT STUFF Cyanocrylate thin / fast seep glue. This will bond the sisal to the bone and to itself. This stuff gets searing hot and emits a lot of fumes. Best done outdoors away from animals. (SAFETY NOTE!) Hot Stuff is superglue on steroids....... solid piece now. time for epoxy coating. I heated up the sisal / bone with the heat gun until very warm, mixed the epoxy and then used an old toothbrush to slather it on and work it in. Then I used the heat gun to thin the epoxy so it flowed into every fissure and gap. piece of aluminum angle makes a great riser
next step will be filling the inside of the jawbone with lead shot, then trickling in pourable epoxy to fill the gaps and seal it up. As well the teeth will be cemented in with more HOT STUFF gap filler. handle wrap is now cured solid
