There are four variants at the Cesarini Custom Shop, choosing a bone nut must be considered, since the “expense / yield” is different.
The choices in ascending order in terms of remainder and cost are:
1 – pre-worked nut in “light” bone (white color)
2- nut to be worked in cow bone (white color)
3- nut to be worked in camel bone (yellowish color)
4- Nubone (synthetic, white color)
5 – nut to be worked in buffalo horn (black color)
As a luthier I have tried them all, one of which was to make bones directly from the femur of a poor cow (already slaughtered). It was obviously an experiment, to understand how it could work. Here she understood that the processing of the bone means a lot, in addition to the quality of the original material. In fact, in the fading through soda there can be errors, the resulting nut (some) can crumble and ruin quickly. Be wary of low prices. The costs of our services can be compared on our price list.
The cost of a nut is high, not for the material that can cost a maximum of 10-15 euros, but because the processing, if done well, takes at least 1 hour. Hard nut frets can take up to 2 hours.
1 First of all, the pre-processed bones (often Chinese) are of strange animal origin (I have read whale sometimes). They are legal it seems, because they are sold and used in most instruments. It is a very soft bone, it works well (it costs less) and yet it lasts less as it is softer.
2 Cow bones to be processed are those that were used a lot in the past, much harder than those pre-processed on the market. The processing of the shape is longer, so they cost more, but it is a nut that will last you 3 times longer than that of a whale or similar.
3 camel nut frets are very hard, almost harder than cow ones, plus they have a yellowish color that fits better on certain vintage instruments that have cream-colored threads
4 The animalist variant is obviously there, the Nubone or similar. However I remember that these bones come from animals killed for other reasons (meat). They are mixed with very hard, indeed very hard, resins. The raw material costs a little more than the bone, the processing is almost the same. They can bend with heat, unlike bone which is firm from this point of view.
5 Buffalo horn nut, is the solution to have a hard black nut. Hardness is comparable to camel, perhaps even harder.
You can also make a brass nut, we will see it on another blog.