A Second Take at a Koma

Hello everyone!

I finally got to make a bone tip koma! I got stuck on researching about how to get, handle, and work bone. As much as it was super easy to get the bone material, cutting it up (+safety issues) was a different story. So this took some time before I decided on how to handle the problem.

Few photos of the process and result:


Ox bone and its cutting.


Checking and fitting the bone piece.

This is probably the first time I used up so much CA glue! :smile:

And here it is after further shaping and paper sanding.




Materials:
Wood: brown ebony? When the wood is wet, it has this stingy smell. When sanded smooth, the texture reminds me of an old shiny chocolate bar.
I feel a bit guilty not knowing, I will try to ask the super nice person who gave me few small pieces just for the sake of learning and growing. These are black ebony, boxwood, and two other woods I don´t recognize.
Bone: ox bone. This one took part in the making of a very nice broth…
Jeweler´s coping saw with a blade n.5 (0.4mm) for cutting metal. I also tried some for cutting wood and it wasn´t working well.

PLEASE NOTE: For anyone who has never worked with bone, please, check videos on youtube and be sure to wear safety equipment specially a respirator, and if possible, do the work outside (yes, I have seen people working bone without any protection but bone dust is very nasty and you really don´t want that stuff getting into your lungs).

Sorry if I scared anyone with the above note but I thought it necessary.
Happy building!

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It looks lovely.
And I hope your broth was good! :grin:

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Wow, it looks fantastic! The koma looks super professional, it came out really nice! Thanks again for sharing yet another awesome accessory build for your shamisen!

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that looks amazing Stefanie! Again, another very encouraging share of a part I haven’t gotten to on my build that makes me look forward to doing it myself!

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@Kaylie - Thanks! And yes, the broth took several hours while the final soup was gone in just a few minutes :smile:

@Michael_Bretti @Pol - It was a nice wood to work with. I made two trial komas from bamboo and it wasn´t as fun ( I mean the wood). Although, the bamboo was “carveable” while this extra hard wood wasn´t and it took a lot of sanding. On the other hand, the ones made from bamboo are much more lighter.

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