WHALEBONE: ITS PRODUCTION AND UTILIZATION. U 



To make the material -workable, the clean slabs are soaked in tepid 

 water for one or two weeks and then subjected to the action of steam 

 in a closed box for forty to sixt}' minutes, whence they come forth 

 ready to be cut into strips of the required form and size. Each 

 slab is then fastened, back down, in a bench vise and the cutting is 

 done entirely by draw knives operated b}' hand labor. The first 

 cutting to be made is the removal of the " front." This is the lower 

 edge of the slab, beginning 30 inches from the butt and following 

 the grain of the fiber to the base. It is 3 or 4 inches wide at the base, 

 narrowing quicklj^ to a point at the top, is very thin, and furnishes 

 the best quality of dress bone, selling at the present time at about 

 $10 per pound. It is cut in the manner presently to be described for 

 "■ dress bone," 



After the " front " comes the " whip bone," the lengths of which 

 range from 30 to 72 inches. By means of draw knives adjustable to 

 any depth, strips are cut from the steamed slab at right angles to the 

 surface, until the cut pieces reach a length of about 72 inches, or the 

 thickness of the slabs reaches the maximum required for whips. It 

 is desirable that the cross section of these whip pieces be square, and 

 to accomplish this the depth at which the knife blade is set is in- 

 creased at each successive cutting. As the thickness of the slab fol- 

 lowing the grain decreases in proceeding from the butt to the top, it 

 is manifestly impossible to have the cross section of the whip pieces 

 square at all points, and a medium is followed in having it square 

 about 18 inches from the butt. To avoid changing the gauge of the 

 knife at each successive cutting, six or eight knives gauged at differ- 

 ent depths are used. The whip-bone pieces sell for about $7.50 per 

 pound at present. If they are cut less than 30 inches in length, as is 

 sometimes the case, the price is lower, say $6 to $7 per pound. Some 

 cutters prepare no whip bone- whatever, and in that case this part of 

 the slab is cut into dress bone. 



In preparing dress bone the cutting knives are adjusted to a depth 

 of five-sixteenths of an inch, or in some rare instances three-eighths of 

 an inch, so as to remove from the slab a strip of that depth, the thick- 

 ness " being, of course, the same as the thickness of the slab at the 

 place of cutting, and the length running the full length of the fiber. 

 These strips are known as full-length cuts. An examination of the 

 edge of them reveals on either side a layer of dense horny nonfibrous 

 material known as " shell " or " shell bone," sandwiching a layer of. 

 dark fibrous material called " gi-ain bone." The shell bone is far 

 more valuable than the grain bone, owing to the fact that it is per- 

 fectly pliable and may be worked without danger of splitting, whereas 

 the grain portion is liable to split when pierced by a needle. 



oTliis is really the width rather than the thickness, but whalebone cutters 

 use the terms width and thickness with reference to the original position of the 

 luaterial in the slab. 



