Sounds like a great name for a serial killer doesn’t it. Or maybe a D&D, half orc – half human character.

if you know who did this picture – let me know to credit

I’m sorry to say – it’s nothing so lurid or exciting.

I have begun my White Wolf Fian project: Carving a rosary from bone.

this is one of the period examples I’m basing my work from

I still need to make more chisels from tiny screwdrivers, many more. I also still need to cut chunks of bone the right size to make my beads from. I will need to have ten for the rosary, which means I should have fifteen rough pieces cut – incase of screw ups. I have six soaking in the water and three that need to be made a touch smaller by saw.

Let me backtrack a bit. The White Wolf Fian is an order with-in my SCA Kingdom of Ealdormere. It is comprised of people who imposed challenges upon themselves. These challenges are to be completed in a years time, and are meant to push your boundaries. Each project should be something you believe you can finish in a year, but only by seriously applying yourself. Being in the order bestows no rank, it gives no title, or even a badge. It only conveys a sense of accomplishment and pride, as well as the support of your fellow Fian members. Also – to stay in the order – you must re-challenge yourself every three years.

I decided to challenge myself in after my wife also decided too. Listening to her talk about it, made me realize that I should be pushing myself in the same way. The order accepted my challenge, I was presented in court, and the Queen accepted my challenge – thus making it official.

Now, just so you know, I’m a guy who has no small history of carving small pieces, nor am I a stranger to carving bone.The challenge comes in the fact that I have never done these things by hand. I have done the vast majority of my work using a Dremel, and for small stuff, dentist bits. I really can’t recommend dentist bits enough. They carve through everything, with great ease, and yet you don’t have to worry about them cutting your skin – but I digress.

So I have used a coping saw to cut the larger pieces, and a whole leg bone of a cow, down to the rough size I want my beads to be. Usually, I’d use a cutting wheel on a Dremel. Much faster, much easier on the arm muscles… but also crap loads of dust. ( I love the smell but it really isn’t something one should breath in).

I then took those pieces that I cut down and placed them in a mason jar filled  1/3 with water.

Soaking bone makes it easier to carve. It actually softens it up to the consistency of say – hard cheese? Any way, after 24hrs in the water the first 1/16 comes off almost effortlessly, the next 1/16 with more resistance, under that however, it becomes almost as hard as un-soaked bone. Also, once it dries out, it returns to a hardened state.

I tried bullying through the other day. I had a small, sharp, fold out knife and was essentially whittling away the excess bone to bring the shape closer to the bead I want. Instead of stopping once I got passed the easy stuff, I kept carving. As I went, of course, the bone also dried on me. In the end, I would have got more done if I had carved away the easy stuff, dropped that bead back in the water and grabbed the next. I know better now. Hopefully, I won’t make the same mistake, and put my hand through the same abuse, trying to hand carve hard bone.

All this hard, slow, hand work is really barely the beginning. Once I managed to get the bone to a large bead shape, then the real work begins. Each bead will be carved with a face on one side and a ‘deaths head’ or memento mori on the other. I plan on doing a hierarchy with the beads, starting with the King, then Queen, then Prince, Princess, Knight, Pelican, Laurel, Baron, Baroness, and finally – common man. The work doesn’t end there though. I will have a terminal bead – larger than the others – that is also a memento mori.

But topping all of of that, hopefully using all the new skills I’ve learned along the way, I want to put a paternoster on it which will be the greatest challenge of carving. My goal, the final ‘can I do this‘ will be to carve the paternoster in the shape of the St. Mark’s Basilica.

So that’s my one years self-challenge. You’ll be hearing more about it and I’ll be posting pictures as the year goes on.