Take a guess

[Atlatlista]

You have a great job... if you can call a PhD student a job!  

I think you should do some archery related experimental archaeology.

If you check my "coolest gift ever" thread, my professor gave me a Hadza bow and arrows to test on a deer carcass.  He leaves the archery to me as I'm a competitive longbow archer.  So, I'm going to send the arrows through a chrono and then use one of my longbows as a proxy for the Hadza bow (if one of them chronos near the same FPS), to preserve the bow from damage (it's a couple of years old).  And then I'll shoot the deer carcass in the kill zone a bunch of times with the authentic Hadza arrows, deflesh the carcass, and study the bones for diagnostic damage patterns relating to Hadza broadheads.

As to PhD student being a job, they do pay me for it (not so very much less than I got for my old desk job), and it is way cooler than accounting software.

[adb]

Nice!! You do have a cool job!

Just for shit's and giggles, and in the interests of thoroughness, I've also added a picture of a folder by Greg Lightfoot that has non-jigged Giraffe shin bone scales. It's still stabilized, but not dyed. It looks very much like ivory. It is my sincere hope that this material is ethically sourced.

[Atlatlista]

Your friend does great work.  That looks way more like giraffe bone than those overlays, you were being awfully sneaky 

As to the ethics of it, there's a lot of poaching in Africa, but a lot of legitimate trade in the animals there, and they're an important part of the economy, as the revenue generated from hunters often pays for the conservation efforts to preserve the species and their habitats.  Giraffes, as a rule, are quite common animals though - it's not like a rhinoceros or anything like that.

[adb]

Your friend does great work.  That looks way more like giraffe bone than those overlays, you were being awfully sneaky 

As to the ethics of it, there's a lot of poaching in Africa, but a lot of legitimate trade in the animals there, and they're an important part of the economy, as the revenue generated from hunters often pays for the conservation efforts to preserve the species and their habitats.  Giraffes, as a rule, are quite common animals though - it's not like a rhinoceros or anything like that.

Greg has been making knives for a long time. His work is top shelf. Not cheap, but worth it IMHO.

I'm glad to hear the material is likely not poached or obtained in a questionable manner. I think part of the custom knife making world is a need to play a game of 'one-up-manship.' More exotic materials = more exclusive = higher price. I certainly don't think jigged Giraffe shin bone is at the top of the list, but it's got to be up there. I've also heard of 'bog oak' and the vast array of fossilised goodies. 

[bubby]

Here's another one of Greg's knives. A companion of the one I already posted. Slightly smaller. I have a serious knife problem.

like bows, you cant have too many knifes, bub

[mikekeswick]

When you said 'bone' my guess was going to be different.......but I won't go there!
That bog oak you talk about is very cool stuff. I have a friend who is also a custom knife maker. I talked to some guys in Ireland once who dig peat, they often come across bog oak. One of the chaps in a broad Irish accent said something like 'oo to be sure, that black bog oak burns wonderful...even better than coal.' I tried telling him how much it was worth but he said it's not worth more than being warm on a winters night! There some truth in that 

[Blaflair2]

It's a giraffe shin bone from a half eaten girraffe

[lostarrow]

Zooarchaeology PhD student.  We study bones of animals in archaeological contexts.  My specific research focus is the earliest origins of hunting amongst pleistocene hominins, so we work primarily with African fauna.  We also compare mortality profiles to known hunter-gatherer groups like the Hadza.  These giraffe bones were from a Hadza giraffe kill, and were cleaned (sort of) and shipped back to the US to be studied.  The whole lab is covered from wall to wall in fossils from Olduvai Gorge and bones of African fauna:

Let me know when you have a garage sale!

[NeolithicMan]

I WANT TO BE IN THERE!!!

thats way to kool of a job

[rps3]

This thread is another good reason as to why I love this web sight, thanks for sharing. What does stabilized bone mean?

[KrisDelger]

I'd gander either giraffe bone
Elk ivory (Tooth ivory)
Rams horn (From close to the tip of the horn)
Or (And this is an out there guess) Moose antler?

[NeolithicMan]

This was a sweet idea. more people need to do this so I can win some free stuff!

seriously though, this should be a regular thing like BOM!

[Gus]

Not sure... Giraffe just felt right...
First time I've seen Jigged Bone and been told what it was.

Stabilized means, having a stabilizing agent infused into the piece to strengthen it and help hold it together. CA Glue is often the agent, and a vacuum process is often used to infuse the target piece.
Stabilized Bone, Mammoth Ivory, Turquoise and Spalted Wood are just a few materials you might find out there.

-gus

[SamIAm]

Cow hoof you picked up at the local vet.

[dbb]

Im a big fan of Gregs work.I even made a "almost" copy in ATS34 of a tantomodel of his for a friend a couple of years ago