gime !

Items made from the buffalo are sacred to me and are only given as special gifts. I do also work in cow bone for commercial work. This is almost indistinguishable in appearance and I have no problem selling these. Let me know if you are serious and we can talk design, materials and price.

not im not a serious customer for this thing :p but its very well done

The medallion was carved from a piece of buffalo thigh bone. The black beads in the choker are from buffalo horn. There is another medallion in my gallery where I filled the paw print (wolf in this case) with silver to create raised silver pawpads in a bone surround.

If I was going to cast one in metal, I would experiment with medieval seared wood mold and with fired clay mold for the pouring then experiment with an oxybutane torch and copper and silver solder because they are relatively inexpensive to play around with and make mistakes with until you get your technique down.

I learned this trick from my old SCA days. Back in the dark ages, many arrowheads were made by carving a form into a face of well seasoned oak and then heat searing the form. Much like spear tips used to be hardened in fire. Then the molten metal was poured directly into the wooden mold. The molds could only be used a couple of times but there was a lot of room on a single log to carve the simple forms.

I would love to see your finished work if you follow through on the project.

That is just all too awesome.. tempted to get into bone carving now lol

Go for it! A great way to start is picking up cow femurs from the local independent butcher. I use a Drimmel, small wood chisels and polish with a combination of vibrating sander and hand sanding. Bone dust is VERY carcinogenic though, so work in a well ventilated area with a mask and eye protection.

eep.. I'll keep that in mind.. probably don't have to go to a butcher to find a bone around here anyhow.. my grandparents own farm land and it's easy to find bits of bone :)