by Kay Koppedrayer

A while back at a rendezvous or some other sort of show we ran into an old fellow who had some boar’s teeth for sale. Jaap immediately spotted them and snapped them up, like a kid grabbing a slice of ice-cold watermelon on a hot summer’s day. As I was watching him execute the snap transaction I found myself wondering just where I was gong to see those boar’s teeth next. Displayed on his chest as some sort of primordial necklace? Stuck in my silverware drawer? Only later when I popped into his workshop one day did I realize what he had in mind.

He had been working on a selfbow that was now tillered, sanded and just about ready for finishing. Here was where he was putting the boar’s tooth to use. The process is known either as burnishing or boning, though Jaap prefers to call it boning because he likes to use bone or teeth. It’s a step between the final stage of tillering and putting on the finish that’s sometimes mentioned in the how-to guides on bow-making and sometimes not. Its purpose is to tighten the wood on the surface of the bow so that the outer layer of wood functions like a protective skin even before a protective covering of wax, fat, lacquer or other finish is put on the bow.

That effect is accomplished by using a bottle or a bone or a boar’s tooth or something else rounded to rub the bow down, using some pressure, but not too much. That pressure compresses the wood cells and brings out a highly polished look to the wood. Boned wood has a rich deep shine, looking almost as if it doesn’t need any further finish, except of course that boning won’t waterproof or otherwise protect the bow from the elements. Boning serves to deter wood fibers from lifting on the back of the bow as the pressure binds together the outer layer of wood. The purpose is to compress, but not crush the wood cells so one has to be cautious not to apply too much pressure when boning. One way of ensuring even pressure is by rubbing the boning piece back and forth along the length of the bow, but applying pressure only in the down stroke.

Different materials such as steel, glass, bones and teeth can be used, but each has its own properties. I’ve heard of people using steel or carbide burnishers for this purpose, though I confess that I’ve never actually seen anyone using one of these. Steel by its nature is hard and unforgiving and a little too much pressure in the wrong way or place can end up denting the wood, especially if the burnisher is small in diameter. Some woods such a yew also are more easily dented and require extra sensitivity.

Another handy possibility is a smooth glass bottle with a nice neck. The feel of the bottle, its weight and diameter all effect the handling and one needs to apply the Goldilocks’ principle–not too big, not too small, just right–here. Likewise for bone. The right kind of bone, the right smoothness, the right shape all make a difference. Also any natural oils still in the bone give the wood a rich look.

Best of all, at least in Jaap’s opinion, is a boar’s tooth. In his view, it takes little rubbing and pressure to get a nice evenshine. Like bone, the natural oils in the tooth bring out a real richness in the wood. The shape of the tooth lends itself to the natural feel of a tool the way it sits in the hand and can be manoeuvered around different parts of the bow. It is not exactly round so it covers a little more surface of the wood, and the way the tooth tapers down towards a point allows it to get into the nock ends and around all the little hills and valleys coming from the flow of the grain of the wood and any knots in it. Jaap has developed a vocabulary to describe the feel of when he moves through the different contours, such as combing the horse’s mane, or following the snake head. He leaned the trick of using a boar’s tooth from a Japanese bowmaker of a much older generation, but I’ve been thinking about a toolkit we’ve got that came with a bow from the Amazon. There were several teeth in that kit and I’m wondering if some of them weren’t used for this purpose.