"Celluloid Key Covering"

[Ellsworth]

The trouble with bone is that nobody mas-produces it in the US as far as I
know.  There is a guy who does some in Rhode Island (not many cows there) and
he's semi-retired, not even enough to keep the harpsichord and fpo trade happy. 
Several places in Europe; The process is messy and a bit hazardous:  the bone,
the big femur bones, are got from the slaughterhouse (lots of those in Omaha) 
- the bone is otherwise processed for feed, fertilizer etc.  They must be
boiled out, to remove ttendon and grease, then sawn up which takes good jigs
since the femur is very irregular and probably slippery.  Amateurs shorten
their fingers at this stage using home bandsaws.  Resawn to the right lengths
for fronts, tails and fronts, sold to technicians who sun-bleach them (the
best, and very efficient way unless it's winter in New England) and glue them
on, filing, smoothing and polishing just as you do mounting ivory.
	Most of the earky music crowd don't want to move to Omaha.  Or even
South St. Paul.  
	In the 19th century and before bone was used for toothbrushes,
hairbrushes, uses where we use plastic.
	Margaret Hood