Well, that’s the messy bit all done, both pendants stitch drilled and cut out. I’ve also roughly sanded down the backs to take off the worst of the thickness with the curved walls of the bone. They are still really thick and uneven in shape so the next job is to flatten the backs, thin them down a bit and smooth out the shapes.
My aim is to do all the work from now on with just hand tools. So far my Kiridashi is proving to be up to the job. The carving techniques are actually remarkably similar to the way I carve a really hard wood such as boxwood. I’m loving this bone stuff, very restful carving….



