Bone Needles

Having made bone needles, (sized 1/2 inch to 3 inches long) I can tell you they aren't all that easy. You can make them by soaking a piece of bone, not 'too' thick. (in water, for several days- weeks)

scratching lengthwise lines into the bone to make your needle blanks (make then wider/longer than you want the finished needles, keeping in mind that loose-woven wools can handle a thicker/bigger needles, and regardless, larger eyes are needed to thread wool yarns on) After you've worked a number of groves about 1/8th inch deep into the wet bone (bone dust is not good for your lungs, but most of you already know that, so just dip the bone back in water periodically to wash away scrapeings, and help keep the bone moist) Have a friend use a pair of pliers to loosely hold the bone on end, resting on a wooden log (better safe than sorry with a cut in the table) and put a sharp chisel at the end of one of the grooves, and lightly tap with wooden, or leather mallet . (a stick of firewood/piece of limb will do) and split out you needle blanks. Use files to shape them (a diamondcoated nail file will work in a clinch, and you can swish it in water to clear the bone dust from clogging the file) It's not necessary to round the hole end. I tend to leave that end oval- pointed, as it gives more strength to the end when you drill the holes and makes it less likely to split there. (don't sharpen the other end until you finish the holes,...it'll save you a bunch of work in case you mess the hole end up and have to disgard the blank. there is the potential for making a shorter needle though, if you mess up, not too badly) How far your hole(s) are from the end of the needle depends on the size of the needle. A good rule of thumb is to make your first hole at least as far from the end, as the needle is to be wide at that end. ie. 1/4" wide? drill 1/4 " from the end. (make sure the needle is very flat at that end, otherwise your drill bit will slip sideways) Drill (with an Exacto pin (hand/finger) drill) til the point begins to prick your finger on the back side. Turn the needle over, position the drill bit in the prick hole, and drill through to make a clean hole. Add a second hole, about the same distance (ie, 1/4" from the first, if the needle is 1/4" wide) and drill it the same way. scratch connecting lines between the outter edges of the two hole (one of those thumb tacks with the finger-hold plastic heads works good for this) and scratch the same way on the back side till you finally work the sliver free. Use a flat-pointed needle-file to clean the inside of the hole. Then use a round needle file to groove that end of the needle, on both sides, over the holes.

This will help clean up any rough edges of bone from the eye, and also give you a channel for the yarn/thread to lay in while you're sewing and make it go easier into the cloth. You could do this before you drill the holes, and help the drill bit stay centered, but it will make doing the tack groves between the holes all but impossible and would have a tendency to cause the tack point to exert pressure on the center, and encourage splitting of the bone and eye. Better to do it afterward.

Work a point into the other end. (this is easier done if you thread the needle first, gives you more to hang onto) I then, tend to knot the thread/yarn, and thread the needles through a piece of scrap wool cloth, and when all are finished, put them on the dash of our event vehicle to finish sun-bleaching to a nice whiteness. (the cloth does such a good job of keeping track of them) When they're as white as I want, I finish sanding them to slick smoothness (I use fine thin, sanding sponges, found in Walmarts craft dept.) and drop them into some warmed olive oil (via their 'leashes' snipped of their knots) and leave them over night. Fish them out by their leashes, remove the excess oil with a paper towel, re-thread them onto the wool, and hide them over-night from the cats. The following morning (or when- ever I think about it) I pull them out and coat each with some wax, and polish them. (a good and handy wax to do this with is found in the shoe dept. get a round tin can of 'neutral' wax in the flat can (I can't think of the name, right off hand, but it's well known, except by me, now)

You can also make perfectly workable 'needles' out of oak spurs. Much easier (and quicker) than working the bone. They're hard/strong, and sew just as well. You use the same directions to make them, minus the soaking in water first,and the splitting out with a chisel. ie. prune them off an oak limb, cut them to length with hand pruners, peel off the thin bark, and proceed past the above water-soaking stage, minus the worry of bone-dust. Do all the rest as told. (includeing the oil-soak and wax treatments) and you'll get wonderful 'golden' needles to use. Being primarily a wood-worker, I enjoy useing them anyway. Shara aka Asa of the Wood Pictures by L.S. Sempel.