Darkening Bone

Anyone know if you can darken bone by baking the same way guys have been darkening light wood? I would like bone about the color of milk chocolate. I have used coffee for stain but need it darker on this one.

Most bone bleaches as it cooks... I wonder if dyes would work better? Anne Flynn

Look what Nicotine do's to teeth

How about using rosewood or ebony? Those can look pretty classy on a uke
I'd love to know how to get that aged-yellowed look that old instruments get. Sometimes white bone just looks too new

I dumped a black tea bag into small bowl with a little water and let a bone saddle soak overnight. Gave it a nice aged brown color.

Snakewood is very hard and makes nice nuts and saddle. Cool stripes.

I'm a proponent of Ebony nuts. They were regularly used on steel string guitars from 1900 until after WW2.
I see original Ebony nuts still in use for over 50 years, so the "wear" argument is bogus.

But that wasn't the OP's question, so everyone, it is time to do some experimenting!

There is probably some nasty chemical that will darken bone, but I'm not going there. I doubt there is an easy way to turn bone dark thru & thru, so I guess the path is to cut the nut, then darken it before finally setting it.

I was excited at the outcome of the wood-cooking thread, I've darkened some fret boards that were too light-colored for guitars.
No reason we can't come up with some hocus-pocus here.

Try this knife forum article. ( we found this sometime back and used it on something....... don't remember but it did work )

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/868446-Dyeing-Bone-A-Tutorial

Blessings,

Kevin

Good link.