pipemakersforum.com

Hello,
found some old dry pieces of roe deer skulls with antlers
after sawing them off I ended up with some curved bone-y pieces.
nothing like deer antlers with pores inside them but solid bone structure.
I would like to make something like ox horn or bamboo shank extention, just want to keep the outer "skin" of antler.
some tips how to perfectly drill and line up draft and of curved piece? I never used bamboo and saw some guys out there making 90 degree angle bamboo shank pieces, how to drill hard material like bone and keep draft hole perfectly lined up? I guess i must use steel tube to connect antler piece and stummel together.
thanks for any tips

The airway inside most curved pieces is straight. If you are really skilled, you might drill from both ends and have them meet in the middle, as I suspect some of those really curved pieces of bamboo are drilled. There are drills that drill a curve, but I know noothing about them. Robert Telfer uses one.
I use a home made drill press clamp for drilling and facing bamboo, but I think that most of the guys do the facing with a pin gauge on a lathe.
There are photos of my clamp in the “Stummel” section on this forum.
The first shows the piece of bamboo ( or horn) lined up on the clamp.

The second shows the piece clamped with wood jaws and clothed covered “pillows” of thermo malleable plastic, after being drilled 3/16” (for stainless steel tube section)

It is faced with a counterbore and 3/16” pilot.


I would drill and face horn in a similar manner, but I am distrustful of horn as a structural material in a pipe. I personally might use it as an enhancement, but wouldn’t use a very long piece.
DocAitch

Doc, your machinery concoctions are really something else. I never in a million years would come up with the same thing. Different minds, different solutions. Always really interesting.