Bone Black

Bone Black is a ink and paint pigment made from Bone Char. It is easy to make and store. Bone Char can also be used in filtration and gardening.

How to make Bone Char:

WARNING pigment making of any kind can be dangerous to your health. Always use safety equipment such as gloves, eye wear and face mask. Do lots of research before you try anything. Know that any thing you do try is at your own risk.

First you need to gather together bones. You can use any kind of bones. Different animals will make different grades of Bone Char. Commercial bone char is most often made from cow bones.

Once you have your bones you need to clean them as best you can. There is many different ways to clean bones but remember, they don't need to be perfect as we are going to be charring them.

Now that they are clean, take them and pack them into a metal container. This container needs to be airtight when closed. If oxygen can get into the container the bones will not char properly. After you fill and close the container add a hole on top for gas to escape. Heat the container in a fire or on a gas camp stove. Once it gets hot enough gas should start coming out of the hole. (This gas is flammable and can make a little torch) Keep cooking the container until the gas stops coming out. At this point you can remove the container from the fire. Once it has cooled remove the charred bones.

This is all you need to do to use the bone char in gardening. Just add the charred bones to your soil to help with low phosphate and other nutrition.

To process the Bone Char into Bone Black pigment you just need grind it into a small powder. You can do this with a mortar and pestle, a spice mill, coffee grinder or a ball mill.