A pigs jaw is skinned with a sharp knife and then cut sawn which keeps the jaw intact.  For a carver, the pigs jaw is left in the sun outside for insects and ants to eat and cleanly remove all remaining flesh and marrow through the tusks.  It is best to allow the jaw to erode around the tusks so the tusks can be loosened from the jaw without breaking or sawing the tusks, this way the tusks are left intact which will allow removal of the whole tusk embedded up to halfway into the jaw.

After removing the tusk the tusk is then boiled with salt to extract any oils and to basically clean the bone ready for carving.  The tusk can be boiled up to three times to help whiten the bone.

Pencil sketch on the bone your design and then use a dremel to carve into the tusk.  There are many different attachments to use for detailed designs and shaving can be done with a file.  Polishing afterwards can be done with a dremel buffer or even a shoe brush depending on how much of a natural shine you want on the bone.

* Bleaching a bone with bleach and water may have your bone look more like plastic.

In Maori tradition, a bone turned yellow due to the wearers skin oils seeping into the bone over time which signified the wearers being or spirit merging with the spirit or meaning of the bone.  When the bone was passed down to decendents then the next wearer would add their spirit, mana to the bone and so forth, which could give the pendant more symbolic meaning and becoming a treasure to the whanau (family).

At this time Koncarve doesn't bleach it's pigs tusks because of traditional choosing.  However we will probably post a few pigs tusks which will be bleached just so you know what the tusks will look like in this condition.