"Have you thought about selling such saddle blanks?"

As to selling such it might get you in trouble with USFWS if you advertised.

"Have you measured the hardness compared to other bone material?"

I would also be curious about that. The average white tail weighs about 100 lbs, a Holstein milk cow about 1300 lbs. Deer legs are much smaller than a cow's, but I'm not sure how densities would compare. (weigh an equal volume of bone perhaps?)

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that stress on a bone is not the only factor in bone density. Bone structure has evolved and optimized for the needs of the animal. Birds need light, flexible, hollow bones. Deer need totally different tibia/fibula or ulna/radial structure than a cow. You wouldn't put tractor wheels on a bicycle. I know I wouldn't be able to identify a difference between cow and deer bone in a blind test.

We have one of our 'Grand dogs' staying with us and got a package of bone nut and saddle blanks the day he arrived. Guess what he found while we were out to dinner? Yep..dogs like cow bone nut and saddle blanks. He left me all but two of them and scared us until the vet X-rayed his belly and saw nothing big enough to cause a problem. Be careful with whatever bone you use if you have dogs!

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that stress on a bone is not the only factor in bone density. Bone structure has evolved and optimized for the needs of the animal. Birds need light, flexible, hollow bones. Deer need totally different tibia/fibula or ulna/radial structure than a cow. You wouldn't put tractor wheels on a bicycle. I know I wouldn't be able to identify a difference between cow and deer bone in a blind test.

Mike and Mark,
I don't know where you are getting your information on dogs and cats but I'd take whatever else they tell you with a block of salt.

I've had to do plenty of gastrotomies and enterotomies on dogs over the past 40 years because of bones, raw and processed. Besides obstructions and perforations of the stomach and intestine, they are a great source of bacterial food poisoning after a few days of lying around, and are the source of the majority of slab fractures of the molars I see. There are plenty of safer things for them to chew on.

Bone meal is not the problem with feeding dog food to cats. Dogs synthesize Taurine and so it is not added to dog food. Cats do not, and it must be supplemented to adequate levels in their diet or it's lack will cause a specific, frequently fatal,heart problem as well as saddle thrombi forming in the aorta.

Not to be rude, its just that misinformation can be fatal.

And I'm definitely with Grant on the stress factor and bone density. All structural bone is constantly remodeling itself to the stresses it bears, both density and shape. The bones you have are not the same bones you had a year or two ago.

Well, stress IS the major factor determining the density and robustness of bone. As an archaeologist/anthropologist, I have worked extensively with physical anthropologists examining human bone as related to the probable activities of the former "owners" of that bone. You would probably be amazed at what bone can tell about what people did in their daily lives. For example, the cross section of a shin bone can demonstrate the activity of long distance walking on hard or uneven ground by shape, thickness, and density. Bones in the hand, arm, and shoulder speak volumes of what the person did or did not do in life. Bones are constantly remodeling in response to stresses. And, on the other side of the coin, lack of activity shows as thinning and loss of bone mass (think the cow standing in the feed lot). This is well established fact, and there is a lot of science that has accumulated over the decades.

Oh, and with my experience, I guess I am at least some kind of an expert I still actively practice "faunal analysis" where I need to identify which creature a bone (typically a small fragment) belongs to. I have a bone lab full of reference skeletons from dozens of species.

Grant

Grant,
I bow to your expertise with bones, wood, luthiery and a bunch more things, but I think I was misunderstood. Here's what I wrote: "I'm pretty sure that stress on a bone is not the only factor in bone density. Bone structure has evolved and optimized for the needs of the animal." As someone diagnosed with osteoporosis in my 30s while very active, I am very aware of the role of regular weight-bearing exercise, pounding the pavement and adequate dietary calcium and vitamin D. My point is while physical stress is important to bone density comparisons within a species, to compare deer vs cow bone is like comparing venison to beef. Both are muscle and fat but are very different make-up. No matter how much stress you put on cow bones, they will never be the same as similar bones in a deer. They have evolved to do different jobs. You have taken advantage of this by using wild deer bone over cow bone.

Thanks for sharing this. I pass by a deer processor frequently. I'll have to stop in before Jan 1 and pick up some rear feet to give it a try.